4 Borders in 4 Days

That's right, we went crazy.

After Panama City, we went to Santa Catalina Panama, and I had one of the best dives of my life. Then we went up into the mountains to Boquete and enjoyed two nights of cool air.

Day 1 Border 1 We blasted from Boquete through David and to the Panama/Costa Rica border. Driving in Panama is a pleasure. It was a clam crossing and we were done in just under an hour. We drove up the Pacific coast of Costa Rica and into Liberia. It was about 10 hours on the road. We spent the night in a cheap backpackers haunt, then hit to road the next morning.

Day 2 Boder 2 From Liberia to Leon, Nicaragua. The border between Costa Rica and Nicaragua was not as horrific as when we were headed south, but it was still long and unpleasant. The Costa Rica side was fine, there was a small wait for migration, but nothing to long. We got through the fumugation on the Nica side by ourselves, then thankfully spotted Charlie. Charlie is the man who helped us get through the first time. Unlike the kids who hang around and yell and bang on the car, Charlie is calm and efficient. Dave yelled out the window as soon as he saw Charlie. Withouth Charlie it would have been a different story. After the border we headed straight for Leon. We ended up taking the old highway from the Managua area to Leon. The result was a much bumpier and slower ride. We spent 7 hours on the road, and decided to check out Leon for two nights, just to get a rest.

Day 3 wasn't much of a rest. Leon was hot and dusty and just not restful. It does have beautiful old churches and a fantastic art gallery full of work by artists from Central and South America. The gallery was the highlight and for me it is reason enough to go to Leon if you are in Nicaragua.

Day 4 Borders 3 and 4. This was the roughest day. We set out from Leon on a highway that was underconstruction, so two and half hours of dust and bumps, then exited Nicaragua without much effort. Getting into Honduras was a little more work and a lot more money. It costs 40 usd to bring a car in, plus a few dollars per person. After about an hour at the border, we were in Honduras. This stretch of Honduras is notorious for police check points, but we were ready. We bought a new saftey triangle and a fire extinguisher and watched for where speeds were reduced. We were nearly out of Honduras (about a 3 hour drive in all) and through 4 or 5 checkpoints without being pulled over when we got flagged down.

We showed them the triangle, the extinguisher, we chatted it up, then they said we ran a stop sign and wouldn't give Dave's lisence back to us even though we kept saying there isn't a stop sign visible from the road. It was off the road and totally blocked by trees. In the end they got 20 usd and we continued towards El Salvador. It was frustrating because it was so obvisouly a shake-down. Crossing into El Salvador involved waiting around in the heat for a while, but it only took an hour and we chatted it up with some truckers while we waited. We pulled into Alegria around 6pm. Making it a 9 hour travel day. At the end of the day we were rewarded with pupusas, cool mountain air, and friendly conversations.

The only downside was around midnight when we awoke to ''The Gambler'' being blasted in the plaza across from the hotel. Music and singing continued off and on until after 3am. Dave went to the van and retrieved earplugs which helped. Then this morning around 730 we awoke to a drum and brass band marching in the streets. Ends up one of the guys we talked to at dinner is a bit of the town crazy, and this is not an uncommon occurance. This morning we were told people don't try to stop him forcefully because he gets violent when he binges. We still haven't figured out the reason for the marching band.

Pictures from Panama coming soon, as soon as we get wi-fi.

We are headed back to Suchitoto tomorrow. After that we really don't know what we'll do. Probably going back to Playa Mizata for a day or two to clean out the van and collect ourselves. We're kinda waiting to see what the deal is with travelling between Mexico and the U.S.

Catch Up

Here's a quick summary of our last bit of travels in Honduras and Nicaragua.

After a couple of nights around Lago Yojoa, Honduras, see Dave's blog for more details, we set out for Nicaragua. We thought we could drive to Danli easily in a day. On the way we stopped at a cavern for a short tour. Think Natural Bridge Caverns, but we were the only ones there.

Our guide was really nice, and excited to practice his English, especially the names for the different formations.

Then we set off on what we thought was 3 or 4 hours of driving. WRONG! It was the worst single day of driving we have had.

All of CA-1 was down to one lane. The Honduran solution to this was for all of the cars to cut over to the shoulder of the on-coming lane and leave a long long line of buses and trucks waiting. Because Dave drives it like he stole it, we were in the line of cars on the shoulder going against on-coming traffic. We were just about to the end of the line of trucks, about 4 miles, when there was a detour. CA-1 was closed in both directions. The detour was a small dirt lane, this would have been slow, but there was a cattle drive down the lane, making it a crawl.


After the cattle drive turned off, people started going fast. It was so dusty from all the cars, it felt a little like we were back on the Playa at Burning Man.


After the construction it was a smooth drive through the mountains, until this semitruck accident. Luckily we were there before it started backing up and we were able to go around.


Around 5pm we pulled into Tegucigalpa, the capital. Traffic was slow chaos, but we made it through until the outskirts, were we were "ticketed'' at a police check point for not having a fire extinguisher or safety triangle.

We made it out of the chaos, and headed to a small town, Yusacaron. There are three hotels in Yusacaron, and one small guest house. All three hotels were full, and it looked like the guest house, Casa Colibri, was shut up. It was dark and we were exhausted, then Brucito showed up. Bruce is in his 60s, he and his wife have been working for half the year in the area for over 10 years doing medical training and community health development. The rest of the year they live in Ohio. He let us in, called the care-taker, and we settled into an idilic weekend in a beautifully restored colonial house. We didn't do much, just enjoy the quiet of the cobblestone streets and watch the processions of devout who walk every weekend during Lent. They walked in two lines, one women, one men. Following a cross and singing.

Dave shows off his panditos candy on the streets of Yusacaron.

View from the porch of Casa Colibri.

After two nights resting in Yusacaron, we crossed into Nicaragua, spent a night in Esteli, an industrial town that would be a good jumping off point for nearby parks in the rainy season, but for us it was too hot and dry for hiking. Next we headed to Granada.

Granada is a beautiful colonial city, and the oldest colonial city in Nicaragua. It is located on the shore of Lake Nicaragua. People were friendly, there is every type of restraunt and diversion you could desire. Generally we liked it. The only downside is how aggressive vendors can be when you are on the street. One boy pushed me twice while we were sitting waiting for our food, and one woman screamed at us then demanded our chips. It caught us off guard because things had been so mellow elsewhere.



There is one very old church where you can walk up the bell tower. We went up for a picturesque sunset.

After Granada we went to Lago Apoyo, a small crater lake between Granada and Masaya. We camped at the Monkey Hut. They had two kitchens, one of them outdoors, and three of four levels of lawn going down to the lake shore. We spent two nights swimming, reading, napping, enjoying the company of a very friendly cat and playing cards.


It was a great place, and we really enjoyed it. Lago Apoyo is the place in Nicaragua I would recommend the most.


We drove from the lake to Playa Popoyo where our friend Zach was hanging out with Lance and Kristin of Surfari Charters. On the drive, Dave found a giant cola. They don't have guests there yet, so we camped behind their bungalows on the beach. They were great hosts, and we enjoyed hanging in hammocks, dinners of fresh fish, and great company. There's not much going on in the area except surfing. But thanks to Kristin, Lance, and the other people from Surfari Charter it was fun.

Sea Turtle on the beach infront of our bungalow. Not really sure why it was there in the morning, but cool to see it close up. It was sad, because there are guys on the beach who just wait for the turtles to come in and nest so they can take their eggs. Gringos and some Nica environmental groups are trying to do community education, but from talking to people it is an uphill battle.

After a week we headed to San Juan del Sur. There are amazing sunsets in the calm bay where the town is. One restaurant has happy hour specials, we enjoyed some appetizers and played cards.
Other posts cover what happened while we were in San Juan del Sur. The town was small and easy to get around with lots of lodging and food options. We also saw Robert and Justin, the two Canadians we met in El Salvador. Minus the robbery and the flooded room, it was a good time.

After San Juan del Sur, we headed for Costa Rica. More on that soon...

Tomorrow we leave Playa Guiones and head towards the Caribbean. From there we'll head south and hopefully get to Bocas del Toro April 9.

Mom's Visit

After welcoming Mom, we loaded up and headed for the coast.


It was a four hour drive to La Ceiba, and we got in just before dark. The original plan was to spend the night, and take the morning ferry to Roatan. But we woke up and it was rainy and the clouds stretched out over the water towards the islands. We checked the weather forecast and it confirmed lots of rain that day out on Roatan.

Cangrejal River

We decided to wait a day for the weather to clear out on the island and instead headed up the Cangrejal River to Omega Lodge and Tours near Pico Bonito National Park. We got the last room in the guesthouse and signed up for an afternoon rafting trip. Our intrepid guide Miles took us down some fun rapids and past giant boulders.

At one point all three of us were thrown from the boat, but aside from a few bruises, it was good fun.
Dave's long hair worked well with the helmet.

Mom jumped off a big rock


I tried to but chickened-out.


Dave jumped too, but went too fast for me to get a video.


The lodge was full of interesting people, most notably our new friend and temporary stalker, John, who followed us out to Roatan. While the area around the lodge is beautiful, and if our visit was any indication the people staying there are generally awesome, and the rafting is fun, the food alone is reason to get out there for dinner if you are in the area. Specifically, order the spatzel. But not just any spatzel, spatzel baked into cheesy-greatness. It makes mac-n-cheese look lame. You can get it with crispy bacon, you are a fool if you skip the bacon, the crispy salty pork perfectly compliments the cheese and spatzel. It is gluttonous, so if you ever go take someone with you so it can be shared. Also, go ahead and end with the homemade chocolate and coconut ice-creams, they are nearly as good as the popsicles in Suchitoto, nearly.

In the morning we hiked up to the waterfall in Pico Bonito National Park. The first step is to cross the suspension bridge over the river.


About three and a half hours round-trip through the forest on the other side of the bridge takes you to the falls and back. It was great to get a close-up of the falls we had seen while driving up to the lodge and rafting down the river. See Dave's blog for more pics.

After the hike and a cold shower (no hot water at Omega Lodge) we drove into La Ceiba to catch the 4:30 pm ferry.

I would prefer not remember the hour and fifteen minutes I spent with my head between my legs crossing to Roatan. No one was sad for the ride to be over, and all three of us were happy to not have needed the little baggies one crew-member walked around handing out.

Roatan

We stayed at Posada Las Orchedias on the far end of West End. The view was great, the room beautiful and full of building defects and staffed by less-than-friendly women. It was quiet and the hammock was nice, and it was right next door to Sea Grapes Plantation and their dive shop.

After an over-rated breakfast at Rudy’s, definitely NOT the best banana pancakes on the island (Dave wants me to mention that he loved his granola, fruit and yogurt), we looked for a dive shop. I did an afternoon dive with Pura Vida, and mom did a refresher dive with West End Divers. The entire next day we dove with Pura Vida as well. Mom did two dives, I did all three. The next two days we dove with Seagrapes. Both shops were good, but very different in style. I would recommend either.

The diving was amazing. I saw at least one sea turtle on every dive. Lots of Queen Angel fish, lots of Black Angel fish, barracudas, two spotted eagle rays, trigger fish, puffer fish, box fish, cow fish, anomies, huge barrel sponges, tall purple sponges, giant fan coral… While it is obvious the reef sees a lot of visitors, the diving was enjoyable with lots to see.

Dave, the non-diver, spent lots of time reading and did some snorkeling.

He got to use my camera, because we were always going deeper than 30ft, the maximum depth my camera stays water-proof.
Here is some of his fine work. There is more over on his blog, as well as video.

Me giving the ok on the descent to Blue Channel


Mom and I at the shallow, inland side, of Blue Channel.


Post-dive interview with Dave


Roatan was expensive. If you aren’t going for diving, I would probably suggest finding another beach that is a little more off-the-beaten-path and where you can get quality food at reasonable prices instead of reasonable food at quality prices. Noteable good food that didn’t cost as much as a dive was
1. the set breakfasts (between 75 and 90L) and lunch sandwiches (around 115L) at The Beach House. But not the bakery items, just the restaurant dishes.
2. the Sunday bbq lunch across from Woody’s grocery
3. the meatloaf and mashed potatoes lunch from the soft-serve ice-cream place across from The Beach House. Every week-day they have a different hot lunch option for 100L. The meatloaf was Mondays and it was tasty and filling.

We took the 2 pm ferry back, and sat downstairs. Mom and Dave were fine on the ride, and they think sitting downstairs helped. I still felt awful for most of the time.

After finding the car safe-and-sound we paid for the parking, loaded up, and headed towards Tela, about an hour and a half drive down the coast towards San Pedro Sula. Tela was much more pleasant than La Ceiba, as far as the town. I hear there is lots of bird watching around there. We stayed at the Mayan Vista hotel, and enjoyed the views of Tela bay and some reasonably priced food. The next morning we headed in to San Pedro Sula. There were a few stops along the way. One for mom to buy some bananas to snack on, one for mom to buy a hammock and some local honey, and one for lunch at a Baleada stand on the highway. Baleadas are a Honduran snack food of a flour tortialla filled with beans and cheese then folded and lightly grilled. Not like a quesadilla because there is just a little cheese and it is the crumbled kind, not the melty-gooy-deliciousness kind.

Copan Ruinas

We crossed into Honduras at the eerily quiet border-crossing of El Poy. After paying 40 usd to bring the car in and showing our passports to the El Salvador officials who told us that the Honduras immigration guys were at lunch but to go on through, we were into Honduras.

We drove through the mountains and ranches to Gracias, Copan. Exhausted we enjoyed a business-traveler’s hotel and slept for a long time. In the morning we headed towards Copan Ruinas, with a stop at the hot springs near Gracias. They were warm springs and it was Sunday. This meant it was rather busy. In particular it was patronized by two little kids who loved to cannon-ball people. They got us, then set their sights on a group of three grandmother-aged women. We left quickly and headed to Copan Ruinas.

We stayed at Brisas de Copan the first night. A great little bargain of a hotel, one block from the square, with a little parking area, hot water showers, nice staff, and spotlessly clean. For 20 usd it was unbeatable, especially compared to the other 5 rooms we looked at around town.

The next morning we walked to the ruins. They are not large like other well known Mayan sites, but they are peaceful and picturesque, especially since we had them nearly to ourselves to explore.

Dave imitates Mayan sculpture surprisingly well.

That afternoon we got intouch with Dona Flavia. In addition to being the proprietress of the enchanted Hacienda San Lucas on hill above the valley, she is also the future-mother-in-law of the dear Sara Maunder, a friend from GGU. Sara put us in touch with Flavia. I can’t think of a better in-law pair; both are generous-of-spirit, vivacious, and simply lovely individuals. Flavia was the most gracious of hostesses and treated us like family.

Flavia invited us to dinner and to experience an evening up at the hacienda. It is a unique jewel of a place. On the land is Los Sapos, a small site that is part of the larger system of ruins throughout the valley. We enjoyed a late-afternoon, bird-song filled, walk to Los Sapos, and spotted a few birds along the way.

The evening at the Hacienda was illuminated with candle-light, further adding to the beauty and peacefulness. We had a macadamia-corn soup that was the most delicious dish we’ve eaten on the trip. It was creamy in consistency, but light on the palate, with finely ground macadamia nuts waiting on the bottom. The entire meal was delicious. For dinner we sat with a family from San Francisco. By total coincidence the dad works with Paul, Flavia’s son/ Sara’s fiancé, in San Francisco. The mom and dad were visiting Raphael, their son, who has been working in Trujillo for nearly two years as a Peace Corp volunteer. Their company was equal in quality with the meal.

Morning at Hacienda San Lucas


The next morning we enjoyed breakfast before walking back into town for the car. From there we were back on the road to San Pedro Sula to pick up Mom from the airport. It was an uneventful drive, except for the cattle drive in the road. Our original plan was to just wait for it to pass us, but a minibus came along and showed us how to handle it Honduras-style.

I Wanted to Post, But...

I really have been meaning to post, but we've been so busy having fun!

Quick update...

We are on the island of Roatan off the coast of Honduras. Did 9 fantastic dives with two great dive shops! Taking the 2pm ferry back to La Ceiba and headed towards San Pedro Sula to drop Mom back off at the airport. She has been here a week and flies home tomorrow.

Soon, very soon there will be pictures and more info! Take a look at Dave's blog for a little more info on what we've been doing...