copan – oktoberfest

Finally we can leave La Ceiba, destination Copan Ruinas with a super direct-20$-bus not bad uh? NO, BAD BAD BAD! The super direct bus stops for 3 hours in San Pedro Sula... F()*(çERç*çK!
Whatever we get to Copan in the afternoon and we discover that the same evening there will be an Oktoberfest!!!
After some rest we go to the fest... Volksmusik, Weisswürste, Sauerkraut und Bieeeeeerrrr(you can buy a 1 liter Krug) ! Echt Spitze! Later in the evening the Uff-ta-ta (the band) starts organizing games with the public... the last one being drink-your-one-liter-as-fast-as-you-can and having myself as a participant... as i get on the stage the 3 other concurrents ask me about my drinking habits and I say that as I was young (asterix times for the ones that can recall these days), I used to drink a “bit” but now I just drunk few beers some times ;-)
anyway 3...2...1...go! Jug... jug... jug... jug... I've to breathe... jug... jug... jug... jug... I've to breathe jug... jug... jug... finished... man I'm not used to that any more, but the locals have still half Krug and everybody is screaming LO SUIZO, LO SUIZO, the band stands up and says PROSIT, boys jump around, Ladies are crying, girls are throwing their bras at me and two naked Swedish twins run to me and start kissing me... Ok, Ok, a bit exagerated but the Lo Suizo part is true!
My stomach is really upset with me and I go for a walk and subsequent sleep... :-) ah btw I won a Krug that sais Oktoberfest Honduras! As if I didn't have enough stuff to carry around!
Cheers Marco

to the dentist again

well, not to much today beside the fact that I had to spend almost 2 more hours in the morning and 1 more in the afternoon with my new dentist... but all in all she did a really good job... Let's see who'll find the difference.

Finally a ferry, rafting and the tooth issue

5.45am i run to the dock to see if the ferry is running... 6.13: YESSS! Despite the bad weather we can finally leave.
In La Ceiba we catch a desert storm cargo bus to go to a lodge on the rio Canjrenal where we'll raft and spend a relaxing afternoon and night recovering from the Utilean party effort. After a short briefing we hit to the river and start... praying :-/ Litteraly we all hold hands and our guide asks for a safe trip and clear guiding... mmm let's hope!
We start doing some playing in the chilly river: crossing, swimming, jumping, climbing and diving. The highlight of the upstream training is a 10m cliff jump, only difficulty is the way to get there. First a 5m height jump in the river, then swim hard to the other side and finally get a carabiner hocked to the live vest or, as it happened to our beloved hero, get it straight on the front tooth and break it in halves... not bad uh!? Check the smile!!! (hockey fans don't I recall you Keith Fair!?).
After floating back to the raft we start our paddling, we have some really cool class 3 and 4 rapids to pass and the river is much narrower then back home. Our raft takes only 5 peoples so the ride is much more agitated and rough. Really really cool!
Unfortunately we cannot spend our relaxing afternoon there since it seems like I've to go to the dentist... I'm lovin' it!
4 hours later I've my tooth again and another appointment for the day after to have the tooth nerve extracted.

Waiting for the good weather and the ferry

25 – 28.10

so so, we came to Utila to dive the continental trench on its north side but the weather seams to have other plans for us... apparently it's the worst week since months. Strong wind and heavy rains hold the diving boats on the south side of the island :( too bad. Since the bad weather doesn't seem to give up we decide to leave the island... no way!!! the ferry to the mainland is not running and we are forced to stay on the island. Luckily at our backpackers there is a good group of funny people (among others an English-man called Mark that lived for 8 years in Geneva) with whom we have a good time waiting for the ferry, playing cards (some strange Israeli games) and having parties.

Diving Utila

Meeting point 7a.m, it was raining cats and dogs and wasn't really the sexy cliché of the Caribbean. At all. Let's go to bed again. New meeting point : 12.30p.m. The weather seemed better so we decided to go. The dives were nice, lots of soft corals but not so many fishes. During the second, the light was really dark as it was pouring again so much that the captain was completely lost. He couldn't find his way back to the shore...

La Union – Utila

Transit day: two buses, a ferry and 25 people welcoming you on the island and inviting you to stay in their hostel! Yes we want to dive and yes we are already certified. Here are the deals: 205$ for 10 dives and 5$ p.p for overnight. Not bad. Tomorrow we are going to dive again...coool!

National park la Muralla

We were supposed to catch a “collectivo” (which is pick up used as a bus by local workers) to reach the national park, 14km further up. According to the Bible Lonely planet, it is really easy as they are numerous. We start hiking through the village at 6.20a.m, thinking that we will hijack one of them on the way. Well, one hour and a half (and a river crossing) later, we had seen only one car...in the wrong direction. 1 hour after we could hear a noise...is it a car?...where does it come from? YYYYEEESSSS. This one is for us. Well, kind of. We probably did 60m before it stops for fixing the engine. A few attempts and we moved...for 100 more meters. One of the tires is flat. And we had to fix it. 20' later the car bring us to his destination which is by far not our yet. The guys told us that we missed about 4km. Sounds correct. Let's go further. 2 hours and a half later we finally got to the entrance!! From there we took a 3.7 km trail trough the pristine cloud forest. Highlights of the trail: we saw a toucanette and some rodent after 50m and walked the rest without seeing anything else. 13.00 we are ready to descend, on the way up we met a guy with an old jeep an we asked him at what time he was going to leave, he said at 2pm... well we almost run to his finca to see if he is still there. He his!! cool no 15km descend, furthermore, it turns out that the guy is from the government and is supervising the preparatives for coming coffee harvesting season (December). He tells us a lot about coffee and all the process before your coffee-machine, really really interesting. On the way down we visited a second finca where we discussed with the owner Don René about some more coffee related stuff. We are exhausted but it was really worth it.

Tegus – La Union

Even when your are on vacation, these transit days are long. When you wake up at 7a.m, you get on the first chicken bus from 8 to 10.30. Wait 2 hours to catch the next one already overloaded with people, so that you have to stand up 2 hours and a half under the arm of mister Cow boy that has changed his shirt two weeks ago to get you completely down. But you know what, it is off the beaten track....

Tegus

Leon - Teguchigualpa

Leon

mmm today we search the all afternoon for new shoes, found 2 really cool pairs for me and one for Sarah... guess what? Exact, our size was finished :-( “pas de bol”

Leon Viejo

Today we went to the ruins of the old Leon,former capital of the Nicaraguan Province at that time and classified world heritage by Unesco. The town was found in the 16th century and a abandoned less than 90 years later because of two successive earthquake and volcano eruption. The cool thing is that we were the only tourists!!! We even had the guided tour in..sort of English. We learned lots of interesting like how Mr. Diego schmurz de Vasconscelo de mi amore was beheaded and were he was found 3 century later! Interesting.

Granada - Leon

Still in Granada

As said, Granada is a wonderful colonial town where we could easily stay for a while. All the houses have an inside yard with lots a plants. I'm pretty sure that the wealthiest man of the city is the rocking chair builder. There are just everywhere. It is so relaxing and comfortable. Well during those tree days we have been hanging around, distressing ;-) and eating the best food of the country. In two words: Real holidays.

THE Shoes are gone...

This morning when we woke up we had a litte surprise. First, for you to understand I have to give you some background informations. Remember the hiking in the mud, the multiple days with lots of rain and the 150 % of humidity everywhere you go not allowing your shoes to dry off! Well after that it's sometimes hard for your nose to let your shoes being in your bedroom. Last night, they were expelled from the room. This morning, GONE!!!!!
There are two question: Why our shoes? Bouuuuuuhhhhhh (for the record they were Marco's favorite shoes ever)
How did the robber survive? We will never know
Rule n°4: always keep your shoes in your bedroom, no matter how they stink.

Ometepe - Granada

Today is a transit day, we moved from our beautiful finca to the colonial city of Granada. The transfer was painless... our muscles painful from the volcano hike. whatever, we get to Granada by 3p.m. and after a 20minutes deadly walk with all our gear we find a nice hostel, leave the backpacks and go for a stroll. the city looks cool, but we're tired and go sit down in an awesome bar and order homemade ice cream... yummy. later on we hit back to the hostel and watched an episode of BBC's blue planet and went for dinner.
Cheers, Marco

Climbing in the mud...

Breakfast 7a.m, start 8a.m. We knew that it was going to be a long, very long day. Well, it was. 3h30 to the summit and 4h down. In between it was raining, the trail transformed either in a small river or mud pools. Terrific! our goal was the lagoon at the top of the Volcan maderas (1394m) in the crater. What to say ? we saw the clouds. We still had a wonderful point of view 1h after the start on the island and other volcano. We should have stop a that point. Dinner 6p.m, bed 7p.m.

San Juan del Sur - Ometepe Island

Well, nothing special today, just an another on the road again day. Chicken bus followed the kind of ferry which make you think that you could go faster by swimming. The island looks really nice, even if we can't see the two volcanoes. We end up in a beautiful finca close to the second volcano we want to climb and surrounded by petroglyphs, depicting humans and birds. These remnants of the Chorotega settlement.

Best nica waves!?

We wanted to improve our surf in the best waves of Nicaragua". It will be for another time. First of all it was raining like hell when we arrived there and apparently it was the worst day of the season "wave speaking". You should know that October is not the best month to travel through Central America. Anyways, Marco was enjoying the multi direction waves and I finally had some fun. The following 20$-an-hour-massage was great. Makes you forget for a while, the hardest thing of being a backpacker, carrying heavy bags, using new muscles, being constantly stress by wondering where is the next place to eat, and so one. Well we really earned it.

San Juan del Sur

One month of travel and none of us has been sick, yet... today is Sarah's turn, she is not to well and we decide to have an easy day hanging around in San Juan.
In the afternoon, the newly discovered surfer in me makes us move to the beach and with my shiny pink board I go try to stand up. By night Sarah calls me Kelly ;-)

Tamarindo - San Juan del Sur

Nicaragua here we are. Today is crossing border day, apparently the worst crossing of the whole trip. So we decided to take an international bus which, although being a bit more expensive, should speed up the process of crossing. It did, beside the fact that we had to wait a couple of hours on the panamericana because people kept on giving us random departure times. In late afternoon we were in San Juan del sur, the nica counterpart to Tamarindo, supposedly the best waves in the country.
Nicaragua looks and feels really different from Costa Rica, the people here are much more typed and the indio heritage is clear. Also Nica looks poorer but people are still friendly and welcoming.

Surfing the Pacific

After a relaxing did-nothing-day we move our asses to the pacific and go surfin'... well go surfin' is a big statement, we take our first two hours lesson! Fitted with 8ft boards we go to the beach where Santiago tells us how to stand up... remember the cutie in point break teaching Keanu!? Well he was more lucky than me (with the teacher look...). Well after a couple of “stay low” on the sand we go in the water. Beside the paddling part it feels good when you kind of catch the wave and stand up and go straight toward the beach... and let yourself fall in the water because carving is not yet in our repertory (ask Sarah's nose...).
Two hours later we are starving and tired so --> LUNCH&CHILL!!!
Cheers, Marco

Party time

Well meeting 3 friends in Costa Rica does not happen too often, having met Cedric and Mily (kind of planed) and Steffi from Laax (walking around) we decided that we had to go partying... By coincidence, that night at Babylon there is a Reggae festival which we won't miss although the entrance fee of 7$ which luckily include 2 beers and a CD (NB everybody gets a CD and no trades like 2CD's for 1 beer or so :-( ). Couplo of hours and beers later we feel like it's 6a.m., somehow we're not used to party that much anymore. Mental note train this winter!
Cheers, Marco

Diving Isla Catalina

So, finally today was time to dive again! The target is the Isla Catalina, around 45 min of navigation from Tamarindo. It is our first dive in this side of the pacific so we're exited about maybe seeing mantas, eagle rays and sharks...
During the boat ride we see couple of Green Turtles couples having their private businesses and enjoy the beautiful coastline. Once at the dive site we gear up and jump in the water. As soon as we drop down Cedric points out an eagle ray that I miss... uff! but no worry, many more will pass by. As well we see some nurse and white tip reef sharks.
The second dive is halfway home and for the first half nothing spectacular, but then we saw two octopuses and more spotted eagle rays. cool! So, no mantas but very very cool eagle rays. The evening, as crowning of a cool day we decide to go for a good dinner, i'm craving for sushi since I left Zurich and wonder what!? We find an all-you-can-eat sushi place that for 15 U$ serves me a plate with 46 pieces of sushi and after that asks me if I wanted more... hard decision but I already forced me with the last 16 pieces so I kindly deny ;-)
Cheers, Marco

Monteverde - Tamarindo

As usual we had to wake up at 5a.m to take the first bus to Tamarindo. We had rode that this road was Costa Rica's worst! Well it was. First of all, the early bus was canceled, which is really annoying when the only reason why you woke up that morning is to take this f... bus!!!
We took 3 hours to cover the enormous and huge distance of...40 km to the Panamerican-Hwy! I let you count the km/h average. At one point, the road was so bad that we had to get out of the bus. The bus turned then around and drove more than 1 km in reverse. We had to take our bags with us, walk 300 m, put our bags in the second bus that was waiting for us, then walk again about 2km to larger place where it could turn over because it was as well driving in reverse.(now that I write that I wonder why we didn't ask for a discount).The rest was long but without incident. In Tamarindo we luckily saw Cedric working in his dive shop (Marco's former boss in Playa del Carmen, Mexico last year)from the bus. It is time to speak about fondue and raclette again.

Canopy

Today we decided to do some “adventurous” stuff... Canopy gliding, aka Tirolean lines. Basically you glide on an cable from a three to another using a pulley. Sounds like fun to me, Sarah tells me that it's ok (she already did it in CH) but not the biggest thrill ever. We go anyway to see the scenery and check it out for me... it turns out that the scenery is really cool, but the “guaranteed adrenaline rush” is not as big as advertised. Anyhow, it was fun and the scenery really beautiful!
In the afternoon, we do... nothing, just hang around and plan a bit. The evening, a bit frustrated of never having seen the green-red-eyed frog we decide to go to a frog pond (frogarium ;-)) and take a tour there where we discover 30 differents (and really really cool) frogs! Did you know that the males fight for the female (as usual) but when they win guess what!? No not that, they give her 15 days of massage... :/ hopefully not too many girls will read this post!
Cheers, Marco

Arenal - Monteverde

Instead of doing 8 hours bus, we had the choice to take a jeep-boat-jeep trip a little bit more expensive but saving us at least 4 hours. They have apparently improved the road because it was a van-boat-van..less adventurous! Anyway the boat trip on the lake located just behind the volcano was beautiful. At our arrival in Monteverde, for the first time during this trip we were hunted by hostel manager looking for some customers. You could fell the law season smell! We end up in a nice hostel with view on the valley and Pacific!
We took then a guided night tour in the forest which was really cool. We saw a deadly snake, a poisonous frog, a tarantula (beuuuh) and finally a sloth with her baby! My favorite animal...you know, the one that goes very slowly and falls asleep all the time ;-)