Saturday, August 26th
Recovering from a crazy drinking and dancing night is never easy. The compounding effects that 7500ft of altitute has on your body made this not a very pleasant morning. Alexey and I wrestled to get out of bed and even then, we could not do so without feeling nauseous. However, Bogota had proven itself a tough city to crack so we were up on our feet and ready when Mauricio called to tell us today´s itinerary.
The first order of business was to get something to eat which we accomplished at a nearby (near the Carrera 4th and Calle 69A address where the Howard Johnson is located) hamburger joint. As you could have guessed, we all ordered soup! :) We needed to get back on our feet afterall. The lentil soup was great and the guys told me that the tortilla soup was very good as well. Soon after, we headed back to the hotel.
At this point we still had not picked up our laundry. Alexey made some attempts but it wasn´t ready so he had to go back 3 times to get it. He also scoped out the hotel we had considered yesterday because it was cheaper than the HJ.. much cheaper. His opinion was that the other hotel was great and he even paid for 1 room reservation for tomorrow (Sunday) night in advance.
Back at the hotel, now with clean clothes (another festive day), we went back to rest due to our hangoverish condition. Mauricio did the same and went home promising to come back to pick us up in the late afternoon to show us the city while driving like a maniac and to take us to a restaurant we will not forget.
As promised, Mauricio was there in the hotel lobby at exactly the time agreed. We met him and went through the city in his BMW at full speed. The landscape in Bogota is great! Tons of pine trees, incredible buildings, lots of brick style houses and apartments. He even took us to his family´s home. This was a really well furnished old style home with a great view. Overall we were very impressed with Bogota after the drives and the views.
So now it was time for eating and dancing. Yeah!! After talking to a few friends, our well connected Mauricio decided to take us to a little town outside Bogota called Chia. This is a town where people come to eat and to party, primarily. The most salient attraction here? ¨Andres Carne de Res¨ (translation is in order: Andy Cow Meat).
This place is hands down the best restaurant we have seen south of the US and up there compared to American places. The atmosphere was a mix of what the tin man´s house would look like, plus a little german beer hall layout, plus a little bit of TGI Friday´s. Not really sure what the hell is going on in this place as all the details (and there are many) are off the hook and completely make sense (some how). If you are ever in Bogota, you NEED to check this place out.
After having a great duo of tenderloins both blackened with peppers and free style we starting the drinking session. With all the crazy driving and still recovering from last night, I was initially out of commission. However, after dinner this quickly changed and I was back on the team. We drank some vodka and aguardiente (Colombian national drink). The three of us had met Ian and Juliana at this place. Juliana was a friend of Mauricio´s and Ian was a friend of a friend of Juliana visitinig today all the way from London on a business trip. Ian was a great guy and actually paid the whole bill!!! For him 70 pounds for 5 people after feasting and drinking the way that we did was nothing so he took the blame, all of it. In any case, Ian and Alexey, pretty much by themselves drank a whole bottle of Absolute which was pretty impressive.
The eating ended and the dancing got started. Everyone was dancing to old salsa (featuring Colombian legend Joe Arroyo) and other older local tunes including the Cumbia genre. Everyone was dancing and in short, we had blast! Soon after it was about 11:30PM and it was time to move. Juliana decided to take Ian to Cha Cha Club but considering that we were there last night and it did not go too way for our health we decided to pass. Don Hector, the driver, took Mauricio home and them Alexey and I to our hotel. We crash and later learned that Mauricio had gone to an after party in the early hours of the morning.. what a crazy guy!!! He really has tons of energy. On the other hand, we were sooooo happy to be home and sleep well tonight.
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
Bogota: Against all expectations
Friday, August 25th
We woke up to the sound of the bus engine roaring through the mountains of one of Colombia´s cordilleras. The scenery was very different than we had seen through our trip. Pine trees were prevalent as well as beautiful mountains nearby. It was barely getting brighter outside. I ressumed reading my book while Alexey kept sleeping a bit longer.
Another loud movie was played and soon it was time for breakfast on a roadside bus stop. This was a very welcomed time for resting since I felt that the motion sickness pills were wearing off. Took a second dosis and had some greasy breakfast. Alexey had a soup. We moved on.
After an uneventful rest of the bus ride, we arrived at the Bogota bus terminal. We still don´t know where we are going to be staying. Mauricio, our friend from school, has told us to call him so he can hook us up. We did as told after we managed to convince the bus driver to release Alexey´s bag from the storage since he had lost his claim ticket. On the phone Mauricio tells us that there is a Howard Johnson that has availability (his apartment is being remodeled so we can´t stay with him) for only $190K! Well, let me tell you guys something, we have been staying at places that come nowhere near to the quality of the HJ to say the most. We thought Cartagena was expensive at $65K per night! But oh well, this is going to be a splurge city for the sound of it. We had another hotel in mind for a bit cheaper but we´ll go with Mauricio´s suggestion due to it being more convenient for him to visit and take us out.
The hotel was incredibly nice. We had a queen sized bed for each of us!! The price was $240K in the end but oh well.. this is living! Soon after taking a shower, sending our clothes to the laundry place and resting Mauricio showed up to welcome us. We shared a glass of our remaining Flor de Cana Nicaraguan rum with him to celebrate. At this point all of my clothes are in the washers and the only thing I have left is this Guatemalan shirt that I bought, black pants, black shoes and white socks!! Ugly. So Mauricio calls his contacts and promises to hook me up with black socks soon after.
We leave. The first impression is that we are in for quite a bit of fun.. and spending. Mauricio´s driver (yes, you read me right) welcomes us on this brand new BMW. He is definitely living large and well here. He works as a Director of Sales Planning for the Bavaria brewery in Colombia. We head over for what he calls the ¨best sushi in the whole world¨. No no.. really, this guy has travelled quite a bit and he says this is the BEST. So we go to Watakushi and meet up with his friend Paola, quite beautiful and fun. We devoured the succulent treats of the sea before getting the succulent (for the owner) bill. No problem we say and play it as if we are also high rollers.
It´s time for starting the night well and we do so by going to a bar (name unknown) for drinks. This is supposed to be a casual encounter with Mauricio´s friends, a few (female) friends of theirs and us. We sat down in this packed bar with great music! Some U2, some Billy Joel, even some 80s latin rock. It is here where we met Luis (a Romanian Colombian fellow), Diana, Angelina, Patricia, and other friends. Between all of us we put down something like 2 or 3 Johnny Walker bottles and felt quite in a great mood. Having kicked this bar good bye, we headed to Cha Cha. This was a dance club in the 41st floor of the Orquidea Real building. The views of the city were awesome (or saw we heard because we were barely in a state that would warrant any credibility).
Our group danced the night away and saw alcohol come and dissapear rather quickly (same as our hard earned cash). We started going for RBandVK and Alexey got excited as he frequently does, and purchased a bottle of Absolut. Word on the street is that some of the girls got mad at Alexey for dancing too close or touching them.. not sure why but we don´t remember. It was fun nonetheless!
Mauricio called Don Hector, his driver, and we picked up Paola and drove home. This was definitely a great partying night and look forward to tomorrow. However, we will have to recover from this one first. One thing at a time.
We woke up to the sound of the bus engine roaring through the mountains of one of Colombia´s cordilleras. The scenery was very different than we had seen through our trip. Pine trees were prevalent as well as beautiful mountains nearby. It was barely getting brighter outside. I ressumed reading my book while Alexey kept sleeping a bit longer.
Another loud movie was played and soon it was time for breakfast on a roadside bus stop. This was a very welcomed time for resting since I felt that the motion sickness pills were wearing off. Took a second dosis and had some greasy breakfast. Alexey had a soup. We moved on.
After an uneventful rest of the bus ride, we arrived at the Bogota bus terminal. We still don´t know where we are going to be staying. Mauricio, our friend from school, has told us to call him so he can hook us up. We did as told after we managed to convince the bus driver to release Alexey´s bag from the storage since he had lost his claim ticket. On the phone Mauricio tells us that there is a Howard Johnson that has availability (his apartment is being remodeled so we can´t stay with him) for only $190K! Well, let me tell you guys something, we have been staying at places that come nowhere near to the quality of the HJ to say the most. We thought Cartagena was expensive at $65K per night! But oh well, this is going to be a splurge city for the sound of it. We had another hotel in mind for a bit cheaper but we´ll go with Mauricio´s suggestion due to it being more convenient for him to visit and take us out.
The hotel was incredibly nice. We had a queen sized bed for each of us!! The price was $240K in the end but oh well.. this is living! Soon after taking a shower, sending our clothes to the laundry place and resting Mauricio showed up to welcome us. We shared a glass of our remaining Flor de Cana Nicaraguan rum with him to celebrate. At this point all of my clothes are in the washers and the only thing I have left is this Guatemalan shirt that I bought, black pants, black shoes and white socks!! Ugly. So Mauricio calls his contacts and promises to hook me up with black socks soon after.
We leave. The first impression is that we are in for quite a bit of fun.. and spending. Mauricio´s driver (yes, you read me right) welcomes us on this brand new BMW. He is definitely living large and well here. He works as a Director of Sales Planning for the Bavaria brewery in Colombia. We head over for what he calls the ¨best sushi in the whole world¨. No no.. really, this guy has travelled quite a bit and he says this is the BEST. So we go to Watakushi and meet up with his friend Paola, quite beautiful and fun. We devoured the succulent treats of the sea before getting the succulent (for the owner) bill. No problem we say and play it as if we are also high rollers.
It´s time for starting the night well and we do so by going to a bar (name unknown) for drinks. This is supposed to be a casual encounter with Mauricio´s friends, a few (female) friends of theirs and us. We sat down in this packed bar with great music! Some U2, some Billy Joel, even some 80s latin rock. It is here where we met Luis (a Romanian Colombian fellow), Diana, Angelina, Patricia, and other friends. Between all of us we put down something like 2 or 3 Johnny Walker bottles and felt quite in a great mood. Having kicked this bar good bye, we headed to Cha Cha. This was a dance club in the 41st floor of the Orquidea Real building. The views of the city were awesome (or saw we heard because we were barely in a state that would warrant any credibility).
Our group danced the night away and saw alcohol come and dissapear rather quickly (same as our hard earned cash). We started going for RBandVK and Alexey got excited as he frequently does, and purchased a bottle of Absolut. Word on the street is that some of the girls got mad at Alexey for dancing too close or touching them.. not sure why but we don´t remember. It was fun nonetheless!
Mauricio called Don Hector, his driver, and we picked up Paola and drove home. This was definitely a great partying night and look forward to tomorrow. However, we will have to recover from this one first. One thing at a time.
Moving up the chain
Thursday, August 24th
Last night after doing blogging we realized it was about 7PM. The circus function starts at 7:30PM!! So we quickly got moving and even though my body still did not feel any better, we walked to the circus quickly. This was the circus of the Hermanos Gasca which every child born in the last 30 years must recognize by name. Raul Gasca, grandson of the original Gasca, was basically a one man show.
We saw everything from elephants and tigers to a woman who could bend in the most awkard positions.. Amazing! Then the juggling knifes while standing on top of a galloping horse, four motorcycles running at full speed on a sphere smaller than a typical bedroom and other oddities came about. I wish we would have seen some sort of four legged woman or something more esoteric but no such luck.
The performance ended with Raul singing a sad song in front of a mirror while he took his clown make up off his face. This was a very, very emotional moment and you could see a virtual tear coming down Alexey´s right cheek. But it was time to move on and after walking back accross the bridge, we went into the old walled city once again, had dinner at this local hangout and then went to sleep hoping that my sickness, whatever it was, would go away.
Moving on to today´s activities.
We walked around the city once again after having gone for breakfast at the same place where we had dinner last night. They have awesome fruit shakes or Aguas con Leche as they are known here in Colombia. After this hearty meal, we decided to walk to the famous beaches of Cartagena.
The closest beach is called Boca Grande is is about 20 or 25 minutes by our trusty good method of transport as of lately, namely both of our legs. We walked there. It must have been shortly after noon. The beach has black sand and we saw tons of locals hanging out there and bading. Women here are really very beatutiful even though they have no effect on me as of June of this year :) Alexey was pleased, however. We sat down at a bar/hut on the beach and had fresh orange and lime juices to quench our thirst. It was really cool just to be there drinking juice and watching people at the beach on the burning sun but sheltered under the hut´s roof. There was good Colombian Vallenato playing in the speakers. Really cool feeling to it.
We then decided to call our friend Mauricio since he graciously agreed to be our host in Bogota. We did this somewhere in an establishment close to the high rises of the Boca Grande beach. Then we walked back to the hotel, picked up our bags that were in the hotel´s storage room and run for the local Metrocar Bus. This bus took much longer than expected to reach the bus terminal. On our way in it had taken us about 45 minutes but it was already 1 hour and this bus kept taking side streets to pick up more people. We arrived to the bus terminal with just enough time to pick up some motion sickness pills (for me) and some food for the long trip (for both).
The tickets were expensive (original $103K but $77K after student discounts) but we took the best bus there was, the Brasilia which takes about 20 hours to reach from Cartagena to Bogota through Barranquilla. We both stocked up on reading materials in Panama knowing they would come in handing in Colombia. So we simply hope that the trip is pleasant and there aren´t any security issues. It is freezing in here! These buses compensate for the heat outside by cranking the AC or perhaps they just want us to freeze so as to not feel the pain of sitting for this long on a bus. Roads seem to be ok so far.
Last night after doing blogging we realized it was about 7PM. The circus function starts at 7:30PM!! So we quickly got moving and even though my body still did not feel any better, we walked to the circus quickly. This was the circus of the Hermanos Gasca which every child born in the last 30 years must recognize by name. Raul Gasca, grandson of the original Gasca, was basically a one man show.
We saw everything from elephants and tigers to a woman who could bend in the most awkard positions.. Amazing! Then the juggling knifes while standing on top of a galloping horse, four motorcycles running at full speed on a sphere smaller than a typical bedroom and other oddities came about. I wish we would have seen some sort of four legged woman or something more esoteric but no such luck.
The performance ended with Raul singing a sad song in front of a mirror while he took his clown make up off his face. This was a very, very emotional moment and you could see a virtual tear coming down Alexey´s right cheek. But it was time to move on and after walking back accross the bridge, we went into the old walled city once again, had dinner at this local hangout and then went to sleep hoping that my sickness, whatever it was, would go away.
Moving on to today´s activities.
We walked around the city once again after having gone for breakfast at the same place where we had dinner last night. They have awesome fruit shakes or Aguas con Leche as they are known here in Colombia. After this hearty meal, we decided to walk to the famous beaches of Cartagena.
The closest beach is called Boca Grande is is about 20 or 25 minutes by our trusty good method of transport as of lately, namely both of our legs. We walked there. It must have been shortly after noon. The beach has black sand and we saw tons of locals hanging out there and bading. Women here are really very beatutiful even though they have no effect on me as of June of this year :) Alexey was pleased, however. We sat down at a bar/hut on the beach and had fresh orange and lime juices to quench our thirst. It was really cool just to be there drinking juice and watching people at the beach on the burning sun but sheltered under the hut´s roof. There was good Colombian Vallenato playing in the speakers. Really cool feeling to it.
We then decided to call our friend Mauricio since he graciously agreed to be our host in Bogota. We did this somewhere in an establishment close to the high rises of the Boca Grande beach. Then we walked back to the hotel, picked up our bags that were in the hotel´s storage room and run for the local Metrocar Bus. This bus took much longer than expected to reach the bus terminal. On our way in it had taken us about 45 minutes but it was already 1 hour and this bus kept taking side streets to pick up more people. We arrived to the bus terminal with just enough time to pick up some motion sickness pills (for me) and some food for the long trip (for both).
The tickets were expensive (original $103K but $77K after student discounts) but we took the best bus there was, the Brasilia which takes about 20 hours to reach from Cartagena to Bogota through Barranquilla. We both stocked up on reading materials in Panama knowing they would come in handing in Colombia. So we simply hope that the trip is pleasant and there aren´t any security issues. It is freezing in here! These buses compensate for the heat outside by cranking the AC or perhaps they just want us to freeze so as to not feel the pain of sitting for this long on a bus. Roads seem to be ok so far.
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Cartagena de Indias and its riches
Wednesday, August 23rd
Last night I felt a bit ill. Not sure if it was Jacky´s (Chloe and Andrea´s mom) cold in Panama that I got but I really did not feel well. In any case, I decided to take a tablet of the almighty Cipro antibiotic just in case it was an infection which would not be totally outrageous in our seventh week of travelling. This morning I followed through with the prescription and feel a bit better but not 100%.
The hotel is centrically located so we went out for a stroll to learn more about the city. This city is really one of the most beautiful cities we have seen so far. There is colonial architecture whereever you turn and the people are pleasantly caribbean in attitude. The hot climate adds to the equation to make this a very unique place. There are horse pulled carriages on the streets and high wooden balconies in the streets. At night, weak street lamps give you the impression that you are in the XVII or XVIII century (1600s or 1700s for the romanly challenged).
We get student discounts at the local museums so we took advantage of this opportunity to increase our cultural awareness for cheap. The Museum of History of Cartagena was really cool. This is actually the building of the Inquisition. That is, they used this as headquarters to the witch police. If you were caught misbehaving you were put through all these methods of turture. One of them was intriguing in that it was a table with ropes at both ends tied to circular cranks. The infractor was tied by its extremities and the cranks tightened the ropes ever more with every twist. Until bones and muscle was broken or a confession was made, which every one was earliest. The intriguing thing is that there were two ropes in one end, for both arms obviously, and three ropes in the other extreme, two legs and one... well, we´ll leave it up to your imagination.
We walked through the streets taking pictures like a good Japanese tourist would. We saw the Cathedral, the Simon Bolivar Park, Convent and Church of San Pedro Claver, Plaza de la Aduana, Plaza de los Coches and the city walls. FYI, this city was important because it became a warehouse for all the gold that the Spaniards stole from the indians in Latin America. They would transport the gold and riches to Cartagena and store them until they were picked up by ships bounded for Spain. Of course, this would only happen if pirates did not steal the gold before the ships arrive. This was a great problem and the Spaniards decided to build a wall around the city which still stands today. The building of this wall lasted 200 years.
The Spaniards also built the Castle of San Felipe on top of a small mountain which is actually a fort that was used to spot pirates approaching the caribbean coast. We passed through the Getsemani neighborhood and ate at the Coroncoro restaurant (great cheap food!) on Calle Tripita y Media. The sitting was tough since it was packed with hungry locals. We could not spot a gringo in the whole restaurant! After being sat on a table we realized it was a german-beer-tent-like arrangement in that we were accompanied by two other strangers in our same table. This local lady was very pleasant to talk to and smiled at our struggled way to order local delicacies. She was sure of what she wanted and ordered it in 2 seconds. She tells us that the restaurant is really not that busy right now even though there are people standing waiting for tables. She says that when it is really busy you cannot even walk in between the tables! After this, her male friend sits with us but the start talking about guys and how mad she was at this other guy. Alexey and I are thinking her friend is gay at this point.
Now on to a food comma. What better way to deal with it than to climb to the top of the castle. Once again we get student discounts!! WHOOOOHO! We sit at the top in the shadow of a roof and feeling the breeze cool down our skins which had been pounded by the heavy Cartagenian sun all day. Then we explore the dungeons were Spanish watchmen spent endless hours spotting pirates. It was kind of scary at some points since you could get confused in the dark dungeons and never come out! :)
Let´s now take a cab and stop by the circus to see their hours of operation. I have not been in a circus in such a long time that it´s very tempting. The cab does not charge us to stop by the circus since we already negotiated him to take us to the Bovedas by the north side of the wall close to the ocean for 4000 pesos (rate is $1:2370pesos). We walked along the wall and stopped to see a bunch of fishermen pulling the nets with their catch. After this we walked by Gabriel Garcia Marquez´s house and went to do some internet catching up. Hopefully, we will be able to upload some pictures soon.
Last night I felt a bit ill. Not sure if it was Jacky´s (Chloe and Andrea´s mom) cold in Panama that I got but I really did not feel well. In any case, I decided to take a tablet of the almighty Cipro antibiotic just in case it was an infection which would not be totally outrageous in our seventh week of travelling. This morning I followed through with the prescription and feel a bit better but not 100%.
The hotel is centrically located so we went out for a stroll to learn more about the city. This city is really one of the most beautiful cities we have seen so far. There is colonial architecture whereever you turn and the people are pleasantly caribbean in attitude. The hot climate adds to the equation to make this a very unique place. There are horse pulled carriages on the streets and high wooden balconies in the streets. At night, weak street lamps give you the impression that you are in the XVII or XVIII century (1600s or 1700s for the romanly challenged).
We get student discounts at the local museums so we took advantage of this opportunity to increase our cultural awareness for cheap. The Museum of History of Cartagena was really cool. This is actually the building of the Inquisition. That is, they used this as headquarters to the witch police. If you were caught misbehaving you were put through all these methods of turture. One of them was intriguing in that it was a table with ropes at both ends tied to circular cranks. The infractor was tied by its extremities and the cranks tightened the ropes ever more with every twist. Until bones and muscle was broken or a confession was made, which every one was earliest. The intriguing thing is that there were two ropes in one end, for both arms obviously, and three ropes in the other extreme, two legs and one... well, we´ll leave it up to your imagination.
We walked through the streets taking pictures like a good Japanese tourist would. We saw the Cathedral, the Simon Bolivar Park, Convent and Church of San Pedro Claver, Plaza de la Aduana, Plaza de los Coches and the city walls. FYI, this city was important because it became a warehouse for all the gold that the Spaniards stole from the indians in Latin America. They would transport the gold and riches to Cartagena and store them until they were picked up by ships bounded for Spain. Of course, this would only happen if pirates did not steal the gold before the ships arrive. This was a great problem and the Spaniards decided to build a wall around the city which still stands today. The building of this wall lasted 200 years.
The Spaniards also built the Castle of San Felipe on top of a small mountain which is actually a fort that was used to spot pirates approaching the caribbean coast. We passed through the Getsemani neighborhood and ate at the Coroncoro restaurant (great cheap food!) on Calle Tripita y Media. The sitting was tough since it was packed with hungry locals. We could not spot a gringo in the whole restaurant! After being sat on a table we realized it was a german-beer-tent-like arrangement in that we were accompanied by two other strangers in our same table. This local lady was very pleasant to talk to and smiled at our struggled way to order local delicacies. She was sure of what she wanted and ordered it in 2 seconds. She tells us that the restaurant is really not that busy right now even though there are people standing waiting for tables. She says that when it is really busy you cannot even walk in between the tables! After this, her male friend sits with us but the start talking about guys and how mad she was at this other guy. Alexey and I are thinking her friend is gay at this point.
Now on to a food comma. What better way to deal with it than to climb to the top of the castle. Once again we get student discounts!! WHOOOOHO! We sit at the top in the shadow of a roof and feeling the breeze cool down our skins which had been pounded by the heavy Cartagenian sun all day. Then we explore the dungeons were Spanish watchmen spent endless hours spotting pirates. It was kind of scary at some points since you could get confused in the dark dungeons and never come out! :)
Let´s now take a cab and stop by the circus to see their hours of operation. I have not been in a circus in such a long time that it´s very tempting. The cab does not charge us to stop by the circus since we already negotiated him to take us to the Bovedas by the north side of the wall close to the ocean for 4000 pesos (rate is $1:2370pesos). We walked along the wall and stopped to see a bunch of fishermen pulling the nets with their catch. After this we walked by Gabriel Garcia Marquez´s house and went to do some internet catching up. Hopefully, we will be able to upload some pictures soon.
The land of Coffee and Cocaine
Tuesday, August 22nd 2006
We bid our farwell to our AMAZING hosts at our halfway house in Panama and we were on the road again!
Ahh... South America! Upon arrival to Colombia, our bags were promptly torn apart - my shoe soles, cigars, back pack frame, and chapstick were inspected quite closely. They seem to take customs quite seriously here. Lots of guns too, which we hadn´t seen many of in Panama and Costa Rica. The shotgun, which was ubiquitos in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, didn´t seem to be popular though. Just handguns.
We arrived in Barranquilla and decided to quickly check out what had been labeled as a more industrial Colombian city. We took the bus from the airport (which, for the first time in more than a month was not a school bus) and started strolling around. With our large bags and gringo skin, pretty much everyone was looking at us like we were animals in a musem. The heat, the sketchiness, and our gringo bags, all made the prospects of completing an afternoon stroll a little hard. (Note: since we are now carrying all of Jose´s extra payload that he has picked up along the way our bags are quite a bit heavier) Thus, after several blocks (and a very nice woman who advised Jose to take off his gold chain and hide it) we decided to resume the tour in a cab.
Our first glimpse of this mysterious country where over 43 MILLION people live (second most populous spanish speaking country after mexico) was spectacular! The majority of population is mixto; a mix of african, indian, and european decent. The city planning of Barranquilla was quite different from any city we had seen in central america thus far. Large wide streets, grid city planning, and no buildings over two stories were some of the charactaristics of this city of over one million inhabitabitants. There were also many new and shinny cars - one of which was our taxi. Our driver gave us the history of the city and his perspectives as he took us on a leasurely drive-tour on the way to the long distance bus termanial. We arrived and after a quick meal were off to Cartagena!
The bus to Cartagena was luxurious; could get used to this! The Colombian rural landscape was spectactular and I was glued with my nose to the window, and managed to avoid watching any of fast and furious 2. The sun was setting as we arrived in the long distance bus terminal and we needed to make tracks since, as in Barranquilla, the terminal was far from the city. After a 40 minute ride, and some nice pointers from some locals, we arrived to the old town. Our first few attempts at hotels didn´t pan out but we finally landed a spot right near the old town.
Our first glimpses of Cartagena proved that this could be the most beautiful city that we have seen yet on this voyage. The old colonial city was beautrifully preserved but was integrated into modern life and had become the epicenter of greater Cartagena. Not too many tourists either.
Jose was coming down with a cold so we had a nice meal of fish and juice, bypassed the beautiful outdoor cafes and squares, and headed home for an early bed. As a final highlight, I managed to give myself a hell of an electric shock when grabbing for the light in the bathroom after my shower. My arm was still tingling a bit in the morning.
We bid our farwell to our AMAZING hosts at our halfway house in Panama and we were on the road again!
Ahh... South America! Upon arrival to Colombia, our bags were promptly torn apart - my shoe soles, cigars, back pack frame, and chapstick were inspected quite closely. They seem to take customs quite seriously here. Lots of guns too, which we hadn´t seen many of in Panama and Costa Rica. The shotgun, which was ubiquitos in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, didn´t seem to be popular though. Just handguns.
We arrived in Barranquilla and decided to quickly check out what had been labeled as a more industrial Colombian city. We took the bus from the airport (which, for the first time in more than a month was not a school bus) and started strolling around. With our large bags and gringo skin, pretty much everyone was looking at us like we were animals in a musem. The heat, the sketchiness, and our gringo bags, all made the prospects of completing an afternoon stroll a little hard. (Note: since we are now carrying all of Jose´s extra payload that he has picked up along the way our bags are quite a bit heavier) Thus, after several blocks (and a very nice woman who advised Jose to take off his gold chain and hide it) we decided to resume the tour in a cab.
Our first glimpse of this mysterious country where over 43 MILLION people live (second most populous spanish speaking country after mexico) was spectacular! The majority of population is mixto; a mix of african, indian, and european decent. The city planning of Barranquilla was quite different from any city we had seen in central america thus far. Large wide streets, grid city planning, and no buildings over two stories were some of the charactaristics of this city of over one million inhabitabitants. There were also many new and shinny cars - one of which was our taxi. Our driver gave us the history of the city and his perspectives as he took us on a leasurely drive-tour on the way to the long distance bus termanial. We arrived and after a quick meal were off to Cartagena!
The bus to Cartagena was luxurious; could get used to this! The Colombian rural landscape was spectactular and I was glued with my nose to the window, and managed to avoid watching any of fast and furious 2. The sun was setting as we arrived in the long distance bus terminal and we needed to make tracks since, as in Barranquilla, the terminal was far from the city. After a 40 minute ride, and some nice pointers from some locals, we arrived to the old town. Our first few attempts at hotels didn´t pan out but we finally landed a spot right near the old town.
Our first glimpses of Cartagena proved that this could be the most beautiful city that we have seen yet on this voyage. The old colonial city was beautrifully preserved but was integrated into modern life and had become the epicenter of greater Cartagena. Not too many tourists either.
Jose was coming down with a cold so we had a nice meal of fish and juice, bypassed the beautiful outdoor cafes and squares, and headed home for an early bed. As a final highlight, I managed to give myself a hell of an electric shock when grabbing for the light in the bathroom after my shower. My arm was still tingling a bit in the morning.
Monday, bureaucracy Monday..
Monday, August 21st
The alarm sounded at 7:15AM and we had slept for quite a while. This day promised to be a really hectic one as we try to get all the paperwork for Rosinante to leave from Panama into Miami. Our appointment was at 8:30AM and Lic. Hermandez, who is helping us send the car, called to remind us. In his office we met his wife who would carry us through all the paperwork necessary. Really, it´s only two things we need to do but you know how our governments work.
The lady is a good looking tall dark skinned woman which actually played in our favor when a man was behind the bureau. We breezed through in the PTJ (equivalent to the US FBI) but then had to wait until the Secretary of the PTJ came in since he had to sign the car release. Basically, this paper asserts that the car is clean and there were no crimes committed with it. We try to get ahead by going to the Customs office to see if they can stamped my passport so I can leave the country. See, when we came into Panama they stamped my passport to say that I brought in a car. If I leave the country by plane, the way we are planning, customs there will think that I left the car in Panama or sold it! So they need to put another stamp over the old one, basically saying that the car is leaving by boat.
At Customs, we arrive at the precise moment when they call for a weekly administrative meeting so they will not be taking requests for the next 5 to 10 minutes. No one is there at the office now and it has been 40 minutes since the announcement. We go back to the PTJ and see if the Secretary has arrived and signed our paper. No such luck. Let´s split and reconvene at 1:30PM to come back and hopefully get all this over with. We drop Don Hernandez´s wife at the office and head over to ExedraBooks to find a Lonely Planet South America. We accomplish this in under 1 hour plus bought some interesting books to read through Colombia.
Now we are back at the PTJ and the Secretary finally has signed the paper. After picking it up we head over to Customs where they inform us that the lady has just gone to lunch, and ¨she can take a looong time lunching¨ the guard tells us while gesturing at her figure. Alexey is outside caring for Rosinante while the lady and I are sitting there waiting to be serviced. Nothing happens for more than half an hour. Two young girls arrive and sit next to us. They seem Spanish and trying to do the same paperwork as we are! These girls, Maria and Eva are as crazy as we are and more! They have driven from L.A. in this minibus all the way to Panama in 9 months. Their final destination is Argentina but given the current situation in Colombia are shipping the car to Guayaquil and restarting their voyage there. Check out their website. We exchange information as the lady finally arrives. The work gets done and ufff!! Rosinante is finally cleared for take off.
Finally home at 4PM freed from all the red tape we decide to head for the mall to buy some presents. Also, by now we are ready to leave tomorrow if there are tickets available. We find two sits in a COPA flight to Barranquilla, Colombia tomorrow. So we buy them and tell our lovely hosts that sadly, our stay has come to an end! :( We are really sad because being here has been like being at home for us. Everyone including Nina, the dog, has been wonderful to us and at all times felt welcomed. THANK YOU JULISSA AND FAMILY FOR THE WONDERFUL TIMES HERE IN PANAMA. Andrea seems sad to know that we are leaving. So cute!
At the mall we do a round of male shopping (less than 30 minutes at the mall total) and head back since we have invited everyone to dinner tonight to thank them for their hospitality. Doña Irma is our accomplice and promised not to cook anything so they are forced to go to dinner with us. However, to our surprise we come back to the beautiful smell of rice, beans and chicken a la milanesa. What happened?! Apparently the family had decided to eat at home to avoid us paying the bill and the go out for ice cream. So we reluctantly agree to the deal and eat at home.
We go out to the causeway (strip of restaurants lined up on a stretch of filled land connecting 3 islands, the filling of which came from digging the Canal) to find a dessert shop but it´s closed on Mondays. So we head to Fridays instead :) We all have icecreams and say nice things before departure. Really we are both sad to leave. :( Joyce rides in the trunk due to lack of space and falls asleep throughout the whole ride back!
We go back and try to sleep. Tomorrow we will be in Colombia so we must save energy.
The alarm sounded at 7:15AM and we had slept for quite a while. This day promised to be a really hectic one as we try to get all the paperwork for Rosinante to leave from Panama into Miami. Our appointment was at 8:30AM and Lic. Hermandez, who is helping us send the car, called to remind us. In his office we met his wife who would carry us through all the paperwork necessary. Really, it´s only two things we need to do but you know how our governments work.
The lady is a good looking tall dark skinned woman which actually played in our favor when a man was behind the bureau. We breezed through in the PTJ (equivalent to the US FBI) but then had to wait until the Secretary of the PTJ came in since he had to sign the car release. Basically, this paper asserts that the car is clean and there were no crimes committed with it. We try to get ahead by going to the Customs office to see if they can stamped my passport so I can leave the country. See, when we came into Panama they stamped my passport to say that I brought in a car. If I leave the country by plane, the way we are planning, customs there will think that I left the car in Panama or sold it! So they need to put another stamp over the old one, basically saying that the car is leaving by boat.
At Customs, we arrive at the precise moment when they call for a weekly administrative meeting so they will not be taking requests for the next 5 to 10 minutes. No one is there at the office now and it has been 40 minutes since the announcement. We go back to the PTJ and see if the Secretary has arrived and signed our paper. No such luck. Let´s split and reconvene at 1:30PM to come back and hopefully get all this over with. We drop Don Hernandez´s wife at the office and head over to ExedraBooks to find a Lonely Planet South America. We accomplish this in under 1 hour plus bought some interesting books to read through Colombia.
Now we are back at the PTJ and the Secretary finally has signed the paper. After picking it up we head over to Customs where they inform us that the lady has just gone to lunch, and ¨she can take a looong time lunching¨ the guard tells us while gesturing at her figure. Alexey is outside caring for Rosinante while the lady and I are sitting there waiting to be serviced. Nothing happens for more than half an hour. Two young girls arrive and sit next to us. They seem Spanish and trying to do the same paperwork as we are! These girls, Maria and Eva are as crazy as we are and more! They have driven from L.A. in this minibus all the way to Panama in 9 months. Their final destination is Argentina but given the current situation in Colombia are shipping the car to Guayaquil and restarting their voyage there. Check out their website. We exchange information as the lady finally arrives. The work gets done and ufff!! Rosinante is finally cleared for take off.
Finally home at 4PM freed from all the red tape we decide to head for the mall to buy some presents. Also, by now we are ready to leave tomorrow if there are tickets available. We find two sits in a COPA flight to Barranquilla, Colombia tomorrow. So we buy them and tell our lovely hosts that sadly, our stay has come to an end! :( We are really sad because being here has been like being at home for us. Everyone including Nina, the dog, has been wonderful to us and at all times felt welcomed. THANK YOU JULISSA AND FAMILY FOR THE WONDERFUL TIMES HERE IN PANAMA. Andrea seems sad to know that we are leaving. So cute!
At the mall we do a round of male shopping (less than 30 minutes at the mall total) and head back since we have invited everyone to dinner tonight to thank them for their hospitality. Doña Irma is our accomplice and promised not to cook anything so they are forced to go to dinner with us. However, to our surprise we come back to the beautiful smell of rice, beans and chicken a la milanesa. What happened?! Apparently the family had decided to eat at home to avoid us paying the bill and the go out for ice cream. So we reluctantly agree to the deal and eat at home.
We go out to the causeway (strip of restaurants lined up on a stretch of filled land connecting 3 islands, the filling of which came from digging the Canal) to find a dessert shop but it´s closed on Mondays. So we head to Fridays instead :) We all have icecreams and say nice things before departure. Really we are both sad to leave. :( Joyce rides in the trunk due to lack of space and falls asleep throughout the whole ride back!
We go back and try to sleep. Tomorrow we will be in Colombia so we must save energy.
Reintroduction to civilization
Sunday, August 20th
There is someone punching me in the stomach. Ouch! It really hurts, what is it?! It cannot be the morning already! These days I find myself being incredibly regular. That is, as soon as I wake up, I need to head to the restroom. The morning was barely peaking through in the form of sun rays. Where is the restroom? I asked myself. We are anchored of the coast of some uninhabited island. Oops. We have a problem.
I wake Don Armando up and ask him what we should do. He wakes the rest of the captains and we all head over to a close island where there was a small town. Presumably, I would be able to find a BR somewhere in there. I disembark and we are now ready for some early morning fishing! Baby marlin, I hope you are as beautiful as I saw you in my dreams.
We go for some buoys nearby the Panama Canal. We are staying in between large ships transporting all sorts of stuff in colorful containers. Marginal luck brings me a larger fish, perhaps a 2 pound Pargo (English name?). Marco finds another similar fish and we start getting enthusiastic. However, we did not place the anchor well enough and we are drifting so we leave the fishing sweet spot soon and no more fish are caught. After a while of navigating and a small breakfast we have not caught much. Perhaps it is best to go back to the coast as we need to head back for Don Pedro to test drive a new boat for a customer (he is a motor boat technician). We make a stop under the Bridge of the Americas (which connects Central America and South America above the Panama Canal). We are hanging out there when something catches Luis Xavier´s line and mine at the same time. My line was pulling really hard! Surely, my line must have been caught on Luis Xavier´s and this is why we are both trying to push our ways. However, he brings out a good fish. This must only mean that I caught some sort of larger fish. My fingers were struggling for a little while but after the wrestling match, I brought up a beautiful Uriel (English name?). It was the largest catch of the session but not sure how big. Now, if I can only get my hook on a baby marlin!
The fishing patrol came by to tell us that this was no fishing ground. So the party ended and we went behind some structure to fish hidden from the boat police. At this point, Don Gregorio was teaching Alexey how to clean fish. He seemed to be a good apprentice but after he was done there was no good meat left! Just kidding, he was actually covered in fish scales but the fish looked ok. Don Gregorio resumed his cleaning routine while the rest of us tried to fish something. At some point, Don Gregorio was cleaning the Pargo that I had caught earlier this morning and his cleaning table (a wooden paddle from the boat) wabbled a bit sending the fish in the water. He must have felt bad since it would have been really cool to have eaten that fish, that I caught with my own hands.. so in a feline reaction, he jumped in the water to save the fish! After putting the fish back in the boat he realized that his cell phone was in his pocket :( We all felt bad but after a little while we all laughed.
Back on shore Don Gregorio´s car did not start. We needed to get some ice since the fish from last night had started to smell. We spent some time waiting for the boat to be picked up and for our car to start. After jump starting it we were on the road. We returned the boat and went home. Doña Irma had prepared some food for these hungry and stinky fishermen. The shower and the food felt marvellous and immediately, Alexey and I went to bed for a few hours. We were only awakened by Doña Irma calling us to eat the fish that earlier on had been caught with our own hands! They tasted pretty good with Patacones (fried plantain medallions).
Joyce and Jessica (Joyce´s pretty cool friend) took Alexey and I for icecream. We all had Miel de Caña with Coco (Sugar Cane and Coconut) except for Alexey who went for the Tamarind sorbet. We dropped Jessica off and headed back home. This was the end of our fishing experience and really a worthwhile one. There was no baby marlin involved but it certainly made us appreciate the job that all artisan fisherman go through in their everyday lives. This was for us an unforgettable experience!
There is someone punching me in the stomach. Ouch! It really hurts, what is it?! It cannot be the morning already! These days I find myself being incredibly regular. That is, as soon as I wake up, I need to head to the restroom. The morning was barely peaking through in the form of sun rays. Where is the restroom? I asked myself. We are anchored of the coast of some uninhabited island. Oops. We have a problem.
I wake Don Armando up and ask him what we should do. He wakes the rest of the captains and we all head over to a close island where there was a small town. Presumably, I would be able to find a BR somewhere in there. I disembark and we are now ready for some early morning fishing! Baby marlin, I hope you are as beautiful as I saw you in my dreams.
We go for some buoys nearby the Panama Canal. We are staying in between large ships transporting all sorts of stuff in colorful containers. Marginal luck brings me a larger fish, perhaps a 2 pound Pargo (English name?). Marco finds another similar fish and we start getting enthusiastic. However, we did not place the anchor well enough and we are drifting so we leave the fishing sweet spot soon and no more fish are caught. After a while of navigating and a small breakfast we have not caught much. Perhaps it is best to go back to the coast as we need to head back for Don Pedro to test drive a new boat for a customer (he is a motor boat technician). We make a stop under the Bridge of the Americas (which connects Central America and South America above the Panama Canal). We are hanging out there when something catches Luis Xavier´s line and mine at the same time. My line was pulling really hard! Surely, my line must have been caught on Luis Xavier´s and this is why we are both trying to push our ways. However, he brings out a good fish. This must only mean that I caught some sort of larger fish. My fingers were struggling for a little while but after the wrestling match, I brought up a beautiful Uriel (English name?). It was the largest catch of the session but not sure how big. Now, if I can only get my hook on a baby marlin!
The fishing patrol came by to tell us that this was no fishing ground. So the party ended and we went behind some structure to fish hidden from the boat police. At this point, Don Gregorio was teaching Alexey how to clean fish. He seemed to be a good apprentice but after he was done there was no good meat left! Just kidding, he was actually covered in fish scales but the fish looked ok. Don Gregorio resumed his cleaning routine while the rest of us tried to fish something. At some point, Don Gregorio was cleaning the Pargo that I had caught earlier this morning and his cleaning table (a wooden paddle from the boat) wabbled a bit sending the fish in the water. He must have felt bad since it would have been really cool to have eaten that fish, that I caught with my own hands.. so in a feline reaction, he jumped in the water to save the fish! After putting the fish back in the boat he realized that his cell phone was in his pocket :( We all felt bad but after a little while we all laughed.
Back on shore Don Gregorio´s car did not start. We needed to get some ice since the fish from last night had started to smell. We spent some time waiting for the boat to be picked up and for our car to start. After jump starting it we were on the road. We returned the boat and went home. Doña Irma had prepared some food for these hungry and stinky fishermen. The shower and the food felt marvellous and immediately, Alexey and I went to bed for a few hours. We were only awakened by Doña Irma calling us to eat the fish that earlier on had been caught with our own hands! They tasted pretty good with Patacones (fried plantain medallions).
Joyce and Jessica (Joyce´s pretty cool friend) took Alexey and I for icecream. We all had Miel de Caña with Coco (Sugar Cane and Coconut) except for Alexey who went for the Tamarind sorbet. We dropped Jessica off and headed back home. This was the end of our fishing experience and really a worthwhile one. There was no baby marlin involved but it certainly made us appreciate the job that all artisan fisherman go through in their everyday lives. This was for us an unforgettable experience!
Gone fishing..
Saturday, August 19th
Well well.. today is the big day! We have been mentally preparing for the big day and night that stand in front of us. Last night, as we mentioned previously, we sat down to have some rum with Don Gregorio and aside from discussing changes that the governments of latin america should implement, he gave us a lecture on Fishing 101.
As you may realize, we are not really what you would call experts in the art of fishing so we needed him to explain to us how it feels to catch a fish, how to reel in the fish, how not to get burned by the nylon thread (who needs a fishing pole anyway), etc.. However, this morning we decided to burn some of the stress that is building up by going to this area called El Valle. This small town is about 1.5 hrs from Panama City.
The drive was very quick due to the beautiful new 4 lane highway that has been built. After this, we went up some mountains and there it was, the hidden town of El Valle. Many hard-to-believe promises were made to us. Among them, that we would find a golden toad, a mountain that looked like a sleepy indian woman, and square trees!!!! We could hardly wait so we consulted our good old trusty lonely planet and set our course for the nearest golden toad outlet.
We went to the El Nispero botanical garden and zoo. The entrance was quite steep but we were so exited that not even the rejection of our student discount request kept us from entering. After going through some animal cages and beautiful gardens we came across a sign next to a cage that said ¨Rana Dorada¨. We looked and looked and finally, all the way on the inner wall of the cage, there is was! Actually more yellow and orange than golden but it was definitely something amazing to see! We stared at the thing for a long time while we tried to find a big enough whole in the covering mesh that would allow us to take pictures. We did our best but the pictures may not illustrate all the beauty of this toad.
Our next stop, the square trees. We made it a point not to ask anyone about what they meant by ¨square¨ trees because we were very intriged and wanted to be surprised by what we find. ¨Behind the Hotel Campestre there is a trail that takes you through 2 bridges. The trail is a 10 minute walk and after the second bridge, make a right and you will see a big tree. This is not a square tree. You must look to the right of this big tree and that is one. Then look across from it and you will find more square trees.¨ Those were the directions that we had.
After the beautiful and welcome walk through the dense vegetation, we saw our big tree and next to it this smaller tree that kind of had the base of the trunk in a shape close to a square. This is it!! We found our tree! To be perfectly honest, it was not the squarest thing I have seen in my life but certainly unique. We were the only tourists there in the midst of the jungle. Alexey wanted to see if he could find a more square looking one and he succeeded. We finally had find a tree that resembled a square (at least at the bottom). We were pleased.
So the only thing left to do was to find the sleeping indian. A piece of background information is that our beloved Julissa was herself a sleeping Indian. That is, she was the lead character in a Panamanian film that told the story of these mountains!! I am not certain about the whole story but in brief it states that this Indian woman had an Indian boyfriend. However, the girl then fell in love and left with one young Spanish conquistador and because of this betrayal, she fell asleep and never work up. Now she rests on top of these mountains. The actual mountain looked kiiiiind of like a sleeping woman. The breasts were large for one thing so we could see how someone can believe the story :) Unfortunately, the weather was getting worse and worse and we only saw it for about a minute before it got completely covered by clouds, hence, not pictures.
We needed to rush back to Panama City were Don Gregorio must be getting ready for our voyage. The excitement was clear on this pair of novices and I had even promised to catch a baby marlin tonight! After a couple of false starts due to my leaving my camera charging in our room, trying to find weights for our fishing lines, fresh batteries for my super powerful flashlight, and other mishaps, we arrived at the port. The family had gone there to wish us farewell. Afterall, if we did not catch anything, there was nothing to eat tomorrow :) We jumped on board with a whole bunch of stuff including a box full of alcohol and other presents from Joyce!! (Thank you Joyce!)
There we were, crossing the outskirts of the Panama Canal. The captains: Don Armando, Don Pedro, Don Gregorio (three brothers in a family of 11 children, presumably, all highly skilled fishermen and fisherwomen), Luis Xavier (Julissa´s brother), and Marcos (nephew of Don Gregorio), the crew: Alexey and yours truly. We tried to make a good impression by talking about swells and star formations but it did not seem to impress them. The sun went to bed and we were left with the HUGE boats making their way across oceans and the water next to us. After a while the boats also went away and it was just us in the middle of darkness and water. Never had I been in this situation and I must say that it was incredible! You have enough time to think about 1000 things and you don´t have to rush either, because you still have all night to go :)
But I digress, back to fishing. Soon after we anchored behind a small island I had a strike of what Paolo Coelho would call Beginner´s Luck (Thanks Jana Karla for the book). It was fish after fish.. really only 3 fish caught in a matter of 20 minutes but it pleased me that I knew now how it feels like when fish bite your bait. Baby marlin, here I come! There was a drought that lasted for a looooong time. Alexey managed to catch a fish too. It was actually pretty big. We anchored the boat next to another one that housed three local artisans of the sea. Our boat´s catching rate must have been about one tenth that of those guys. They were harvesting those greenjacks like crazy! We settled on spending more time on meditating than catching fish.. that´s it, we are more of the thinking types!
The night came down hard and we made no progress. Our cooler must have had about 8 fish. We moved on and anchored near another island. This time we could see a small town in the island diagonal to the one where we had anchored. After repeated attempts to pull in fish, we gave up. The rains started to pour and we had no other protection but to embrace the rain. If we were going to sleep at all, it would be with rain in our faces. This sounds worse than it actually is. Alexey found a comfortable place in the front of the boat. I did the same on the side. Don Gregorio had gone to sleep after setting a line with a larger hook and half a fish for bait. I asked how it was possible that he would notice if a fish got hooked if he was sleeping! He just said ¨you will know¨.
Sure enought, in the middle of the night, the whole reel of line started jumping around the boat. Don Gregorio, the captains and the rest of the crew (Alexey and myself) got up to see what was all the fuss. After a quick struggle with a great force under water, we saw this small but strong fish, a barracuda! Hmmm... ceviche tomorrow! Don Gregorio went back to bed under the small covered area that the boat had and placed the line the same way again. Less than 20 minutes passed when the line was pushed harder than before. The crew could hardly believe the pull that this creature had. Alexey held the line for a while and almost got burned by the nylon when he tried to wrap it around his arms. After the long struggle, we saw the catch of the night: A Manta Ray!!! Poor Ray, flapping its fleshy wings and trying to keep aline. Its white bottom was as smooth as Todd´s face (even when he does not shave). Repeated attempts to bring this large creature on the boat were fruitless. Don Gregorio decided to cut the line close to the hook and let the Ray go.
By this time we were pretty tired. Everyone assumed their sleeping positions and tried to catch some sleep given that it was easier to catch then fish apparently. A few minutes later, the sound of the line making the reel dance awoke us once again. This time, Alexey decided to keep sleeping as some of the other captains had done. Don Gregorio asked me to hold the line to learn how a big fish feels. It was quite interesting but it did not seem like a large fish since I was reeling it for a while. After a few minutes, the thing started swimming away. I tried to hold it back a little but this thing kept swimming as if it did not hurt it. I started getting worried after it had pulled so much line that I thought we would run out of line. At this time, everyone woke up to see what this was. They assured me that there was enough line and just keep letting it go. At some point it would get tired!
I give up! Marcos, Luis Xavier, Don Pedro, Don Gregorio take turns in dealing with the beast. Nothing yet. We have to put in the heavy hitter. Don Armando comes in with his experienced hands and tries to control this monster. He has to immerse his hands on the water and keep holding the line to avoid getting burn. The reel at this point is jumping up and down and even went out in the water for a while. This thing must be immense if it´s pulling that hard!
After about 15 or so minutes (which seemed endless) of fighting with this creature, the force of the fish broke the line and we were all left wandering for the rest of our lives, what kind of fish was that? and, how big was it? No one will ever know. At least the story will linger in our heads for a long time.
Now it was time to go to bed and rest if we want to catch some fish tomorrow. Soaked in rain we proceeded to sleep without any further fish waking us up.
Well well.. today is the big day! We have been mentally preparing for the big day and night that stand in front of us. Last night, as we mentioned previously, we sat down to have some rum with Don Gregorio and aside from discussing changes that the governments of latin america should implement, he gave us a lecture on Fishing 101.
As you may realize, we are not really what you would call experts in the art of fishing so we needed him to explain to us how it feels to catch a fish, how to reel in the fish, how not to get burned by the nylon thread (who needs a fishing pole anyway), etc.. However, this morning we decided to burn some of the stress that is building up by going to this area called El Valle. This small town is about 1.5 hrs from Panama City.
The drive was very quick due to the beautiful new 4 lane highway that has been built. After this, we went up some mountains and there it was, the hidden town of El Valle. Many hard-to-believe promises were made to us. Among them, that we would find a golden toad, a mountain that looked like a sleepy indian woman, and square trees!!!! We could hardly wait so we consulted our good old trusty lonely planet and set our course for the nearest golden toad outlet.
We went to the El Nispero botanical garden and zoo. The entrance was quite steep but we were so exited that not even the rejection of our student discount request kept us from entering. After going through some animal cages and beautiful gardens we came across a sign next to a cage that said ¨Rana Dorada¨. We looked and looked and finally, all the way on the inner wall of the cage, there is was! Actually more yellow and orange than golden but it was definitely something amazing to see! We stared at the thing for a long time while we tried to find a big enough whole in the covering mesh that would allow us to take pictures. We did our best but the pictures may not illustrate all the beauty of this toad.
Our next stop, the square trees. We made it a point not to ask anyone about what they meant by ¨square¨ trees because we were very intriged and wanted to be surprised by what we find. ¨Behind the Hotel Campestre there is a trail that takes you through 2 bridges. The trail is a 10 minute walk and after the second bridge, make a right and you will see a big tree. This is not a square tree. You must look to the right of this big tree and that is one. Then look across from it and you will find more square trees.¨ Those were the directions that we had.
After the beautiful and welcome walk through the dense vegetation, we saw our big tree and next to it this smaller tree that kind of had the base of the trunk in a shape close to a square. This is it!! We found our tree! To be perfectly honest, it was not the squarest thing I have seen in my life but certainly unique. We were the only tourists there in the midst of the jungle. Alexey wanted to see if he could find a more square looking one and he succeeded. We finally had find a tree that resembled a square (at least at the bottom). We were pleased.
So the only thing left to do was to find the sleeping indian. A piece of background information is that our beloved Julissa was herself a sleeping Indian. That is, she was the lead character in a Panamanian film that told the story of these mountains!! I am not certain about the whole story but in brief it states that this Indian woman had an Indian boyfriend. However, the girl then fell in love and left with one young Spanish conquistador and because of this betrayal, she fell asleep and never work up. Now she rests on top of these mountains. The actual mountain looked kiiiiind of like a sleeping woman. The breasts were large for one thing so we could see how someone can believe the story :) Unfortunately, the weather was getting worse and worse and we only saw it for about a minute before it got completely covered by clouds, hence, not pictures.
We needed to rush back to Panama City were Don Gregorio must be getting ready for our voyage. The excitement was clear on this pair of novices and I had even promised to catch a baby marlin tonight! After a couple of false starts due to my leaving my camera charging in our room, trying to find weights for our fishing lines, fresh batteries for my super powerful flashlight, and other mishaps, we arrived at the port. The family had gone there to wish us farewell. Afterall, if we did not catch anything, there was nothing to eat tomorrow :) We jumped on board with a whole bunch of stuff including a box full of alcohol and other presents from Joyce!! (Thank you Joyce!)
There we were, crossing the outskirts of the Panama Canal. The captains: Don Armando, Don Pedro, Don Gregorio (three brothers in a family of 11 children, presumably, all highly skilled fishermen and fisherwomen), Luis Xavier (Julissa´s brother), and Marcos (nephew of Don Gregorio), the crew: Alexey and yours truly. We tried to make a good impression by talking about swells and star formations but it did not seem to impress them. The sun went to bed and we were left with the HUGE boats making their way across oceans and the water next to us. After a while the boats also went away and it was just us in the middle of darkness and water. Never had I been in this situation and I must say that it was incredible! You have enough time to think about 1000 things and you don´t have to rush either, because you still have all night to go :)
But I digress, back to fishing. Soon after we anchored behind a small island I had a strike of what Paolo Coelho would call Beginner´s Luck (Thanks Jana Karla for the book). It was fish after fish.. really only 3 fish caught in a matter of 20 minutes but it pleased me that I knew now how it feels like when fish bite your bait. Baby marlin, here I come! There was a drought that lasted for a looooong time. Alexey managed to catch a fish too. It was actually pretty big. We anchored the boat next to another one that housed three local artisans of the sea. Our boat´s catching rate must have been about one tenth that of those guys. They were harvesting those greenjacks like crazy! We settled on spending more time on meditating than catching fish.. that´s it, we are more of the thinking types!
The night came down hard and we made no progress. Our cooler must have had about 8 fish. We moved on and anchored near another island. This time we could see a small town in the island diagonal to the one where we had anchored. After repeated attempts to pull in fish, we gave up. The rains started to pour and we had no other protection but to embrace the rain. If we were going to sleep at all, it would be with rain in our faces. This sounds worse than it actually is. Alexey found a comfortable place in the front of the boat. I did the same on the side. Don Gregorio had gone to sleep after setting a line with a larger hook and half a fish for bait. I asked how it was possible that he would notice if a fish got hooked if he was sleeping! He just said ¨you will know¨.
Sure enought, in the middle of the night, the whole reel of line started jumping around the boat. Don Gregorio, the captains and the rest of the crew (Alexey and myself) got up to see what was all the fuss. After a quick struggle with a great force under water, we saw this small but strong fish, a barracuda! Hmmm... ceviche tomorrow! Don Gregorio went back to bed under the small covered area that the boat had and placed the line the same way again. Less than 20 minutes passed when the line was pushed harder than before. The crew could hardly believe the pull that this creature had. Alexey held the line for a while and almost got burned by the nylon when he tried to wrap it around his arms. After the long struggle, we saw the catch of the night: A Manta Ray!!! Poor Ray, flapping its fleshy wings and trying to keep aline. Its white bottom was as smooth as Todd´s face (even when he does not shave). Repeated attempts to bring this large creature on the boat were fruitless. Don Gregorio decided to cut the line close to the hook and let the Ray go.
By this time we were pretty tired. Everyone assumed their sleeping positions and tried to catch some sleep given that it was easier to catch then fish apparently. A few minutes later, the sound of the line making the reel dance awoke us once again. This time, Alexey decided to keep sleeping as some of the other captains had done. Don Gregorio asked me to hold the line to learn how a big fish feels. It was quite interesting but it did not seem like a large fish since I was reeling it for a while. After a few minutes, the thing started swimming away. I tried to hold it back a little but this thing kept swimming as if it did not hurt it. I started getting worried after it had pulled so much line that I thought we would run out of line. At this time, everyone woke up to see what this was. They assured me that there was enough line and just keep letting it go. At some point it would get tired!
I give up! Marcos, Luis Xavier, Don Pedro, Don Gregorio take turns in dealing with the beast. Nothing yet. We have to put in the heavy hitter. Don Armando comes in with his experienced hands and tries to control this monster. He has to immerse his hands on the water and keep holding the line to avoid getting burn. The reel at this point is jumping up and down and even went out in the water for a while. This thing must be immense if it´s pulling that hard!
After about 15 or so minutes (which seemed endless) of fighting with this creature, the force of the fish broke the line and we were all left wandering for the rest of our lives, what kind of fish was that? and, how big was it? No one will ever know. At least the story will linger in our heads for a long time.
Now it was time to go to bed and rest if we want to catch some fish tomorrow. Soaked in rain we proceeded to sleep without any further fish waking us up.
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
Commitment
Friday, August 18th 2006
Today, our week of administrative activity culminated in a commitment. We are returning Rosinante to US through Miami. Also, due to lack of time, we have decided to fly to Colombia.
After a morning jog in the 100% humidity to work off last nights festivities (fourth use of running shoes in 2.5 months) we visited our on the ground logistics experts and started the ball rolling on sending the car to Miami.
It is quite hard to appreciate the true complexity of the car situation. It is quite fortuitous that Jose is actually flying to Miami enroute to his final California and New York rendez-vous before settling with the Mrs. in Ecuador. This facilitates pickup and sale. It is also quite fortuitous that the police report required for transportation, which is only valid for eight days, enables shipping the car on a boat that will arrive precisely two days before Jose does in Miami. The car will then be burned in Miami, no just kidding - actually, Jose is going to drive it to California and then sell it. (actually not kidding on this one - yes we obviously just have more time than money) Why the final trans america driving leg you ask? Cause the spreadsheet told Jose to do it. They wrestled, it won.
We were informed that if eveything went well we might be able to get the paperwork done on Monday. This made exit plans to buy a plane ticket to Colombia quite challenging, but we shrugged it off.
The rest of the day continued with recovery. I chilled at home with the kids and Jose visited the Bahai temple and a local Panamanian mall. We spent the evening sipping rum with the family and discussing issues from immigration to fishing. Pura Vida! Tomorrow will be a big day.
Today, our week of administrative activity culminated in a commitment. We are returning Rosinante to US through Miami. Also, due to lack of time, we have decided to fly to Colombia.
After a morning jog in the 100% humidity to work off last nights festivities (fourth use of running shoes in 2.5 months) we visited our on the ground logistics experts and started the ball rolling on sending the car to Miami.
It is quite hard to appreciate the true complexity of the car situation. It is quite fortuitous that Jose is actually flying to Miami enroute to his final California and New York rendez-vous before settling with the Mrs. in Ecuador. This facilitates pickup and sale. It is also quite fortuitous that the police report required for transportation, which is only valid for eight days, enables shipping the car on a boat that will arrive precisely two days before Jose does in Miami. The car will then be burned in Miami, no just kidding - actually, Jose is going to drive it to California and then sell it. (actually not kidding on this one - yes we obviously just have more time than money) Why the final trans america driving leg you ask? Cause the spreadsheet told Jose to do it. They wrestled, it won.
We were informed that if eveything went well we might be able to get the paperwork done on Monday. This made exit plans to buy a plane ticket to Colombia quite challenging, but we shrugged it off.
The rest of the day continued with recovery. I chilled at home with the kids and Jose visited the Bahai temple and a local Panamanian mall. We spent the evening sipping rum with the family and discussing issues from immigration to fishing. Pura Vida! Tomorrow will be a big day.
Friday, August 18, 2006
10 Weeks and 8,000 miles down
Thursday August 17th
From the overwhelming responses to the blog poll supporting a swim-to-Colombia option, we have decided to seriously investigate this new approach. After a quick trip to the US Consulate to work on my never ending Canadian Immigration issues, Jose and I headed from the Pacific to the Atlantic to size up the swimming options.
Upon arrival to the Atlantic (two hours) we visited Portobello, the site of Christopher Columbus´landing on his fourth voyage to the ¨new world¨. Very cool little sleepy beach town with lots of forts, cannons, sail boats and fishing boats. Next we visited the port of Colon and its infamous zona libra (free trade zone) where we could find fantastic deals on ten digital cameras 50 pairs of shoes. Sort of a hong kong of central america. Of course, in another attempt to extort mony from gringos, we were aked for a bribe at the gates to allow entry of vehicle which would bypass the paperwork. Maintaining our ¨we don´t negotiate with those seeking bribes¨stance, we tried to aquire the required paperwork. We failed and parked the car outside.
We also made a stop at the Yacht club to investigate more rides to Colombia and ran into Captain Dennis Morris, who kindly offered us a cruise to Colombia for a cool $250. He didn´t seem too sketchy so we are considering it. While pondering the offer we returned to Panama city fighting the intense rush hour traffic leaving Colon. The sludge from mud/pollution covered out lights so much that we could barely see the road.
Upon arrival Joyce took us salsa dancing with Sara and Ketzary, who really were quite nice at putting up with my inability to move my hips in the latin fashion. We visited two establishments, the first was packed with hundreds of youngsters dancing all over the place with large beer bongs on the tables. Site of this scene: BENNIGANS. Next we went to a latin karaoke place where we heard everything from reggaeton karaoke to romantic love songs... Joyce owns this town!
Finally, I am pretty horrified that this vacation is more tha half done... quite depressing. 10 weeks and 8,000 miles down, but so much more to see!
From the overwhelming responses to the blog poll supporting a swim-to-Colombia option, we have decided to seriously investigate this new approach. After a quick trip to the US Consulate to work on my never ending Canadian Immigration issues, Jose and I headed from the Pacific to the Atlantic to size up the swimming options.
Upon arrival to the Atlantic (two hours) we visited Portobello, the site of Christopher Columbus´landing on his fourth voyage to the ¨new world¨. Very cool little sleepy beach town with lots of forts, cannons, sail boats and fishing boats. Next we visited the port of Colon and its infamous zona libra (free trade zone) where we could find fantastic deals on ten digital cameras 50 pairs of shoes. Sort of a hong kong of central america. Of course, in another attempt to extort mony from gringos, we were aked for a bribe at the gates to allow entry of vehicle which would bypass the paperwork. Maintaining our ¨we don´t negotiate with those seeking bribes¨stance, we tried to aquire the required paperwork. We failed and parked the car outside.
We also made a stop at the Yacht club to investigate more rides to Colombia and ran into Captain Dennis Morris, who kindly offered us a cruise to Colombia for a cool $250. He didn´t seem too sketchy so we are considering it. While pondering the offer we returned to Panama city fighting the intense rush hour traffic leaving Colon. The sludge from mud/pollution covered out lights so much that we could barely see the road.
Upon arrival Joyce took us salsa dancing with Sara and Ketzary, who really were quite nice at putting up with my inability to move my hips in the latin fashion. We visited two establishments, the first was packed with hundreds of youngsters dancing all over the place with large beer bongs on the tables. Site of this scene: BENNIGANS. Next we went to a latin karaoke place where we heard everything from reggaeton karaoke to romantic love songs... Joyce owns this town!
Finally, I am pretty horrified that this vacation is more tha half done... quite depressing. 10 weeks and 8,000 miles down, but so much more to see!
Thursday, August 17, 2006
READERS VOTE - Help us get to Colombia!
Wednesday August 16th, 2006
Today was rich in administrative activity as we have some critical decisions ahead. We have some of our own perspectives, but I wanted to get some comments from our readers (if we have any) before we make a final decision on our options.
Decision A - How should Jose and I travel to Cartagena, Colombia?
1. Plane tix - about $200USD
2. Small Private Sailboat for five - about $250USD (includes night in San Blas islands of the indians, and takes around 5 days depending on the winds)
3. Hitch ride on millionaire´s Larger Yacht - hopefully much less than $200 and 5 days assuming we help as crew members with cooking, sailing, cleaning etc.
4. Hitch a ride on a large container ship, Cabins are going for around $10 dollars per night, trip lasts about 4 days (we have done little research on this one, but is harder to arrange - perhaps we could go with the car??)
5. Land - brave the Darien gap including 50km of hiking, and 50km of hitchhiking or cab through some of the worlds most dangerous territory (for threats of kidnapping, infectious disease, animals, exposure, and extreme terrain-navigation)
Decision 2 - The whole ¨car¨decision
1. Ship Car to Cartegena - around $1100 landed - in container
2. Ship Car to Buena Ventura (southern colombia) - around $1140 landed
3. Ship Car to NYC - around $2000
4. Ship Car to Miami - less than $700 - ¨roll on roll off¨i.e. no continer
5. Ship Car to Oakland - unknown
6. Sell Car in Panama for around $9000 ( approx $3,500 undervalue)
- comments - shipping to US destiantions implies sale at a later date- arrival to ecuador intact implies sale near or above market value, but likely carries a $3000 import tax (through official means only) - cartegena implies traversing two extremly sketching kidnapping zones in a private vehicle, while to Buena Venturea implies traversing only one in a private vehicle
Let us know what you think!
In other news, we were quite excited to see the LFM employment survey today. We were were very proud that we represented half of the 9% of the class which was ¨Not seeking employment/Not Found employment¨. We were also curious who all those other people really were? Seriously, I promise that I will pull my weight next year. In the meantime, back to much more important things like what we did today...
We hardly did anything today! And it was great! I slept 9 hours for the first time in ages, we did piles of admin and web surfing, we ate two wonderful meals cooked by Mrs. Pinto De Gracia, we explored the old town on foot, visited a cheez mini indian village replica - Mi pueblitos, saw amazing views of the city atop the Acon, and we had a wonderful dinner-drinks-hooka session downtown while simultaneously watching an epic Peru vs Panama soccer bout AND soaking in local Panamanian culture (read- talent) ... life is good!
Today was rich in administrative activity as we have some critical decisions ahead. We have some of our own perspectives, but I wanted to get some comments from our readers (if we have any) before we make a final decision on our options.
Decision A - How should Jose and I travel to Cartagena, Colombia?
1. Plane tix - about $200USD
2. Small Private Sailboat for five - about $250USD (includes night in San Blas islands of the indians, and takes around 5 days depending on the winds)
3. Hitch ride on millionaire´s Larger Yacht - hopefully much less than $200 and 5 days assuming we help as crew members with cooking, sailing, cleaning etc.
4. Hitch a ride on a large container ship, Cabins are going for around $10 dollars per night, trip lasts about 4 days (we have done little research on this one, but is harder to arrange - perhaps we could go with the car??)
5. Land - brave the Darien gap including 50km of hiking, and 50km of hitchhiking or cab through some of the worlds most dangerous territory (for threats of kidnapping, infectious disease, animals, exposure, and extreme terrain-navigation)
Decision 2 - The whole ¨car¨decision
1. Ship Car to Cartegena - around $1100 landed - in container
2. Ship Car to Buena Ventura (southern colombia) - around $1140 landed
3. Ship Car to NYC - around $2000
4. Ship Car to Miami - less than $700 - ¨roll on roll off¨i.e. no continer
5. Ship Car to Oakland - unknown
6. Sell Car in Panama for around $9000 ( approx $3,500 undervalue)
- comments - shipping to US destiantions implies sale at a later date- arrival to ecuador intact implies sale near or above market value, but likely carries a $3000 import tax (through official means only) - cartegena implies traversing two extremly sketching kidnapping zones in a private vehicle, while to Buena Venturea implies traversing only one in a private vehicle
Let us know what you think!
In other news, we were quite excited to see the LFM employment survey today. We were were very proud that we represented half of the 9% of the class which was ¨Not seeking employment/Not Found employment¨. We were also curious who all those other people really were? Seriously, I promise that I will pull my weight next year. In the meantime, back to much more important things like what we did today...
We hardly did anything today! And it was great! I slept 9 hours for the first time in ages, we did piles of admin and web surfing, we ate two wonderful meals cooked by Mrs. Pinto De Gracia, we explored the old town on foot, visited a cheez mini indian village replica - Mi pueblitos, saw amazing views of the city atop the Acon, and we had a wonderful dinner-drinks-hooka session downtown while simultaneously watching an epic Peru vs Panama soccer bout AND soaking in local Panamanian culture (read- talent) ... life is good!
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
Tying loose ends..
Tuesday, August 15th
Today´s order of business: taking care of fixing war wounds.
Once again our sleep was so great that we nearly overslept. What is Julissa´s family thinking of us now? That we are lazy? Oh well, we went to MIT with their daughter so at least we can pretend to be hard workers. In the morning we played a bit with Chloe and Andrea because today is Panama´s Foundation Holiday so Andrea did not have to go to school. Jana Karla also stayed at home so she hanged out with us.
Some time later, Don Gregorio came back home and took us to the logistics company that is researching what to do with Rosinante. So far we know that it would cost about $1700 to ship it to Colombia and only God knows how much to ship it back to the US. However, after the meeting with Mr. Hernandez he gave a round estimate of less than $500 for the whole thing including his services. We hope that this is right and he agreed to provide a final and more trustworthy estimate tomorrow. Let´s all pray. We went around town with Alexey after that and got the local newspapers at the Super 99 supermarket. Once there we also purchased some desserts and got my watch wrist band fixed (Honey, awesome watch but I have not been able to use it due to the band malfunction). The watch still does not work but the guy says it´s not due to the battery but he needs to do a thorough inspection for $25. I took my watch and decided to explore other options later in the week.
We looked for similar cars in the market using the classified ads in the newspapers. From the looks of it, we would be getting a lower price here than in the states for Rosinante which is not a good deal for us. So we will wait and see what the Mr. Hernandez says tomorrow to make a decision.
Next we went to a hostel in downtown Panama City. This place is packed with hippies and other Jamaican wannabe kinds. There is a bulleting board there that could have some ads for people taking sail boats from Panama to Cartagena, Colombia. The only ads that I see are for $250US per person. The guy in charge tells me that if I am not staying at the hostel I can´t look at the bulleting board. However, he tells me, there is a captain of one of the boats here and he can talk to me if I wanted to. We talked for a while but he looks weird. An older looking guy with a Swedish accent, an earing and skin that has been cut repeatedbly by the sun. Something was not right with this guy but he assured us that he was legit and could take us as soon as Sunday to Colombia. He only needs 2 other people (total of 4 passengers to make economic sense he says) and we are off. The trip would include a stopover at the San Blas islands. As our conversation nears its end, the hostel managers comes and reprimands the captain for conducting business in the hostel with people not staying in the hostel. He also blurs out something about ¨We have records and letters of all boat captains that have robbed tourists and are beeing looked for by the police¨. Now this is something that we want to know.
So I end my conversation with the captain and leave not before stopping by the hostel management booth. The guy tells me that this captain is looked for by the police because he got in trouble with the Kuna aborigens at the San Blas islands some time back. He tells me that he is not good news and look for some other boat. I give the house number since apparently he knows a more suitable captain. Now, I am not sure if he is just trying to take the business away from the original boat captain or simply being responsible with tourists but we will never know.
Back at the house we get ready with Doña Irma, Jana Karla and the little girls to go to lunch. We do this at a great chinese place near China town. It was immense! Tons of food. Jana Karla comes out on top and pays for the meal after Alexey gets distracted by Doña Irma. Chloe wants to keep eating and we end up waiting for a while because she keeps eating.. she is adorable.
Next we take my $12 vietnamese backpack for repair at the chinese shoe repair store. She quotes $8 but leaves it at $7 after tough negotiations. We will pick it up tomorrow. Now we go for a drive around town. We visited the Balboa Hotel, Clayton, El Charco, etc.. really cool stuff. We passed around the Canal again and saw giant ships passing through. I can only imagine the size of the ships that will be passing by here if the referendum approves the expansion of the canal to include access for PostPanamax ships!
After our long trip around the city, we head back to the house and Alexey does some internet and phone calling downstairs. He has found a way to bang the monitor just right that it allows us to work on the computer and have internet anytime (I am writing from here now). As far as we are concerned the computer is now fixed! I stayed upstairs however and had an awesome conversation with Don Gregorio about the old times when he used to fish around his old home. The way that he got lost in the sea once and the other time when he slept burried in the dirt after flipping his boat too late at night to come back home. I just finished reading the Old man and the Sea and everything he was saying just hit a chord. So this weekend we might be going for an overnight fishing trip with him. I can´t wait! Last time I went fishing with my uncle I was traumatized after seeing the little fish die a slow death gasping desperatedly for air.
So then Don Gregorio took Alexey and I to the celebrations of the Foundation of Panam Viejo. The holiday was being celebrated by the ruins of the old city. We went there and the Attorney General of Panama was present. We were certainly not dressed appropriately but the guard did not seem to care and let us in. We saw a bit of the ceremony and fireworks. Then we ate some street meat sitting at a roadside bench. The tamales were awesome as well as the chicken and the fried sweet corn balls (don´t remember the actual name of this delicacy).. really great!
The rain had poured down this afternoon so our shoes that were drying in the back terrace got soaken wet again. They are still recovering from rafting in Costa Rica. Don´t know if they will evern get dried. We wore sandals to the celebrations tonight and since everythig was mud our feet were covered in it. Got back and took a shower.. tomorrow we will try to finalize our car shipping situation and plan our trips through Panama to discover the country. Julissa´s family keeps going out of their way to make us feel at home. We do feel at home here!!..
Today´s order of business: taking care of fixing war wounds.
Once again our sleep was so great that we nearly overslept. What is Julissa´s family thinking of us now? That we are lazy? Oh well, we went to MIT with their daughter so at least we can pretend to be hard workers. In the morning we played a bit with Chloe and Andrea because today is Panama´s Foundation Holiday so Andrea did not have to go to school. Jana Karla also stayed at home so she hanged out with us.
Some time later, Don Gregorio came back home and took us to the logistics company that is researching what to do with Rosinante. So far we know that it would cost about $1700 to ship it to Colombia and only God knows how much to ship it back to the US. However, after the meeting with Mr. Hernandez he gave a round estimate of less than $500 for the whole thing including his services. We hope that this is right and he agreed to provide a final and more trustworthy estimate tomorrow. Let´s all pray. We went around town with Alexey after that and got the local newspapers at the Super 99 supermarket. Once there we also purchased some desserts and got my watch wrist band fixed (Honey, awesome watch but I have not been able to use it due to the band malfunction). The watch still does not work but the guy says it´s not due to the battery but he needs to do a thorough inspection for $25. I took my watch and decided to explore other options later in the week.
We looked for similar cars in the market using the classified ads in the newspapers. From the looks of it, we would be getting a lower price here than in the states for Rosinante which is not a good deal for us. So we will wait and see what the Mr. Hernandez says tomorrow to make a decision.
Next we went to a hostel in downtown Panama City. This place is packed with hippies and other Jamaican wannabe kinds. There is a bulleting board there that could have some ads for people taking sail boats from Panama to Cartagena, Colombia. The only ads that I see are for $250US per person. The guy in charge tells me that if I am not staying at the hostel I can´t look at the bulleting board. However, he tells me, there is a captain of one of the boats here and he can talk to me if I wanted to. We talked for a while but he looks weird. An older looking guy with a Swedish accent, an earing and skin that has been cut repeatedbly by the sun. Something was not right with this guy but he assured us that he was legit and could take us as soon as Sunday to Colombia. He only needs 2 other people (total of 4 passengers to make economic sense he says) and we are off. The trip would include a stopover at the San Blas islands. As our conversation nears its end, the hostel managers comes and reprimands the captain for conducting business in the hostel with people not staying in the hostel. He also blurs out something about ¨We have records and letters of all boat captains that have robbed tourists and are beeing looked for by the police¨. Now this is something that we want to know.
So I end my conversation with the captain and leave not before stopping by the hostel management booth. The guy tells me that this captain is looked for by the police because he got in trouble with the Kuna aborigens at the San Blas islands some time back. He tells me that he is not good news and look for some other boat. I give the house number since apparently he knows a more suitable captain. Now, I am not sure if he is just trying to take the business away from the original boat captain or simply being responsible with tourists but we will never know.
Back at the house we get ready with Doña Irma, Jana Karla and the little girls to go to lunch. We do this at a great chinese place near China town. It was immense! Tons of food. Jana Karla comes out on top and pays for the meal after Alexey gets distracted by Doña Irma. Chloe wants to keep eating and we end up waiting for a while because she keeps eating.. she is adorable.
Next we take my $12 vietnamese backpack for repair at the chinese shoe repair store. She quotes $8 but leaves it at $7 after tough negotiations. We will pick it up tomorrow. Now we go for a drive around town. We visited the Balboa Hotel, Clayton, El Charco, etc.. really cool stuff. We passed around the Canal again and saw giant ships passing through. I can only imagine the size of the ships that will be passing by here if the referendum approves the expansion of the canal to include access for PostPanamax ships!
After our long trip around the city, we head back to the house and Alexey does some internet and phone calling downstairs. He has found a way to bang the monitor just right that it allows us to work on the computer and have internet anytime (I am writing from here now). As far as we are concerned the computer is now fixed! I stayed upstairs however and had an awesome conversation with Don Gregorio about the old times when he used to fish around his old home. The way that he got lost in the sea once and the other time when he slept burried in the dirt after flipping his boat too late at night to come back home. I just finished reading the Old man and the Sea and everything he was saying just hit a chord. So this weekend we might be going for an overnight fishing trip with him. I can´t wait! Last time I went fishing with my uncle I was traumatized after seeing the little fish die a slow death gasping desperatedly for air.
So then Don Gregorio took Alexey and I to the celebrations of the Foundation of Panam Viejo. The holiday was being celebrated by the ruins of the old city. We went there and the Attorney General of Panama was present. We were certainly not dressed appropriately but the guard did not seem to care and let us in. We saw a bit of the ceremony and fireworks. Then we ate some street meat sitting at a roadside bench. The tamales were awesome as well as the chicken and the fried sweet corn balls (don´t remember the actual name of this delicacy).. really great!
The rain had poured down this afternoon so our shoes that were drying in the back terrace got soaken wet again. They are still recovering from rafting in Costa Rica. Don´t know if they will evern get dried. We wore sandals to the celebrations tonight and since everythig was mud our feet were covered in it. Got back and took a shower.. tomorrow we will try to finalize our car shipping situation and plan our trips through Panama to discover the country. Julissa´s family keeps going out of their way to make us feel at home. We do feel at home here!!..
When the trio sang the last song
Monday, August 14th
I don´t know if it was muy singing to eighties love songs during yesterday´s long drive or the fact that he was ashamed of his stinky tennis shoes but Greg decided to call it quits today. We had a great night sleep at our new home in Panama and were woken up by Doña Irma because otherwise we would have over slept and Greg would have missed his flight. In any case, we got up and we all went to buy some hammock that Greg wanted to buy before leaving.
We did just that and unfortunately traffic was horrible! It was about 11AM and we were still stuck in traffic. Greg´s flight was at 1:20PM. Doña Irma decided to take a cab with Chloe back home because otherwise we would be late for the airport and she would be late for Andrea to come back from Kinder. We reluctantly agreed to let her do this but time was running out.
Rosinante was going as fast as he could and we made it to the airport shortly after. We said good bye to our brave soldier, the second of a long lineage of adventurers, those that are not made anymore.. In any case, we cried a little and wished him the best. Last we heard is that he arrived safely into Miami but will have to wait until the next day for his flight to Seattle.
Alexey and I decided to dedicate the day to do house keeping and logistics. Traveling for so long has taken a toll on our personal hygene as well as our equipment and internet communications. We went for an internet cafe because the computer in our room has a monitor that only allows us to see a third of the screen. Alexey tried to fix it without luck. We almost broke the computer trying to fix it but we are all engineers and managed to pull through ;) We did about 3 hours of catching up on personal matters over internet and phone. Then we went home and hanged out with the family. Julissa´s sisters, Joyce and Jana Karla were so nice as to take us out to dinner. We went to this ex-US compound now turned shopping center is a peninsula formed by three islands very close to the city. The dinner was great and right by the water. They wanted to pay but Alexey went to pay the bill while I held Joyce in place. We are the guests here! They are really cool and very kind.
We went for ice cream afterwards and then went home through the scenic route. We saw a Chiva Pachanguera by the boardwalk and tons of gringos dancing around it. At arrival we said good night and decided to catch up on our sleep.. once again. Tomorrow we will try to figure out the options that we have to either cross our horse into Colombia, send it back to the US, sell it here, or dispose of it in a somewhat humane manner. We have a meeting tomorrow with a shipping company that Don Gregorio has arranged. Wish us luck!
I don´t know if it was muy singing to eighties love songs during yesterday´s long drive or the fact that he was ashamed of his stinky tennis shoes but Greg decided to call it quits today. We had a great night sleep at our new home in Panama and were woken up by Doña Irma because otherwise we would have over slept and Greg would have missed his flight. In any case, we got up and we all went to buy some hammock that Greg wanted to buy before leaving.
We did just that and unfortunately traffic was horrible! It was about 11AM and we were still stuck in traffic. Greg´s flight was at 1:20PM. Doña Irma decided to take a cab with Chloe back home because otherwise we would be late for the airport and she would be late for Andrea to come back from Kinder. We reluctantly agreed to let her do this but time was running out.
Rosinante was going as fast as he could and we made it to the airport shortly after. We said good bye to our brave soldier, the second of a long lineage of adventurers, those that are not made anymore.. In any case, we cried a little and wished him the best. Last we heard is that he arrived safely into Miami but will have to wait until the next day for his flight to Seattle.
Alexey and I decided to dedicate the day to do house keeping and logistics. Traveling for so long has taken a toll on our personal hygene as well as our equipment and internet communications. We went for an internet cafe because the computer in our room has a monitor that only allows us to see a third of the screen. Alexey tried to fix it without luck. We almost broke the computer trying to fix it but we are all engineers and managed to pull through ;) We did about 3 hours of catching up on personal matters over internet and phone. Then we went home and hanged out with the family. Julissa´s sisters, Joyce and Jana Karla were so nice as to take us out to dinner. We went to this ex-US compound now turned shopping center is a peninsula formed by three islands very close to the city. The dinner was great and right by the water. They wanted to pay but Alexey went to pay the bill while I held Joyce in place. We are the guests here! They are really cool and very kind.
We went for ice cream afterwards and then went home through the scenic route. We saw a Chiva Pachanguera by the boardwalk and tons of gringos dancing around it. At arrival we said good night and decided to catch up on our sleep.. once again. Tomorrow we will try to figure out the options that we have to either cross our horse into Colombia, send it back to the US, sell it here, or dispose of it in a somewhat humane manner. We have a meeting tomorrow with a shipping company that Don Gregorio has arranged. Wish us luck!
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
Let´s cross the border.. and beeee alright!
Sunday, August 13th
This morning we woke up in the small town of San Isidro El General after a monster drive through the Mountain of Death last night. The town was actually very cool and we stayed in a pretty happening place. At least there were lots of little discos and bars near our hotel. We had come to this town last night and risking the dangerous drive because going straight from San Jose to Panama City would have been impossible in a single day. So we decided to use San Isidro as a staging place.
We started the drive rather early and ontime. We were on the road around 5:15AM and the sun was already coming out. Alexey was the driver for this monster leg and Greg was his copilot. I had the day off so I quickly resumed sleeping using the back seat and the two ultra comfortable pillows that I brought from Boston. After lots of driving through awesome scenery of green mountains and valleys we arrived to the border with Panama after 9:15AM. Alexey ran over some animals and killed two birds in the process of getting here. He must be feeling awesul now!
We had to cancel our temporary driving permit with Costa Rica but being Sunday noone was there. A guy collected the paper and said it was ok for us to go. I hope this does not come back to bite us in the future, perhaps in the form of a $200 fine. In any case, we finished all the Costa Rican papers quickly. Next, Panama imigration and customs. I must say that it was pretty easy to cross and we only had to bat off a kid and a big guy who wanted to charge us some money for helping us with the process. We know how these things work now and we just ignore them. It was fairly easy after that. Rosinante got a fresh fumigation bath before entering Panamanian territory so as to not spread Costa Rican diseases and we were on our way.
The road was terrific! Two lane hiway for most of the way and Alexey was finally doing what he does best, scarying the heck out of the passengers. But we arrived into David safely. David is the second largest city of Panama and we decided to stop here to eat breakfast-lunch and to check email to call Julissa´s father, Don Gregorio to announce our arrival. We did just that and agreed on a rendevouz at the capital. Scored some cheap Panamanian food at an eating outlet nearby, got a fresh load of greens off the ATM, and got back on the road.
After a small stretch of single lane road (Alexey reports since I was sleeping in the back) the road becomes the same wonderful 2-lane autobahn as before. We are looking for a road side fruit stand but just now that we desperately want it, it is no where to be seen. We settled for some sweets still in the province of Chiriqui which fail to please the delicate and refined American palads of Greg and Alexey. I happily munch on the sweets and we move on.
Arriving into Panama we decide to stop at the Panama Canal (which here is only the Canal) since it is still daylight, it is open until 5PM and Greg must leave tomorrow and probably won´t get a chance to see it. It was awesome to see these HUGE buildings moving through the canal and the locks at a slowwwwwwww pace. Really a great piece of engineering. You could see Greg and Alexey had a few tears gathering around their eyes.
At this point I took over the driving duties since Alexey was a bit tired from the long distance driving. It was about 5:30PM and we needed to head over to the Gas station across from Panama University to meet Don Gregorio. We passed through the city and suddenly right in front of our eyes was the beautiful skyline of Panama City. Really nothing similar to what we had seen in earlier places. It was reminiscent of Miami more than anywhere in Central America. The sea was right next to all the buildings.
Once we got to the gas station, we called Don Gregorio and he met us there in 10 minutes. By now, we had bought a few snacks at the On The Run store at the station and Greg had disposed of his stinky tennis shoes. I am glad Alexey realized that Greg´s shoes were stinking up the whole car!! See, after rafting all of our sneakers were wet and we had left them to dry at the rear of the car when driving. However, sometimes the smell was unbearable! In any case, some guy at the gas station asked for Greg´s shoes and took them away.
Don Gregorio and his family (thanks Julissa for helping us once again) are awesome! We got there and met Julissa´s entire family. Her nieces Andrea and Chloe are the cutest kids ever. We had an immense dinner (after taking showers of course) which consisted of prawns, plantains, sausage, etc.. etc.. reeeaaaallyyyy good stuff!. Next we settled down and we went with the whole family in two cars to drive the whole city. The thing is that Greg is leaving tomorrow and may not get the chance to see much so at least this will be remembered of Panama City. We visited the old town, Panama viejo, etc.. Really new stuff Miami style and really old stuff as well.
We were all by now incredibly tired and could not hold our eyes open. I think Don Gregorio noticed this and took us back home. There we all said our prayers and crashed in our own room!! Really, Julissa´s family has treated us like kings. Tomorrow will be Greg´s good bye and the beginning of the end for the VW diaries. Good night!
This morning we woke up in the small town of San Isidro El General after a monster drive through the Mountain of Death last night. The town was actually very cool and we stayed in a pretty happening place. At least there were lots of little discos and bars near our hotel. We had come to this town last night and risking the dangerous drive because going straight from San Jose to Panama City would have been impossible in a single day. So we decided to use San Isidro as a staging place.
We started the drive rather early and ontime. We were on the road around 5:15AM and the sun was already coming out. Alexey was the driver for this monster leg and Greg was his copilot. I had the day off so I quickly resumed sleeping using the back seat and the two ultra comfortable pillows that I brought from Boston. After lots of driving through awesome scenery of green mountains and valleys we arrived to the border with Panama after 9:15AM. Alexey ran over some animals and killed two birds in the process of getting here. He must be feeling awesul now!
We had to cancel our temporary driving permit with Costa Rica but being Sunday noone was there. A guy collected the paper and said it was ok for us to go. I hope this does not come back to bite us in the future, perhaps in the form of a $200 fine. In any case, we finished all the Costa Rican papers quickly. Next, Panama imigration and customs. I must say that it was pretty easy to cross and we only had to bat off a kid and a big guy who wanted to charge us some money for helping us with the process. We know how these things work now and we just ignore them. It was fairly easy after that. Rosinante got a fresh fumigation bath before entering Panamanian territory so as to not spread Costa Rican diseases and we were on our way.
The road was terrific! Two lane hiway for most of the way and Alexey was finally doing what he does best, scarying the heck out of the passengers. But we arrived into David safely. David is the second largest city of Panama and we decided to stop here to eat breakfast-lunch and to check email to call Julissa´s father, Don Gregorio to announce our arrival. We did just that and agreed on a rendevouz at the capital. Scored some cheap Panamanian food at an eating outlet nearby, got a fresh load of greens off the ATM, and got back on the road.
After a small stretch of single lane road (Alexey reports since I was sleeping in the back) the road becomes the same wonderful 2-lane autobahn as before. We are looking for a road side fruit stand but just now that we desperately want it, it is no where to be seen. We settled for some sweets still in the province of Chiriqui which fail to please the delicate and refined American palads of Greg and Alexey. I happily munch on the sweets and we move on.
Arriving into Panama we decide to stop at the Panama Canal (which here is only the Canal) since it is still daylight, it is open until 5PM and Greg must leave tomorrow and probably won´t get a chance to see it. It was awesome to see these HUGE buildings moving through the canal and the locks at a slowwwwwwww pace. Really a great piece of engineering. You could see Greg and Alexey had a few tears gathering around their eyes.
At this point I took over the driving duties since Alexey was a bit tired from the long distance driving. It was about 5:30PM and we needed to head over to the Gas station across from Panama University to meet Don Gregorio. We passed through the city and suddenly right in front of our eyes was the beautiful skyline of Panama City. Really nothing similar to what we had seen in earlier places. It was reminiscent of Miami more than anywhere in Central America. The sea was right next to all the buildings.
Once we got to the gas station, we called Don Gregorio and he met us there in 10 minutes. By now, we had bought a few snacks at the On The Run store at the station and Greg had disposed of his stinky tennis shoes. I am glad Alexey realized that Greg´s shoes were stinking up the whole car!! See, after rafting all of our sneakers were wet and we had left them to dry at the rear of the car when driving. However, sometimes the smell was unbearable! In any case, some guy at the gas station asked for Greg´s shoes and took them away.
Don Gregorio and his family (thanks Julissa for helping us once again) are awesome! We got there and met Julissa´s entire family. Her nieces Andrea and Chloe are the cutest kids ever. We had an immense dinner (after taking showers of course) which consisted of prawns, plantains, sausage, etc.. etc.. reeeaaaallyyyy good stuff!. Next we settled down and we went with the whole family in two cars to drive the whole city. The thing is that Greg is leaving tomorrow and may not get the chance to see much so at least this will be remembered of Panama City. We visited the old town, Panama viejo, etc.. Really new stuff Miami style and really old stuff as well.
We were all by now incredibly tired and could not hold our eyes open. I think Don Gregorio noticed this and took us back home. There we all said our prayers and crashed in our own room!! Really, Julissa´s family has treated us like kings. Tomorrow will be Greg´s good bye and the beginning of the end for the VW diaries. Good night!
Unleashing our RAFT
Saturday, August 12th
We slept in our mini-sized accomodations last night. Overall, the heat was nearly unbearable and I happened to lock Greg, in his little single cabin, out of the shared bathroom. Oh well, he found a way to another bathroom in the middle of the night. Today is going to be awesome!
Last night we arranged the white water rafting trip. They are supposed to pick us up at 6:30AM at the other hotel, Pangea where we signed up for the trip. So the first order of business is to call the rafting company and tell them that we are at Kap´s for a pick up. This goes without a hitch and we wait. The van arrived and it´s just this father and son pair and us. They are from Indiana and the father has 25 years of experience in rafting so I guess we´ll be in good hands. I have done rafting once but Greg and Alexey have not.
The trip lasted about 2 hours out of San Jose into the Pacuare river. During the trip, our new travel mates tell us how they got this student discount for the younger guy. We had paid $95 per person while he only paid $75!! This is $60 savings in the three of us! So we bring this up with the organizer in the van but he says that we already paid and there is nothing that can be done. From here on the trip got quite as we all were thinking how stupid we were for not having asked for the discount up front. Technically, we are not students anymore, but we´d like to get a break when we hear of it.
We arrive to rafting base and meet other rafters for the day that happened to come from different geographies of the country in other vans. They gave breakfast in a buffet style. Really american and tasty: fruit, granola, yogurt, juice, scrambled eggs, etc.. We indulged heavily here. Next, we are ready to jump on the water but first a consolidated van needs to take us upstream. We will ride down the river and end up at the breakfast place sometime in the afternoon.
It was past 8AM perhaps close to 9AM and we were now on the river after going down a steep downhill. I almost fell there to the amusement of some Californian girls that were walking next to us. Don´t remember their names but one of them had just been travelling through Ecuador and the other was in Costa Rica as a bartender part time. In any case, we got down to the river and jumped on the rafts. Our guide was Abel, one of the most knowledgeable rafters around, later we discovered. He trained us in basic commands as he would be the captain and us his crew.
Once there, we did some trial maneuvering to make sure we were kosher and off we went. We did some rescue drills where three of us would fall in the water and the remaining three had to rescue them into the boat. The water is a bit cold but refreshing in this potent sun! The boat consisted of the experienced father, the son, the three of us and another young guy who never talked, even once. Well, may be he coughed and that could count as something.
The rafting was cool! The rapids were class 3 and 4 with super high crests and big holes enough to fill the boat completely with water. The scenery out there was also beautiful with waterfalls coming down the side of the mountains jumping from up high into the river making the white liquid blend with the greenish colored water that flowed under us. All in all it was a great experience.. Forward! Forward! Abel screamed before we got into the rapids and our team was a well oiled machine, we could make the raft do what we wanted it to do. Abel also showed us some tricks on taking bends, etc.. A couple of times we nearly fell.
At some point our guide suggested to jump out of the boat to swin since the river was in a calm stretch. We did just that and it felt great! Really cool water in constrast with the super hot environment around. We were floating in the deep river and it took us downstream. Just before the next rapid, we got back in the boat and paddled. Soon enough it was time for lunch and all the rafts and their guides flipped a boat upside down on a shore where the water was calmed. All the boats stopped there and they used the bottom of the raft as a table. This table displayed pineapple, tortillas, cheese, palm hearts, cold cuts, vegetables, and some juice that I still don´t know what it is. It was yellow and tasted like gatorade though. Soon after lunch I went on to swing with the myriad of fish on the Eddy (that´s what they call the calm parts of water on the side of the river).
It was time to leave and we did just that. We hit a HUGE hole in a rapid which we had work by gathering all the crew and sitting on the back before the hit. Pretty cool trick. The time of exit was nearing and a final show was seeing these local kids climbing a train bridge over the river, at about 20 or 30 meters high and plunging into the river water!! These guys have nerves! You could count how many seconds they were in the air as it took a while for them to hit the water.
We clean up, purchase the CD with our raft´s pictures (hence pics are to be added) and head out back to San Jose and hope to arrive there around 6PM. We had left our car and luggage at the hotel last night and we need to pick them up and drive somewhere closer to the border with Panama tonight. Otherwise, the trip to Panama City tomorrow would be unbearable. We arrived in a torrential rain. First thing we needed to do was to try to get some of our raft money back taking advantage of the student discounts. After making phone calls, running and driving around the city like chickens with heads cut off, we got our money back minus a few bucks because they charge an extra percentage if you us credit card. However, we were happy that the trip was fun and the right price.
We started driving violating our no-driving-at-dark rule from the get go. My vote was to stay in San Jose and just put up with the monster drive the next day since I really don´t like to ask for directions at night which can be dangerous. Also, we heard the road is really dangerous specially at night due to foggy conditions and curvy geography. We reached a compromise and we decided to at least get out of the city and get to a city called Cartago to spend the night. The road was not too bad getting there but once there, we realized that the time it would take us to search for a room, find our way in this new city, etc.. would be more than reaching San Isidro El General where we had already made arrangements for three beds. So we decided to go for it. The total trip was about 2h30m from San Jose to San Isidro even though it felt like an eternity. At times, you could not see what was 7 feet in front of you due to the fog. Very dangerous and not many people around. But we arrived there safely and were ready to sleep and drive to Panama tomorrow.
At arrival, we went to eat at a fast food restaurant that Alexey had eyed. It was called Dulji or something like that. It was ok and cheap so we went with our stomachs full back to the hotel where we crashed. Tomorrow will be an early start: 5AM we are thinking.
We slept in our mini-sized accomodations last night. Overall, the heat was nearly unbearable and I happened to lock Greg, in his little single cabin, out of the shared bathroom. Oh well, he found a way to another bathroom in the middle of the night. Today is going to be awesome!
Last night we arranged the white water rafting trip. They are supposed to pick us up at 6:30AM at the other hotel, Pangea where we signed up for the trip. So the first order of business is to call the rafting company and tell them that we are at Kap´s for a pick up. This goes without a hitch and we wait. The van arrived and it´s just this father and son pair and us. They are from Indiana and the father has 25 years of experience in rafting so I guess we´ll be in good hands. I have done rafting once but Greg and Alexey have not.
The trip lasted about 2 hours out of San Jose into the Pacuare river. During the trip, our new travel mates tell us how they got this student discount for the younger guy. We had paid $95 per person while he only paid $75!! This is $60 savings in the three of us! So we bring this up with the organizer in the van but he says that we already paid and there is nothing that can be done. From here on the trip got quite as we all were thinking how stupid we were for not having asked for the discount up front. Technically, we are not students anymore, but we´d like to get a break when we hear of it.
We arrive to rafting base and meet other rafters for the day that happened to come from different geographies of the country in other vans. They gave breakfast in a buffet style. Really american and tasty: fruit, granola, yogurt, juice, scrambled eggs, etc.. We indulged heavily here. Next, we are ready to jump on the water but first a consolidated van needs to take us upstream. We will ride down the river and end up at the breakfast place sometime in the afternoon.
It was past 8AM perhaps close to 9AM and we were now on the river after going down a steep downhill. I almost fell there to the amusement of some Californian girls that were walking next to us. Don´t remember their names but one of them had just been travelling through Ecuador and the other was in Costa Rica as a bartender part time. In any case, we got down to the river and jumped on the rafts. Our guide was Abel, one of the most knowledgeable rafters around, later we discovered. He trained us in basic commands as he would be the captain and us his crew.
Once there, we did some trial maneuvering to make sure we were kosher and off we went. We did some rescue drills where three of us would fall in the water and the remaining three had to rescue them into the boat. The water is a bit cold but refreshing in this potent sun! The boat consisted of the experienced father, the son, the three of us and another young guy who never talked, even once. Well, may be he coughed and that could count as something.
The rafting was cool! The rapids were class 3 and 4 with super high crests and big holes enough to fill the boat completely with water. The scenery out there was also beautiful with waterfalls coming down the side of the mountains jumping from up high into the river making the white liquid blend with the greenish colored water that flowed under us. All in all it was a great experience.. Forward! Forward! Abel screamed before we got into the rapids and our team was a well oiled machine, we could make the raft do what we wanted it to do. Abel also showed us some tricks on taking bends, etc.. A couple of times we nearly fell.
At some point our guide suggested to jump out of the boat to swin since the river was in a calm stretch. We did just that and it felt great! Really cool water in constrast with the super hot environment around. We were floating in the deep river and it took us downstream. Just before the next rapid, we got back in the boat and paddled. Soon enough it was time for lunch and all the rafts and their guides flipped a boat upside down on a shore where the water was calmed. All the boats stopped there and they used the bottom of the raft as a table. This table displayed pineapple, tortillas, cheese, palm hearts, cold cuts, vegetables, and some juice that I still don´t know what it is. It was yellow and tasted like gatorade though. Soon after lunch I went on to swing with the myriad of fish on the Eddy (that´s what they call the calm parts of water on the side of the river).
It was time to leave and we did just that. We hit a HUGE hole in a rapid which we had work by gathering all the crew and sitting on the back before the hit. Pretty cool trick. The time of exit was nearing and a final show was seeing these local kids climbing a train bridge over the river, at about 20 or 30 meters high and plunging into the river water!! These guys have nerves! You could count how many seconds they were in the air as it took a while for them to hit the water.
We clean up, purchase the CD with our raft´s pictures (hence pics are to be added) and head out back to San Jose and hope to arrive there around 6PM. We had left our car and luggage at the hotel last night and we need to pick them up and drive somewhere closer to the border with Panama tonight. Otherwise, the trip to Panama City tomorrow would be unbearable. We arrived in a torrential rain. First thing we needed to do was to try to get some of our raft money back taking advantage of the student discounts. After making phone calls, running and driving around the city like chickens with heads cut off, we got our money back minus a few bucks because they charge an extra percentage if you us credit card. However, we were happy that the trip was fun and the right price.
We started driving violating our no-driving-at-dark rule from the get go. My vote was to stay in San Jose and just put up with the monster drive the next day since I really don´t like to ask for directions at night which can be dangerous. Also, we heard the road is really dangerous specially at night due to foggy conditions and curvy geography. We reached a compromise and we decided to at least get out of the city and get to a city called Cartago to spend the night. The road was not too bad getting there but once there, we realized that the time it would take us to search for a room, find our way in this new city, etc.. would be more than reaching San Isidro El General where we had already made arrangements for three beds. So we decided to go for it. The total trip was about 2h30m from San Jose to San Isidro even though it felt like an eternity. At times, you could not see what was 7 feet in front of you due to the fog. Very dangerous and not many people around. But we arrived there safely and were ready to sleep and drive to Panama tomorrow.
At arrival, we went to eat at a fast food restaurant that Alexey had eyed. It was called Dulji or something like that. It was ok and cheap so we went with our stomachs full back to the hotel where we crashed. Tomorrow will be an early start: 5AM we are thinking.
Monkey see, monkey do..
Friday, August 11th
This morning we woke up relatively early and found that our shared bathroom was busy for a long time. Greg and I had to use the bathroom attached to another hotel room since no one was staying there last night. However, everything got cleared and we just waited for the tour minivan that would take us to our canopy and bridges tour.
Of course, yesterday I hit my head against this steel beam that served as the structure holding the roof of the garage where Rosinante was sleeping. Today, just wanting to remember how it felt like, I banged my head in the same beam once again.. ouch! The French couple who had stayed at the same place saw how I graciously picked up the pieces of my dignity and insulted the beam. We met them and found they were going to the same exact tour as we were.
After the short ride to the Aventura headquarters where we stopped to dropped some other passangers, it was just the 3 of us and the 2 French people in the minivan. We were all going to go to the bridges tour first. It was great to see a slug in the wilderness, colorful butterflies, hallow trees, squirrels, spiders, etc.. during our hike. The bridges were cool too! I must say though, we were dissapointed to see the bright green snake on a plant right outside the Aventura hut at the beginning of the hike. As soon as our van pulled up and we settled in our couches to wait for the guide, I saw this guy trying to drop something out of a plastic water bottle into a plant. He tryied repeatedly until whatever was inside the bottle fell. I did not think much about it.
At the beginning of the hike, the same guide walked with us next to such plant explaining a few of the ground rules. Next, he proceeded to pull some of his best acting moves and pretend that he had just encountered such snake in the plant.. Everyone including the young Spanish couple we had just picked up went OHHHHH!!!. I was disgusted to say the least. However, I must say that aside from this flop, the trip was awesome and we got to see lots of vegetation and other cool stuff.
It was the end of the hike and while our guide was desperately trying to find his snake by the plant (which he never did in the end) we were boarding the van to get back to Aventura headquarters to do our canopy (zip line) tour. We got our safety harnesses, helmets and gloves ready and went for the wire. It was incredible flying in the air with the wires. The guides were pretty cool and seemed to be having fun. We went through all 16 lines. The last one was really nice and was about 600 meters long (1800ft) and 100 meters high!! (300ft). However, this last one we had to do in pairs so Greg and I went together and Alexey went with one of the guides. See, this is one of those sports where people with a few extra pounds actually do better than athletic types ;) Greg and Alexey had trouble avoiding getting stuck in the middle of the lines because their skinny bodies did not carry much momentum. My sizeable mass allowed me to fly in the sky like a pro. This is why Greg recruited me first as his partner for the last line! :)
Ok so after this enjoyable experience we came back to Santa Elena and had lunch with Olivier and Charlotte, our new found French comrades. We went to a falafel place. You could see the discomfort of our friends eating in a place for less than 4 bucks and full of flies but they managed and had fun, I think! We certainly did and their company was really cool. After this, we went back to the hotel to pick up our bags and car and got ready to drive to San Jose. This went without problems after I banged my head 3 more times in a row in the same beam described earlier.. Our French friends were amused.
The drive to San Jose went without a hitch. The city looked awesome! Really a city full of lights and lots of life. We tried to get a place to sleep at the Tranquilo and Pungea Hostels but were not able to in the first one and the latter refuse to let us keep the car there unless we paid $20US for the extra day tomorrow. We said.. forget it and found a happy place with garage at Kap´s Place. However, we did manage to reserve 3 slots in tomorrow´s White Water Rafting expedition with Exploradores Outdoors. It wasw $95 each.. ouch!
We happen to get 2 rooms. A single one (read 1 bed) and a double one (read bunks). After a very complex method (read rock, paper, sizzers) of determining the winner of the single bed room, Greg came out the winner. The two rooms were soooo incredibly small that we could barely fit two people in the double room standing at the same time. It was, however, very cozy. Really, it felt like we were in Guliver land.
We went for dinner at this mexican place in San Jose. It was adequate and we went back to simply crash in our miniature sized accomodations. We will go rafting tomorrow!!!!! Awesome!.
This morning we woke up relatively early and found that our shared bathroom was busy for a long time. Greg and I had to use the bathroom attached to another hotel room since no one was staying there last night. However, everything got cleared and we just waited for the tour minivan that would take us to our canopy and bridges tour.
Of course, yesterday I hit my head against this steel beam that served as the structure holding the roof of the garage where Rosinante was sleeping. Today, just wanting to remember how it felt like, I banged my head in the same beam once again.. ouch! The French couple who had stayed at the same place saw how I graciously picked up the pieces of my dignity and insulted the beam. We met them and found they were going to the same exact tour as we were.
After the short ride to the Aventura headquarters where we stopped to dropped some other passangers, it was just the 3 of us and the 2 French people in the minivan. We were all going to go to the bridges tour first. It was great to see a slug in the wilderness, colorful butterflies, hallow trees, squirrels, spiders, etc.. during our hike. The bridges were cool too! I must say though, we were dissapointed to see the bright green snake on a plant right outside the Aventura hut at the beginning of the hike. As soon as our van pulled up and we settled in our couches to wait for the guide, I saw this guy trying to drop something out of a plastic water bottle into a plant. He tryied repeatedly until whatever was inside the bottle fell. I did not think much about it.
At the beginning of the hike, the same guide walked with us next to such plant explaining a few of the ground rules. Next, he proceeded to pull some of his best acting moves and pretend that he had just encountered such snake in the plant.. Everyone including the young Spanish couple we had just picked up went OHHHHH!!!. I was disgusted to say the least. However, I must say that aside from this flop, the trip was awesome and we got to see lots of vegetation and other cool stuff.
It was the end of the hike and while our guide was desperately trying to find his snake by the plant (which he never did in the end) we were boarding the van to get back to Aventura headquarters to do our canopy (zip line) tour. We got our safety harnesses, helmets and gloves ready and went for the wire. It was incredible flying in the air with the wires. The guides were pretty cool and seemed to be having fun. We went through all 16 lines. The last one was really nice and was about 600 meters long (1800ft) and 100 meters high!! (300ft). However, this last one we had to do in pairs so Greg and I went together and Alexey went with one of the guides. See, this is one of those sports where people with a few extra pounds actually do better than athletic types ;) Greg and Alexey had trouble avoiding getting stuck in the middle of the lines because their skinny bodies did not carry much momentum. My sizeable mass allowed me to fly in the sky like a pro. This is why Greg recruited me first as his partner for the last line! :)
Ok so after this enjoyable experience we came back to Santa Elena and had lunch with Olivier and Charlotte, our new found French comrades. We went to a falafel place. You could see the discomfort of our friends eating in a place for less than 4 bucks and full of flies but they managed and had fun, I think! We certainly did and their company was really cool. After this, we went back to the hotel to pick up our bags and car and got ready to drive to San Jose. This went without problems after I banged my head 3 more times in a row in the same beam described earlier.. Our French friends were amused.
The drive to San Jose went without a hitch. The city looked awesome! Really a city full of lights and lots of life. We tried to get a place to sleep at the Tranquilo and Pungea Hostels but were not able to in the first one and the latter refuse to let us keep the car there unless we paid $20US for the extra day tomorrow. We said.. forget it and found a happy place with garage at Kap´s Place. However, we did manage to reserve 3 slots in tomorrow´s White Water Rafting expedition with Exploradores Outdoors. It wasw $95 each.. ouch!
We happen to get 2 rooms. A single one (read 1 bed) and a double one (read bunks). After a very complex method (read rock, paper, sizzers) of determining the winner of the single bed room, Greg came out the winner. The two rooms were soooo incredibly small that we could barely fit two people in the double room standing at the same time. It was, however, very cozy. Really, it felt like we were in Guliver land.
We went for dinner at this mexican place in San Jose. It was adequate and we went back to simply crash in our miniature sized accomodations. We will go rafting tomorrow!!!!! Awesome!.
Monday, August 14, 2006
Monteverde: The Green Mountains await..
Thursday, August 10th
The real truth about last night was that we had tons of fun dancing and drinking with all the friends we made at the hostel. Jenn from Ireland, Alicia from LonGGIsland, Scarlet from Singapore, Debbie from Israel, and Maggie from Georgia. We also met a few guys but their names are irrelevant :) No no, we also met this Irish guy who just happened to have been a bartending at a bar that we knew in Granada, Nicaragua.
In any case, today we were expected to wake up early and go surfing. We were supposed to wake up Jen who was going to join us for an early round of waves. However, we went to bed too late and we were not really in the mood for anything too physical. Greg and Alexey did get up but found the waves were not challenging enough to merit getting wet at the early hours of 9AM. So we decided to leave the beautiful beaches of Tamarindo and drive to Monteverde a little further in the interior of the country.
We packed up and settled our bills at the counter of the awesome Playa Tamarindo Hostel (because it has AC!). Next, we managed to get the car through some deep craters on the dirt road and got to the center of town. The center of Tamarindo is really just like if you were in a city of the US. You can find any fast food restaurant from the US here and banks, etc.. etc.. So we went for Subway for lunch just to take a break from the rice and beans. It was great!! Even though it was at almost the same price as in the US.
So we started our drive. Now, we do not have good maps for our trip so we have to do with what you have. It was my turn to drive today and Greg was my copilot, navigator, documenter, financial accountant, and other things (these are all copilot duties in the car while the person in the back, Alexey, has to rest for a future drive). The drive there was uneventful really. We tried to visit the campus of the EARTH school in this area (very good and famous agricultural university) but the guard did not let us in. So we continued on to the Panamerican hiway. Once there we found that the conditions of the road did not improve by much. It was still tough to go through all these humungous holes on the road.
The rain started pouring down.. When it rains here, it really rains. Once the rain subsided we started going a bit faster since we want to arrive into Monteverde early enough to plan our activities for tomorrow. We are going around 100+ kph and a copy with a radar gun stops us. He shows us that we are going at 115 kph. So he is telling me the whole story of how this is so incredibly bad for us and he is going to take off our license plates until we can pay it and we cannot leave the country, etc.. etc.. "This is very bad news, very bad" he says in Spanish. Then I said "ok so give me the ticket and we will pay it". You know, corruption is not one of those things that we support. However, he asked us, as it is customary, for "a little something for drinks" or "Algo para las colas". So after consulting with the guys, we decided to give him 2000 Colones (Just for the record, I wanted to give 500 but the guys thought it would be insulting). The 2000Cl equate to about 4bucks US. The guy then let us go freely.
Our next hurdle was a 2 hour journey through a road out of the Panamerican hiway which was in the worse condition we have seen so far. There was no pavement aside from a 20 meter stretch that was actually worse than the dirt road. The pot holes were immense!! Our car had incredible trouble passing through these and the rocks near them. Our velocity was nearing an average of 10kpm. However, we made it!
After searching for a hotel around the town of Santa Elena (Only 3 kms away from the actual town on Monteverde) we settled for a place called Posada Sinai. It turned out to be awesome! The kid in the front desk was nice and we basically had the whole place to ourselves since the only other people staying there was a French couple. There was shared bathroom and kitchen. We quickly went to shop for some food and decided to cook instead of eat out.. yeah!!! This is really awesome because we have not had this opportunity elsewhere in the trip. We made spaghetty with some sauce there. It tasted great. I had to make my own non-tomato base sauce due to problems with my digestion.
The guy at the front desk helped us arrange the canopy tours through the jungle tomorrow and also a visit to the wilderness on a hike that would take us through 7 bridges. The company is called Aventura. We will tell you more about this tomorrow. Now we go to an internet cafe to catch up on blogging.
The real truth about last night was that we had tons of fun dancing and drinking with all the friends we made at the hostel. Jenn from Ireland, Alicia from LonGGIsland, Scarlet from Singapore, Debbie from Israel, and Maggie from Georgia. We also met a few guys but their names are irrelevant :) No no, we also met this Irish guy who just happened to have been a bartending at a bar that we knew in Granada, Nicaragua.
In any case, today we were expected to wake up early and go surfing. We were supposed to wake up Jen who was going to join us for an early round of waves. However, we went to bed too late and we were not really in the mood for anything too physical. Greg and Alexey did get up but found the waves were not challenging enough to merit getting wet at the early hours of 9AM. So we decided to leave the beautiful beaches of Tamarindo and drive to Monteverde a little further in the interior of the country.
We packed up and settled our bills at the counter of the awesome Playa Tamarindo Hostel (because it has AC!). Next, we managed to get the car through some deep craters on the dirt road and got to the center of town. The center of Tamarindo is really just like if you were in a city of the US. You can find any fast food restaurant from the US here and banks, etc.. etc.. So we went for Subway for lunch just to take a break from the rice and beans. It was great!! Even though it was at almost the same price as in the US.
So we started our drive. Now, we do not have good maps for our trip so we have to do with what you have. It was my turn to drive today and Greg was my copilot, navigator, documenter, financial accountant, and other things (these are all copilot duties in the car while the person in the back, Alexey, has to rest for a future drive). The drive there was uneventful really. We tried to visit the campus of the EARTH school in this area (very good and famous agricultural university) but the guard did not let us in. So we continued on to the Panamerican hiway. Once there we found that the conditions of the road did not improve by much. It was still tough to go through all these humungous holes on the road.
The rain started pouring down.. When it rains here, it really rains. Once the rain subsided we started going a bit faster since we want to arrive into Monteverde early enough to plan our activities for tomorrow. We are going around 100+ kph and a copy with a radar gun stops us. He shows us that we are going at 115 kph. So he is telling me the whole story of how this is so incredibly bad for us and he is going to take off our license plates until we can pay it and we cannot leave the country, etc.. etc.. "This is very bad news, very bad" he says in Spanish. Then I said "ok so give me the ticket and we will pay it". You know, corruption is not one of those things that we support. However, he asked us, as it is customary, for "a little something for drinks" or "Algo para las colas". So after consulting with the guys, we decided to give him 2000 Colones (Just for the record, I wanted to give 500 but the guys thought it would be insulting). The 2000Cl equate to about 4bucks US. The guy then let us go freely.
Our next hurdle was a 2 hour journey through a road out of the Panamerican hiway which was in the worse condition we have seen so far. There was no pavement aside from a 20 meter stretch that was actually worse than the dirt road. The pot holes were immense!! Our car had incredible trouble passing through these and the rocks near them. Our velocity was nearing an average of 10kpm. However, we made it!
After searching for a hotel around the town of Santa Elena (Only 3 kms away from the actual town on Monteverde) we settled for a place called Posada Sinai. It turned out to be awesome! The kid in the front desk was nice and we basically had the whole place to ourselves since the only other people staying there was a French couple. There was shared bathroom and kitchen. We quickly went to shop for some food and decided to cook instead of eat out.. yeah!!! This is really awesome because we have not had this opportunity elsewhere in the trip. We made spaghetty with some sauce there. It tasted great. I had to make my own non-tomato base sauce due to problems with my digestion.
The guy at the front desk helped us arrange the canopy tours through the jungle tomorrow and also a visit to the wilderness on a hike that would take us through 7 bridges. The company is called Aventura. We will tell you more about this tomorrow. Now we go to an internet cafe to catch up on blogging.
Thursday, August 10, 2006
7000 miles down
Wednesday August 9th 2006
Today we headed from Granada, Nicaragua down to Playa Tamarindo in Costa Rica. We blew past the beautiful volcanoes in the middle of Lake Nicaragua (and the 7,000 mile maker or the trip) and were on our way to Costa Rica!
The border crossing led to yet another ripoff plot which was foiled by Jose. The fellow charged us 300 cordobas - (15 bucks) for immigration, but the receipt he wrote us was for $6 dollars. After being discovered, he simply handed over 200 cordobas with a chuckle. We dumped our old currency, had a few fresh squeezed orange juices later and we were off!
We are now expert border crossers. (By the way, it should be known that not all members of the party need be present for immigration, just a passport is needed to stamp, the person can be waiting in the car. )
Now, Costa Rica is widely known as the most developed and richest country of central america. However the roads didn't show it and we have faced some of our most challenging terrain yet. We finally arrived in Playa Tamarindo (also know as playa tamagringo for the disgusting number of americans there) with the sole purpuse of getting a little quick surfing under our belts. Greg and I got battered by some beautiful pacific waves and we were happy. We got Jose hooked on surfing as well.
There was a torrential downpour which turned the whole town to mud, but that didn't stop us from heading out on the town (we had been good boys for a few days). We made several friends at the hostel and broke out our Nicaraguan Rum Like heroes. Alexey and Jose got some salsa dancing in, while Greg concentrated on street meat. We need more dancing practice.... the plan was to get up at 8:00 and surf some more.
Today we headed from Granada, Nicaragua down to Playa Tamarindo in Costa Rica. We blew past the beautiful volcanoes in the middle of Lake Nicaragua (and the 7,000 mile maker or the trip) and were on our way to Costa Rica!
The border crossing led to yet another ripoff plot which was foiled by Jose. The fellow charged us 300 cordobas - (15 bucks) for immigration, but the receipt he wrote us was for $6 dollars. After being discovered, he simply handed over 200 cordobas with a chuckle. We dumped our old currency, had a few fresh squeezed orange juices later and we were off!
We are now expert border crossers. (By the way, it should be known that not all members of the party need be present for immigration, just a passport is needed to stamp, the person can be waiting in the car. )
Now, Costa Rica is widely known as the most developed and richest country of central america. However the roads didn't show it and we have faced some of our most challenging terrain yet. We finally arrived in Playa Tamarindo (also know as playa tamagringo for the disgusting number of americans there) with the sole purpuse of getting a little quick surfing under our belts. Greg and I got battered by some beautiful pacific waves and we were happy. We got Jose hooked on surfing as well.
There was a torrential downpour which turned the whole town to mud, but that didn't stop us from heading out on the town (we had been good boys for a few days). We made several friends at the hostel and broke out our Nicaraguan Rum Like heroes. Alexey and Jose got some salsa dancing in, while Greg concentrated on street meat. We need more dancing practice.... the plan was to get up at 8:00 and surf some more.
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
Visa everywhere you don't want to be, aka how to survive in San Pedro Sula on $0 a day
So as the guys mentioned my little vacation is over and I arrived safely into Chicago. Things have been kind of hectic as I have nowhere to live and am still sleeping in random hotels, but at least I'm getting paid to type this blog entry. Chicago looks like it should be a good time and I even found a Pollo Campero that I dined at for dinner yesterday. I think Jose will be excited to hear that I found out they have some located in Ecuador as well. So far so good with the new city and the new job, but I'm sure people would be more interested in hearing about my Honduran adventures.
When last we heard from Todd the guys had just dropped him off at a sketchy hotel in a shady neighborhood in sleezy San Pedro Sula. The one thing San Pedro Sula does have is the best airport in Honduras and thus is the location where the majority of tourists fly into. Since I had a day there before my flight I decided to head to the ruins of Copan, the most popular tourist attraction in Honduras. I figured it would be no problem booking a tour from the most popular airport in Honduras to the most popular tourist attraction. I couldn't have been more wrong. All of the tour agencies in San Pedro Sula were only interested in helping you get out of Honduras, not a good sign. Now I had been travelling around Central America for a month and had grown fairly street savvy so I decided I could just bus it down to Copan and take care of things on my own. Wrong again. I had no Honduran money and the buses did not take credit cards. Or at least do not give them back. Rather than take that risk and since it was still relatively early (~7:00am) I went looking for an ATM. Around 10:00am I eventually gave up. Another abysmal failure. Not that there weren't ATMs around, it was just that they only worked on the Visa network and I was stuck with a Mastercard ATM card. I tried over six different bank ATMs and none worked. Poor showing for Honduras and I don't think I was the only one having difficulties as the lines to get into any given bank rivalled Disneyland as people waited anxiously to access money that people in other countries would get at an ATM.
So Copan apparently wasn't meant to be. Too bad as I hear that it is really amazing. That's okay though as it gave me all day to take in the beauty that is San Pedro Sula. This lasted 5 minutes. It has a decent church and the chicks are reasonably hot, but in both cases no pictures are warranted. With the rest of my day and no money to spend I did the only thing I really could do and went back to the hotel to finish reading Wuthering Heights (much better than I thought it was going to be) and watch some TV. Luckily the hotel had numerous stations and so I was able to catch up on world news and watch Point Break twice. "We'll get'em when he comes eeen!". The hotel took credit cards and so far no strange charges have shown up, so that was a relief. Although I was forced to eat at Pizza Hut since they were one of the few places that took credit cards. I ordered the Canadienese pizza which we normally call the Meat Lovers. Apparently Hondurans perceive Canadians as being meat eating socialists. I think they pretty much nailed it. At least it was much better than the Canada Burger at McDonald's in Liechtenstein.
After my uneventful day in San Pedro Sula I woke up early the next day to catch an 8:00am flight to Miami. I spent my last $10US on the cab ride (actually quite a good deal as it was a good 20km ride). Much to my chagrin Honduras is one of the those unfortunate countries that has an exit tax and doesn't take credit cards (can't someone look into incorporating these into the price of the airfare to avoid the added inconvenience of paying at the airport. If only I knew someone that worked for an airline). I tried to sneak by with a blank expression and my pockets pulled out to show they were empty, but they pointed me in the direction of an ATM that worked on the Mastercard network. Where were you when I needed you yesterday ScotiaBank? So if nothing else, that is my helpful advice on Honduras, get all the money you need at the airport or else bring a solid supply of greenbacks to exchange.
After a long layover in Miami and a delayed flight to Chicago I eventually got into O'Hare airport at 1:00am on last Thursday and hit the road back to Michigan to visit the family for the weekend. Had a nice visit with my cousin Michelle who was in town with her adorable little kids Joseph and Caroline. Also got a chance to meet my best friend Josh's first child, Hannah. She was a little cutie and the proud parents, Josh and Beth, couldn't be happier. So far work has been good although I'd rather still be with the guys in Central America.So this will be the last you hear from Andon, except for the occasional comment. The beard is gone and fun has ended although the memories will live on forever.
Monday, August 07, 2006
A capital and Granada with a cigar flavor
Monday, August 7th
In exactly 1 week from now we will be voting one participant off the Golf. Who will it be? I get a feeling that Greg will be kicked out.. what do you think?
In any case, this morning we have a bit of logistics to work out. This is because Todd´s uncle set us up with Perdomo Cigars in Esteli, Nicaragua for a visit to their plant here. Last night, we slept in this nice little town in the western mountains once ruled by the Sandinistas. However, we had not been able to work out the details of our visit to the factory since it was the weekend. So this morning we catch us with the president of the company and he sets everything up for us in one swoop.
After breakfast at a local hole in the wall, we head back to the hotel and wait until 10AM when we are going to head to the Perdomo plant. We arrive there but our contact is still in the tobacco fields with some employees so he orders Mr. Miguel Rivera (very nice gentleman and now our impromptu tour guide) to show us around. The tour was awesome!!! We all enjoyed watching tobacco being cured for flavors and local workers doing all the work of rolling, cutting and packing cigars by hand! The smell in some of these rooms was so strong due to the fermentation of the tobacco that we almost broke into a sneezing attack. After Mr. Rivera explained everything there was to know about the manufacture of cigars, we treated ourselves to the purchase of a box of high quality cigars. We will be smoking them one of these nights to celebrate something (not sure what yet, but we´ll let you know). We say good bye to our gracious hosts at Perdomo Cigars, pick up our stuff from the hotels and hit the road. We have to thank a few people immensely: Todd´s uncle, Todd, Mr. Nick Perdomo Jr., Mr. Miguel Rivera, and Mr. Gonzalo Puentes for all their help setting up the tour.
On to Managua, the capital of Nicaragua. We are expecting to see something very similar to central San Salvador there. That is, very busy people, people looking at your every move, etc. On the way there, still in Esteli, we take the car for an 6700 mile oil change. We have not been able to fit an oil change in our schedule but we did it today so Rosinante is feeling much better already! After this and a top up of our gas tank, we are in Managua in 1 1/2 hours. Managua proper was destroyed by repeated earthquakes and after the goverment discovered that the capital had been built on top of a major seismological fault line, it decided to relocate the city to nearby grounds. They basically took of right after the 1972 earthquake and the buildings were left there. It is a weird feeling to see these goverment buildings that once housed important people and now they have nothing inside. There is a eerie feeling in the air around here: emptiness everywhere and somewhat, danger.
We take some pictures in the remnants of this city and drive through some areas of it. There is nothing in this city, home to about 1 million Nicaraguans that would resemble a downtown area. Everything is spread out an built in a hurry. However, it´s very cool to see how this city came to be. After a couple of ours, we head for Granada, our final stop for the day.
On the drive to Granada, we see the Masaya volcanoe which has a really nice crater with steam coming from it on the right side of the road. (FYI: The Pacaya volcanoe that we visited near Antigua, Nicaragua has just started erupting again according to CNN a couple of days back). Granada is a cool little colonial town which gets hit most heavily by tourists then any other Nicaraguan city. It looks like an Antigua but has not reached the level of manicured tourist gardens and architecture that Antigua flaunts. However, this same fact is what enchants many visitors. It has a flavor of realistic beauty, the down to earth type of beauty.
We settled for a hotel a couple of blocks away from the city center. The air in the room is super hot!! This is going to be one of those a-la-Roatan style nights. But it will have to do because all other hotels here were very expensive. This was somewhat of a good value for the money. Rosinante is sleeping over at a private garage half a block away. Tonight we will try to enjoy the city and a bit of its night life. Tomorrow we will take some time off to visit historical sights and who knows? Perhaps we could even do some diving in the Lake Nicaragua where it is said there are some fresh water sharks to see under water!!!
In exactly 1 week from now we will be voting one participant off the Golf. Who will it be? I get a feeling that Greg will be kicked out.. what do you think?
In any case, this morning we have a bit of logistics to work out. This is because Todd´s uncle set us up with Perdomo Cigars in Esteli, Nicaragua for a visit to their plant here. Last night, we slept in this nice little town in the western mountains once ruled by the Sandinistas. However, we had not been able to work out the details of our visit to the factory since it was the weekend. So this morning we catch us with the president of the company and he sets everything up for us in one swoop.
After breakfast at a local hole in the wall, we head back to the hotel and wait until 10AM when we are going to head to the Perdomo plant. We arrive there but our contact is still in the tobacco fields with some employees so he orders Mr. Miguel Rivera (very nice gentleman and now our impromptu tour guide) to show us around. The tour was awesome!!! We all enjoyed watching tobacco being cured for flavors and local workers doing all the work of rolling, cutting and packing cigars by hand! The smell in some of these rooms was so strong due to the fermentation of the tobacco that we almost broke into a sneezing attack. After Mr. Rivera explained everything there was to know about the manufacture of cigars, we treated ourselves to the purchase of a box of high quality cigars. We will be smoking them one of these nights to celebrate something (not sure what yet, but we´ll let you know). We say good bye to our gracious hosts at Perdomo Cigars, pick up our stuff from the hotels and hit the road. We have to thank a few people immensely: Todd´s uncle, Todd, Mr. Nick Perdomo Jr., Mr. Miguel Rivera, and Mr. Gonzalo Puentes for all their help setting up the tour.
On to Managua, the capital of Nicaragua. We are expecting to see something very similar to central San Salvador there. That is, very busy people, people looking at your every move, etc. On the way there, still in Esteli, we take the car for an 6700 mile oil change. We have not been able to fit an oil change in our schedule but we did it today so Rosinante is feeling much better already! After this and a top up of our gas tank, we are in Managua in 1 1/2 hours. Managua proper was destroyed by repeated earthquakes and after the goverment discovered that the capital had been built on top of a major seismological fault line, it decided to relocate the city to nearby grounds. They basically took of right after the 1972 earthquake and the buildings were left there. It is a weird feeling to see these goverment buildings that once housed important people and now they have nothing inside. There is a eerie feeling in the air around here: emptiness everywhere and somewhat, danger.
We take some pictures in the remnants of this city and drive through some areas of it. There is nothing in this city, home to about 1 million Nicaraguans that would resemble a downtown area. Everything is spread out an built in a hurry. However, it´s very cool to see how this city came to be. After a couple of ours, we head for Granada, our final stop for the day.
On the drive to Granada, we see the Masaya volcanoe which has a really nice crater with steam coming from it on the right side of the road. (FYI: The Pacaya volcanoe that we visited near Antigua, Nicaragua has just started erupting again according to CNN a couple of days back). Granada is a cool little colonial town which gets hit most heavily by tourists then any other Nicaraguan city. It looks like an Antigua but has not reached the level of manicured tourist gardens and architecture that Antigua flaunts. However, this same fact is what enchants many visitors. It has a flavor of realistic beauty, the down to earth type of beauty.
We settled for a hotel a couple of blocks away from the city center. The air in the room is super hot!! This is going to be one of those a-la-Roatan style nights. But it will have to do because all other hotels here were very expensive. This was somewhat of a good value for the money. Rosinante is sleeping over at a private garage half a block away. Tonight we will try to enjoy the city and a bit of its night life. Tomorrow we will take some time off to visit historical sights and who knows? Perhaps we could even do some diving in the Lake Nicaragua where it is said there are some fresh water sharks to see under water!!!
Sandinista Territory
Sunday August 6th, 2006
Sill picking at our large mini-stalk of bananas from the previous day, we headed south from Tegucigalpa along windy roads leading us to the coast. The geography was quite similar to that of northern California. As has seemed to be the trend for many central american countries, lots of political propaganda preparing for the upcoming elections has been painted on many of the walls of the cliffs. Passing San Lorenzo and Choluteca and brought us the the border with Nicaragua.
The border crossing was relatively uneventful (ie 2 hours and tons of paperwork) and upon arrival in Nicaragua, the roads immediately went to crap - 1.5 potholes per square meter. We purchased car insurance from a twelve year old boy operating out of a strange wooden shack (see picture) which came in handy when ...
... we were immediately pulled over by a cop in Leon not 40km later. The alleged infraction was a right turn onto a two way street which had a red construction cone five feet from the curb. This crooked cop insulted Joses driving ability (which, as we have learned long ago is sensitive territory for all three drivers in the triad) and moved immediately towards a hard stance setting himself up for the easy bribe. Not taking the bait, Jose opted for the "Take me the to US Embassy, in Managua and I will be back here tomorrow" stance, which worked okay. But thrown in with the ole - writing down badge ID number at photograph of the cop (which is illegal fyi) we suddenly had more bargaining chips. After a few more questions and 15 more minutes of arguing we were on our way.
Leon is a beautiful colonial town which is not too gringofied. Similar to Honduras in nature, the town felt a little sleepy and the locals were quite friendly. After a nice buffet-over-a-womans-stove type meal, we explored the town a bit. There seem to be a lot of young Nicaraguans which we are attributing to the post war baby boom. We decided to head to Esteli, site of a cigar factory for tomorrows tour.
The Nicaraguan landscape is spectacular! There are literally TONS of volcanos which litter the landscape from the flats alone the coast to the mountains of the center. We took some fairly country road (1.7 potholes per sqmeter) through some very interesting farmland. All of the towns we went through were brandishing the black and red Flag of the Sandinista party FSLN - with the elections coming up in October-November, things were getting into high gear. Flags were on trees, trees trunks were painted, it was pretty impressive. After reading nicaraguan history en route, it was clear that this country has had its fair share of politics - election turnouts are in the high 90s %.
As the sun was setting we were thankful to make it off the country road which we dubbed as "quite a good car jacking road" ... we of course had to snarl our way through some extremely intense mosquito clouds and through another police checkpoint. This time we faced fines for lacking our front plate. Again, claiming ignorance and that Massachusetts does not issue them, we made it through unscathed after a healthy discussion.
The town of Esteli is was beautiful, we had a nice stroll and were entertained by an intense evangelical church band before bed.
Sill picking at our large mini-stalk of bananas from the previous day, we headed south from Tegucigalpa along windy roads leading us to the coast. The geography was quite similar to that of northern California. As has seemed to be the trend for many central american countries, lots of political propaganda preparing for the upcoming elections has been painted on many of the walls of the cliffs. Passing San Lorenzo and Choluteca and brought us the the border with Nicaragua.
The border crossing was relatively uneventful (ie 2 hours and tons of paperwork) and upon arrival in Nicaragua, the roads immediately went to crap - 1.5 potholes per square meter. We purchased car insurance from a twelve year old boy operating out of a strange wooden shack (see picture) which came in handy when ...
... we were immediately pulled over by a cop in Leon not 40km later. The alleged infraction was a right turn onto a two way street which had a red construction cone five feet from the curb. This crooked cop insulted Joses driving ability (which, as we have learned long ago is sensitive territory for all three drivers in the triad) and moved immediately towards a hard stance setting himself up for the easy bribe. Not taking the bait, Jose opted for the "Take me the to US Embassy, in Managua and I will be back here tomorrow" stance, which worked okay. But thrown in with the ole - writing down badge ID number at photograph of the cop (which is illegal fyi) we suddenly had more bargaining chips. After a few more questions and 15 more minutes of arguing we were on our way.
Leon is a beautiful colonial town which is not too gringofied. Similar to Honduras in nature, the town felt a little sleepy and the locals were quite friendly. After a nice buffet-over-a-womans-stove type meal, we explored the town a bit. There seem to be a lot of young Nicaraguans which we are attributing to the post war baby boom. We decided to head to Esteli, site of a cigar factory for tomorrows tour.
The Nicaraguan landscape is spectacular! There are literally TONS of volcanos which litter the landscape from the flats alone the coast to the mountains of the center. We took some fairly country road (1.7 potholes per sqmeter) through some very interesting farmland. All of the towns we went through were brandishing the black and red Flag of the Sandinista party FSLN - with the elections coming up in October-November, things were getting into high gear. Flags were on trees, trees trunks were painted, it was pretty impressive. After reading nicaraguan history en route, it was clear that this country has had its fair share of politics - election turnouts are in the high 90s %.
As the sun was setting we were thankful to make it off the country road which we dubbed as "quite a good car jacking road" ... we of course had to snarl our way through some extremely intense mosquito clouds and through another police checkpoint. This time we faced fines for lacking our front plate. Again, claiming ignorance and that Massachusetts does not issue them, we made it through unscathed after a healthy discussion.
The town of Esteli is was beautiful, we had a nice stroll and were entertained by an intense evangelical church band before bed.
Getting back to the jungle
Saturday, August 5th
Ok ok.. so we had to leave the comfort of tourist-town Roatan and prove to you guys that we can also travel in the mad real Central American cities, the ones that are never mentioned in your travel agency brochures. Today, we need to get to Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras.
The day starts really early while it´s still dark out. The nice germanic owner of the Boulangerie, with whom we´ve been doing business every morning for breakfast, tell us that unless we catch a bus to the pier in Coxen Hole before 6:15AM we would not make the ferry back to La Ceiba (continental Honduras). It is 6:15AM so we decide to go for the cabs waiting around near our hotel. A whole bunch of them come with offers about the same price: 40 Lempiras per person. Our bread-making friend advices me to offer them 100L and one guy bites into it. We flee to the pier and experience this wonderful drive through the coast of this paradise packed into a tiny island, the sun is slowly rising leaving the sky in a mixture of orange, light blue and black.
Once at the pier, we buy tickets and check in our luggage. The ride goes smoothly and since we had partied the night before with our Danish and American friends, we are totally beaten. I slept most of the 2 hour ride while Greg watched some really aweful movie and Alexey helped free some guy trapped in the gents bathroom.
At our arrival, we needed to pick up Rosinante so the first thing I do is check on our horse and find he is doing A-OK. Greg and Alexey stay back claiming our bags which seems to be a time consuming adventure on these ferries. They basically scream your bag number and you have to jump over a mass of people to trade the tickets and get your bag back. Imagine 300 people doing this at the same time. Oh well, in the mean time, I paid the parking bill and once ready, we packed up the car and left.
On our way here on Tuesday, we told you how the cheap breakfast place in La Ceiba was actually very good. So we decided to go back there and see our old pal at the Pulperia. After a few rounds around the block trying to remember the exact location of this grocery store, we find it and once again we scrape the bottom of Rosinante against a concrete mound. See, the problem is that we have to park on the sidewalk and it is kind of steep. However, breakfast was awesome once again, and cheap.. There was this crazy girl next to us that kept bugging us repeatedly. Don´t know what she wanted but she left soon enough.
After we devoured our plates of traditional Honduran breakfast (again: beans, plantains, pork, and this time making an appearance for the first time, the tortillas and avocados), we start the drive. This is Alexey´s turn at the wheel so we are assured of two things: we´ll get there quickly, and Rosinante will grind his teeth at every gear change :) No no.. in all seriousness, he has been treating Rosinante much better now a days.
So after heading back in the direction of San Pedro Sula and passing by Tela we reach the town of Progreso once again. This is where we connect to our road to Tegucigalpa. The drive there was uneventful aside from a stop to buy fruit on the side of the road. We negotiate to purchase 1 pineapple (freshly cut into pieces for us), 1 cold coconut and 1 whole brach full of baby bananas. The price tag is all of 30 Lempiras or about $2US.. not too bad. These bananas kept us well fed through the next 2 days of driving!
Tegulcigalpa is the city in Honduras where the regular people leave. That is, you find the sense of insecurity that you expect. In school we learned how this product called Resistol (aka Resist-all, an extra strength glue) was used by kids in the streets as drugs. We have verified this and seen kids sniffing this glue around the markets in Tegucigalpa. We find the city has its own charm, however. The very quaint church and plaza (which Alexey thinks it´s cool because of its asymmetry) were really nice. We walked around a little and saw the presidential palace that is printed on the Honduran currency.
At this point we have checked into this really nice hotel. Our hotel in Roatan was not the best nor comfortable so we have decided to splurge for tonight! The room rate at the McArthur Hotel was $60US but we negotiate it to $50 and we get air conditioning!! So we are ready to go to an Internet cafe nearby to update the blog. However, on the way there, we pop into this local drinking hole. Most people in this establishment are not eating but drinking. Every table has at least 6 empty bottles so we have some catching up to do. While there, we meet Craig who is an Aussie who has spent the last few years of his life here. He is an old man with lots of stories. Most of such stories evolve around seafood trading and young Honduran women. After we are done with our food, he invites us over for a beer and tells us the story of his connections with the mafia and how one time some guys told him that his lobsters arrived dead (all 1000 of them) from Australia to Asia. Oh well, we found it quite amusing.
So it´s time to update the blog. It´s around 10PM and it really looks dark and unsafe outside. I talk a bit with the woman in charge of the internet cafe and she sees that as foreigners we don´t really understand this area of the city (the center). Therefore, she sends her two best men around (really cool guys), who agree to walk us to our hotel about 4 blocks away. Once there we say good bye and get back to the comfort of the McArthur. Tomorrow will be a big day. We will attempt to cross the border into Nicaragua. Wish us luck!
Ok ok.. so we had to leave the comfort of tourist-town Roatan and prove to you guys that we can also travel in the mad real Central American cities, the ones that are never mentioned in your travel agency brochures. Today, we need to get to Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras.
The day starts really early while it´s still dark out. The nice germanic owner of the Boulangerie, with whom we´ve been doing business every morning for breakfast, tell us that unless we catch a bus to the pier in Coxen Hole before 6:15AM we would not make the ferry back to La Ceiba (continental Honduras). It is 6:15AM so we decide to go for the cabs waiting around near our hotel. A whole bunch of them come with offers about the same price: 40 Lempiras per person. Our bread-making friend advices me to offer them 100L and one guy bites into it. We flee to the pier and experience this wonderful drive through the coast of this paradise packed into a tiny island, the sun is slowly rising leaving the sky in a mixture of orange, light blue and black.
Once at the pier, we buy tickets and check in our luggage. The ride goes smoothly and since we had partied the night before with our Danish and American friends, we are totally beaten. I slept most of the 2 hour ride while Greg watched some really aweful movie and Alexey helped free some guy trapped in the gents bathroom.
At our arrival, we needed to pick up Rosinante so the first thing I do is check on our horse and find he is doing A-OK. Greg and Alexey stay back claiming our bags which seems to be a time consuming adventure on these ferries. They basically scream your bag number and you have to jump over a mass of people to trade the tickets and get your bag back. Imagine 300 people doing this at the same time. Oh well, in the mean time, I paid the parking bill and once ready, we packed up the car and left.
On our way here on Tuesday, we told you how the cheap breakfast place in La Ceiba was actually very good. So we decided to go back there and see our old pal at the Pulperia. After a few rounds around the block trying to remember the exact location of this grocery store, we find it and once again we scrape the bottom of Rosinante against a concrete mound. See, the problem is that we have to park on the sidewalk and it is kind of steep. However, breakfast was awesome once again, and cheap.. There was this crazy girl next to us that kept bugging us repeatedly. Don´t know what she wanted but she left soon enough.
After we devoured our plates of traditional Honduran breakfast (again: beans, plantains, pork, and this time making an appearance for the first time, the tortillas and avocados), we start the drive. This is Alexey´s turn at the wheel so we are assured of two things: we´ll get there quickly, and Rosinante will grind his teeth at every gear change :) No no.. in all seriousness, he has been treating Rosinante much better now a days.
So after heading back in the direction of San Pedro Sula and passing by Tela we reach the town of Progreso once again. This is where we connect to our road to Tegucigalpa. The drive there was uneventful aside from a stop to buy fruit on the side of the road. We negotiate to purchase 1 pineapple (freshly cut into pieces for us), 1 cold coconut and 1 whole brach full of baby bananas. The price tag is all of 30 Lempiras or about $2US.. not too bad. These bananas kept us well fed through the next 2 days of driving!
Tegulcigalpa is the city in Honduras where the regular people leave. That is, you find the sense of insecurity that you expect. In school we learned how this product called Resistol (aka Resist-all, an extra strength glue) was used by kids in the streets as drugs. We have verified this and seen kids sniffing this glue around the markets in Tegucigalpa. We find the city has its own charm, however. The very quaint church and plaza (which Alexey thinks it´s cool because of its asymmetry) were really nice. We walked around a little and saw the presidential palace that is printed on the Honduran currency.
At this point we have checked into this really nice hotel. Our hotel in Roatan was not the best nor comfortable so we have decided to splurge for tonight! The room rate at the McArthur Hotel was $60US but we negotiate it to $50 and we get air conditioning!! So we are ready to go to an Internet cafe nearby to update the blog. However, on the way there, we pop into this local drinking hole. Most people in this establishment are not eating but drinking. Every table has at least 6 empty bottles so we have some catching up to do. While there, we meet Craig who is an Aussie who has spent the last few years of his life here. He is an old man with lots of stories. Most of such stories evolve around seafood trading and young Honduran women. After we are done with our food, he invites us over for a beer and tells us the story of his connections with the mafia and how one time some guys told him that his lobsters arrived dead (all 1000 of them) from Australia to Asia. Oh well, we found it quite amusing.
So it´s time to update the blog. It´s around 10PM and it really looks dark and unsafe outside. I talk a bit with the woman in charge of the internet cafe and she sees that as foreigners we don´t really understand this area of the city (the center). Therefore, she sends her two best men around (really cool guys), who agree to walk us to our hotel about 4 blocks away. Once there we say good bye and get back to the comfort of the McArthur. Tomorrow will be a big day. We will attempt to cross the border into Nicaragua. Wish us luck!
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