Blogs from Central America Caribbean - page 2079

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Belize city turned out to be a bit of a hell hole, and 1 night there was more than enough. It's dirty, smelly, falling apart and there is someone waiting to hustle you on every corner. The following morning we packed up and set off early for San Ignacio via Belize Zoo. Upon entering the zoo Karen was 'stoked' to discover Steve Irwin and Dolly Parton were previous visitors. We got pretty snap happy and were tempted to pretend we had taken the photos on a jungle trek as the animals were easy to view in their natural surroundings. We collected our bags from the nice lady in the gift shop and continued on our way to San Ignacio. The town turned out to be a nice surprise and we have stayed longer than expected. The ... read more
Relaxing at the hostel
San Ignacio
Mark cliff diving


Alright, so I'm not really sure where to begin, the last 3 days have honestly been some of the best of my life. From San Jose, we drove a few hours over to the town of Turrialba, got some groceries, then headed up to our amazing accomodations at the Pochotel, a mountaintop villa with views like I have never seen before! High atop a mountain overlooking several volcanos, this tiny place was just what we were looking for. The restaurant has glass walls with panoramic views of the sorrounding river valleys. We all hung out in a treehouse above the restaurant, hanging out with 55 year old locals that were more than happy to pass us a bottle of Guaro and a spliff in exchange for some english lessons. Let me reiterate once again how overwhelmingly ... read more
HOLD ON!
Chilin

Central America Caribbean January 8th 2006

January 8th, 3rd sea day, last night was the captain’s reception and formal. We are very busy attending seminars, talks and workshops. At 10 this morning was a ½ hour introduction to Barbados which we will visit tomorrow; following that at 11, a Doctor Wolf, historian, gave the 3rd talk about the history of the Americas-Colombus, rum, slavery, battles…gold, etc. This afternoon, a seminar on digital photography was held and then Doctor Miller, a classical guitarist who entertained us last night retold anecdotes about musical writer from the early 20th century and played favourite sound tracks, he had the audience humming, myself included. Terry and I walk the promenade deck twice a day, 2 miles in the morning and the same 8 laps before dinner. Today, we had a bit of free time in the afternoon, ... read more

Central America Caribbean » Cuba January 8th 2006

Hi guys Just wanted to update you guys on the trip so far. The internet cafe´s have been few and far between and the connections have been super slow. We´ll see if the blog works out. Terrie, I hope your trip back to Oz was good. We´ve been in Cuba a week now. We spent our first 2.5 days in Havana getting oriented, seeing sights, and riding around the city. We then left Havana on the 5th and road 50 miles west to Las Terrazas a town on a lakeside forest reserve, beautiful spot. The next day we rode southwest to San Diego de los Banos a cuban ¨spa¨ town, the town was beautiful but the spa was old and sulphury smelling. We stayed at a farmhouse 2kms out of town. On the 7th we rode ... read more


If you want to explore ones of the most beautifull places of Costa Rica where the quetzals are an every day part of the ecosystem this its the place... read more

Central America Caribbean » Cuba January 8th 2006

well...since time is of the essence this will be scatterbrained and short.... I am posting a second commentary of our trip so far..I have no idea what drew wrote, so forgive me if there are any repeated adventure stories! let me first begin with the absolute joy of traveling on a bicycle. It is a completely different experience altogether, aside from the fact that everything you own is strapped to the bike and when you hit a hill it feels more like a brick wall. This is SSOO cheesy to say but traveling by bike is experiencing the journey. The greatest moments in cuba so far have been in some small town either snacking or changing a flat (the only two being drews...) not necessarily in our destinations... So, we enter this adorable SMALL town off ... read more


Well, a new year is upon us. They just fly by and I’m not getting any younger. Yikes! There’s plenty to do in the coming year and the next few months are very busy with customers—which is good given that the B&B, under our ownership, has only been in business for about 6 months. Manuel Antonio—again I spent a few days over New Years in Manuel Antonio. I must admit I love that place! The beach is terrific, the people are friendly, the food is decent, and if you look hard enough, you can actually find a hotel room at a reasonable price, even in peak season. After taking the local bus down there last time—which took about six hours—I decided to see if the ole Trooper would hold up, so I drove down there on ... read more
Playa Manuel Antonio
Jorge and his snow cone cart
Another view of the beach


Sorry for the dreadful pun incorporated into the title of this section, but a trip to the Caribbean in January 2006 replaced the regular annual January ski fixture, and was yet another encounter with the American tourist, which was to be the last, for absolutely no reason other than ongoing commitments and diminished practicalities. I arrived on the island of Jamaica in poor shape due to a newly-broken collar bone, which I was told would still require some rest, and that a beach holiday shouldn't aggravate it. We stayed about halfway down Montego Bay's 'Hip Strip', which contained a few overpriced eateries, and a terrific fast-food style jerk speciality place called the 'Pork Pit'. Downtown Montego Bay is best avoided at all costs any time after 6 pm at night, for safety reasons alone, but it ... read more
Dunn's River
Rum Factory
Rose Hall

Central America Caribbean » Bahamas January 7th 2006

Next to Staniel there is an island that has pigs. They swim to your boat to get food. Here is a pic of one that swam out to greet us.... read more


well we made it to tikal after spending a couple of nights in san ignacio. Tikal is right up with there with some of the most amazing places that I have seen in my life. The spread of buildings involves 6 major temples, the tallest of which shoots into the sky at well over 200 ft. Although the temples are incredible it may be the setting that truly makes Tikal so special. It is crazy to walk through the dense jungle and suddenly.....BAMN there is huge temple in front of you. It just smacks you in the face. Then you travel down the trail and .....BAMN there´s another one. Monkeys - Tikal is just flush with them. Mostly squirrel monkeys that you see swinging from tree to tree but it is the howlers that you hear. ... read more




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