Adios Banana Republic!

At the Del Monte Banana Plantation

Hola,

This might be my last post, as I am off to the airport heading to Toronto in about 45 minutes!  It’s been a great trip but I’m also really excited to come home (thanks in part to the fact that I get to spend all weekend hanging out with a certain little guy who is just learning to crawl!)

My last few days here were spent at Tortuguero national park, “the largest green sea turtle nesting beach in the western hemisphere”, where it just happened to be turtle nesting season!  Normally you would see the park in 1-3 days with an all inclusive type package, but I had 4 days, so I did the independent traveller route , which allowed for lots of beach and hammock time!

My shuttle left San Jose early Saturday, and we had a great driver who pointed out lots of interesting things along the way, so the 3 1/2 hour bus ride went pretty quickly.  We made a quick stop at a banana plantation (photo) and packing plant, so I got to see up close how they cut clean and box up the bananas that we get at home.  I think Grant would have actually died if he saw it – hundreds of bananas in huge bunches just waiting to be eaten!

We then switched out of our van and into a boat, for a couple hour cruise down the Tortuguero River (did I mention this place was hard to get to?) where we saw cayman, a crocodile, pink herons, river turtles, and lots more!  That evening I came with the group on a tour of the town, even though I hadn’t actually signed up for it – the guide seemed really excited to tell us all about ants, paying customer or not!  That’s also when I saw my first set of “turtle tracks”heading back into the sea.

Turtle Tracks

The next morning I headed to the national park to “hike” the trail.  Coincidentally I met up with the group from the day before and tagged along with their tour once again.  The guide was into pretty much anything creepy crawly, so we saw lots of spiders, and a couple of snakes (to be honest half the reason I went with the group was so the guide could point these out before I stepped on one and got bitten!)  We also saw a group of spider monkeys, white faces monkeys and even a howler monkey (my first of the trip).  After a lazy afternoon I headed to “Miss Junie’s” restaurant for some real Caribbean jerk chicken, and then off on my turtle tour.  The turtle tour was amazing!  We waited out on the beach while scouts watch for turtles and call the tourists over at the right moment (this keeps us from bothering the turtles too much).  We (at least the runners in the group) got to see one as she headed back to the sea, and then after quite a bit of patience, we got to see one lay her eggs and bury them in the sand, where in 2 months they will hatch and head to the sea!  One of the coolest things I’ve seen on this trip!

The next morning at 5:30 I headed out with a guide in the rain on a canoe tour to spot some more wild life.  Things started pretty slow, since animals like the rain about as much as I do, but we did end up seeing lots of herons, several Jesus Christ Lizards – including one running on top of the water! – another cayman, monkeys and an iguana.  The rest of the time  I spent exploring the town, heading to the turtle museum, watching the local soccer games and hanging out on the beach.  It was a neat town, there’s no cars since there’s no where to drive, everyone just rides around on their bikes!  and by the end of the trip, I was starting to feel a bit like a local since I usually ran into someone who recognized me whenever I went for a walk!

Now it’s off to the airport.  See you soon!

Kate

Hakuna Granada

Hola,

 

I´m writing this morning from Laguna Apoyo, a beautiful lake that sits inside an old volcanic Crater in Nicaragua.   Nicaragua has been a totally different world from Costa Rica, some good (it is MUCH less expensive here), and some bad (you´ve got to watch your stuff a lot more and they have some pretty bad environmental protection so swimming isn´t recommende in a lot of places… ), but in general it´s been a beautiful country and the people are really friendly. 

My Private Resort at Laguna Apoyo

Lola the Spider monkey, who lives on Monkey Island

I´ve been travelling with 3 other´s from the GAP tour, which has been a nice change from my solo travels.  We spent the first few nights here in Granada, taking in the “Granada Day” festivities on Sunday, heading over to the artist market on Monday and a volcano and boat tour on Tuesday.  It was unfortunately pouring rain for our walk around the crater, so we were not only wet, but it was too cloudy to see much of the view, and all of the wildlife was hiding out and staying dry, so it was more of a botanical walk than we´d hoped…  The Island tour however was great.  We climbed up and old fort and got a great view of the Coast including all the colonial architecture in Granada.  Then we headed to Monkey Island to Feed Lola and the other monkey´s who live there, and wrapped things up with a few cervezas at an island bar.

 

Yesterday we send the Germans off to Granada and the remaining 2 came to Laguna Apoyo whenre we´ve had this amazing hostel to ourselves apart from a few day trippers.  Not mich exciting to tell – most of my time has been spent reading in a hammock or playing cards – I was even too lazy to get a kayak out yesterday (definitely on the agenda for later today!

 

Ciao,

Kate

12 GAP-sters in a Hot Tub!

Hola,

Hard to belive it but I’m almost done with my blog posts, as it’s just over 10 days until I head back toPearson International…  I still love hearing back from you all though so keep the comments and emails coming (or I’ll sucker you all into a 2000 photo slide show he he he!)

I’ve said goodbye to most of the group from my GAP tour, but there are 4 of us heading to Nicaragua tomorrow – which will be really nice since the bus ride is about 8 hours.  It was a good group of people, mostly British so I ended up with the nickname “Tuna” for the 2 weeks as apparently Canadians don’t say the word Tuna correctly (they don’t think we say Toronto corrrectly either but since it’s a Canadian city I won that argument)

The tour was really great, I was pretty exhausted the last time I posted, so sorry if it was a bit garbled (in my defence I had spent the previous 8 days hiking rafting or mountain biking)  The second half of the trip was much tamer, which was good, because many of us managed to develop ear infections, cuts, bruises and all kinds of other ailments.

That night we headed to the most fun Hot Springs I’ve ever been to.  There were 3 waterslides!  And they were FAST (hence why we all got bruises burns and Julie even broke her toe!)  There was even a swim up bar, so it kind of felt like a kids birthday party but for adults!  The next day we had a much needed day off, so I slept in, had a leisurely breakfast and headed out on a “Stand Up Paddling” tour in the afternoon.  SUP is pretty much standing on a really large surf board and using a long paddle to move yourself around the lake.  It turned out to be REALLY fun, and we managed to get 2 of us up on the same board and paddling, and I also managed paddling 2 boards at once, although it was slow going.

The following day we had our second mountain bike around the La Arenal Lake.  It was beautiful, but a pretty gruelling ride, not because it was overly steep, but because it was so bumpy you had to bike most of it standing up, and to be honest my tailbone is still sore!  We then hopped in a boat, followed by a van to head to the Moteverde Cloud Forrest.

In Monteverde we had a nature hike, which was a bit disappointing as it had rained so there was very little wildlife, but the forrest was beautiful and we did see a tarantula.  That afternoon I headed on a tour of a coffee and Sugar Farm.  The tour was really well done, and I felt a bit like I was at OShea’s as they grew a bit of everything, and did a great job walking us through the whole coffee process.  We even saw 2 sloths, which totally made up for missing them on the nature walk!

The last 2 days we spent at the beach, taking a few well deserved days of R&R before heading back to San Jose and off on our next adventure!

Ciao,

Kate

Poisonous Frog - one of the many cool frogs here

Volcano Arenal – we cycle around here in a couple of days

Hola,

 

I`m halfway through my Boot Camp Tour here in Costa Rica, but I think I have the toughest part behind me.  So far we`ve spent 4 days hiking, 3 days white water rafting and 1 day mountain biking.  Coming up next week is more mountain biking, beach days a few free days where we can book extra tours if we want a few more adventures.

 

The hiking was a great way to start off the tour.  We hiked 3 hours into La Dante Reserve on the Carribean side of the mountains.  It was unlike any hike I`d ever done since it`s rainy season here and it pored rain for about 2:45 minutes of the 3 hour hike.  In fact the rain was so bad that we couldn´t even cross the last river using hte cable car that is in place for rainy days (normally they just walk across the river).  So instead we waited out the rain and eventually the rain eased up a bit, and the water leve began to drop and we were able o make it across.  Needless to say that with all that rain I was starting to think that bringing my camera was not the best idea I´ve ever had, and sadly there aren´t a ton of photos from the reserve to share with you since the camera spent most of the trip inside my pack in a garbage bag to keep dry…  The reserve was great, no electricity, but we ate really well and had lots of great scenery to take in.  The next 2 days we hiked 2 different trails through the reserve, saw 3 different poisonous snakes, lots of humming birds and monkeys, and even a toucan!  The last day we hiked back down to the base, and enjoyed a hot shower and some junk food.

 

The following day  we started off on a 3 day rafting trip.  I´ve never sat in the front of the boat before, so the guide let me sit up front (I think I get bonus points for being the only one on the tour that speaks Spanish), and it was AWESOME!  We had so much fun and in 3 days got to be pretty good at paddling as a team which meant we got to run some more difficult lines.    I actually enjoyed it so much that I´m thinking about coming back after the tour for some kayaking lessons.

 

Today we  started the mountain biking piece of the tour.  This was definitely the part I was most nervous about, and while I´m definitely not leading the pack, I can keep up pretty well, and the trails are not actually that difficult so I´m feeling pretty good about the next couple of days out.  Tomorrow is a free day so I´ll probably book into a canyoning day tour.

 

Ciao,

Kate

The Edge of Reason

Hola,

I´m writing today from San Jose Costa Rica, waiting for the rest of my tour group to arrive for a briefing and then we  head off early, early tomorrow for 14 days of adrenaline (there´s a decent chance this much activity may actually kill me after 3 months of wine steak and dulce de leche with minimal physical activity – if so you´ve all been great friends and make sure Eric doesn´t steal my old office!)

Anyway, I spent 1 day and 2 nights relaxing in Boquete Panama, a town that is pretty much half wa between Panama City and San Jose, and that is also known for growing the best coffee in Panama.  So I did a little research and found out that the best coffee in Boquete is their Geisha Bean (it has notes of honey and various exotic spices…), so I decided that I would skip the tour of the coffee farm, and instead grap my book and spend an hour at the cafe savouring a cup.  After all, I figured if this is the best coffee in Boquete, and Boquete has the best coffee in Panama, and Panama (arguably) has the best coffee in the world, then logically this has to be the best coffee in the world – and an added bonus at no point does it pass through the digestive tract of a rodent like that ¨Paris Hilton Coffee¨does… but I digress. 

Anway, I got to the cafe, which was a bit of a hike, to discover that a cup of Geisha coffee will run you $9US!  Normally I would decide that´s ridiculous and get something else (in fact I have been known to make fun of people who order $6 coffees), but I had travelled 8 hours by bus, and hiked part-way up a mountain to try the best coffee in the world, and I probably will never be back in Boquete again, so I spent the cost of a night´s accomodation on a cup of coffee.  So now I´m sure you´re all wondering “was it worth it?”  Well yes it was one of the best cups of coffee I´ve ever had, I even drank it black which I pretty much never do.  On the other hand I still think it´s insane to spend that much on coffee in all but the rarest occasions, so it was definitely a one shot deal.

So with my coffee budget eliminated, I moved onto San Jose, Costa Rica yesterday.  Not a particularly nice city,  but it´s just a meeting point for my tour.  I´m not expecting to have much/any internet connection for the next couple of weeks, so no posts until I get back – assuming I make it…

 

Cheers,

Kate

San Blas was a Blast!

Enjoying a coco loco on our Deserted Island Campsite

 

Hola, I’ve covered a LOT of miles in the last 6 days, and enjoyed some of the fun that comes with travelling through a remote part of latin America, but it was worth it! I left Cartagena with my boat captain and most of the other passengers (9) in total, to head to Sapzurro, the kick off point for our boat ride to Panama.  I will spare you the details, but 2 vans, 2 chicken busses, 2 flat tires, 1 flooded logging road, 1 hostel that probably rented rooms by the hour, several police checks and one hot boat ride later we arrived in Sapzurro to find a really nice hostal in a really nice beach town.  After relaing  and exploring the town a bit we went to a local woman’s kitchen for dinner.  It’s a pretty neat experience seing inside someone’s  home like that and te chicken was delish! (they did however decide to start burning some styrofoam in the yard shrtly after dinner which defintely stopped us from lingering!) The next morning we set off for San Blas.  The ride was beautiful and happily pretty un eventful (although we did loose one motor for a bit).  We stopped in a Kuna (indidgenous) village midday.  The kids in town thought that the group of gringos were pretty funny, and several of the boys shwed off their acrobatic skills for us.  Then we had another delicious home cooked meal, and headed off to or deserted island to set up camp for the night. Our Island was a couple hundered meters long, and only about 30m across.  There was great swimming and snorkling, and an octapuss that took a liking to our guide Adam (see below).  It turned out not to be entrely deserted, some Kuna fishermen have a cabin there, and they were kind enough to provide us with the coconuts that we needed to mix with our Rum!  After a campfire and a few cocnuts, we fell asleep to the sound of the waves. 

The Octapuss (and 2 even scarier creatures behind!)

The next day I enjoyed a bit of yoga on the beach before to was time to pack up camp and head to yet another (smaller) deserted island for lunch and for better snorkelling.  Lunch was lobster that was caught by hand(!) by the Kuna fishermen, along with the usual helpingof rice – I’m actually getting a bit sick of rice.  Our lodgings for the secnd night were right in a na village, where we were again fed by a local family.  This family had 3very cute but very active daughters who kept us entertained most of the evening (honestly I’m not sure why they we’re allowed to stay up so late on a school night – apparently that was unusual).  We finished off the evening with a thunderstorm that I enjoyed listening to from my dry bedroom hoping it would cool things down a bit.

 

Yesterday we arrived back on the mainland, and 2 buses later we were in Panama City.  Since I have only one free day left in Panama, I decided not to waste it in Panama City, so left this am for Boquete – a mountain town that’s known for it’s coffee, but more on that to come.

 

Ciao,

Kate

Mud Fight!

Hola,

This is going to get messy!It doesn`t get any fresher than this!

Rethink Columbia!

Hola,

View from the Wall of the Old City

After 20 hours of travel I have arrived in Cartagena Columbia! To be honest I haven´t yet seen much, as I spent most of the day napping and trying to arrange the next leg of my journey (which is heading to Panama by boat!), but what I have seem so far is amazing!

I hadn´t really planned on coming to Columbia, as I had the same impression that I´m sure most of you have, which was that it was too dangerous. But between meeting/knowing some Columbians who are amoung the nicest people I know, hearing great things from other travellers and reading in the Lonely Planet that Columbia has become a safe country for foreign travellers again, I decided to check it out.

Cartagena has a beatiful old Colonial centre, complete with a City wall that offers great views of the Carribean! The people are also really friendly, and so far I feel very safe here. It´s also been nice to get away from the busy-ness of Buenos Aires and the 32 degree heat doesn´t hurt either!

I´m planning on staying here for a couple of days and then leaving on my tour that will take mt to Panama.  We travel by van through Columbia for a day and a half.  Then we get on a speed boat and island hop through the San Blas Islands in South East Panama. 

Ciao,

Kate

Ciao,
Kate

Don’t cry for me Argentina

Hola,

BA´s Underground Tango Scene!

 My last few days in Buenos Aires have been great, saw the Eco Reserve, a milonga, a gaucho festival and had lots of goodbye glasses of wine and coffee with the latest group of new friends.

Now it’s off to Cartagena Columia for some beach time.

Ciao, Kate

A life lesson

**a forewarning, this post isn’t really a fun one, but it really made me thank God I was lucky enough to be born in Canada! (I’ve actually had that thought so many times on this trip) hopefully you feel the same way!

I had an interesting opportunity this week to talk to one of the “Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo”. These are women who’s children were kidnapped and murdered by the military government (76-83) for their political views, and since 1977 they have been coming to the plaza in front of the President’s office every Thursday looking for answers (30,000 Young Argentines disappered during the 7 years, and were presumably murdered without trial, but the families still have no answers about what happend or where they are buried.)
I had planned on taking pictures of the Mothers walking, a tradition started because protesting was not allowed but walking in a group was, but my class ran late and I got there just in time to see them finish. I asked one of the women after if I could take her picture, which she declined, but then she proceeded to tell me about her daughter who was just 19 when she and her husband disappeared. Her daughter was working for the church and they belive that was why she was taken. She said that it is too late for her family, but since there are still governments in the world doing this, she still walks.

So in the end I didn’t get the picture (this one is from a few weeks ago). But I think I got so much more.