El Salvador

I'm sitting in my hostel room in Mexico writing this.  It's raining - obviously that image of the dry hot, eternal sunshine of Mexico doesn't quite hold true.  I hear we're in for hail which is not so great because we have seriously limited cold clothing.  It could be worse I guess - we could be in extremely cold Europe right now with the same amount of cold weather clothing.  I shouldn't complain. 

So El Salvador.  We didn't spend much time there, and only made a few stops.  It was also the first country where I was fully mobile in Central America - as long as I didn't try something silly like walk up a volcano.  We basically hit San Salvador (one of the crime capitals of the world), Ruta de Las Flores (The Route of Flowers), Mark climbed another volcano and then left for Honduras.  Not too much.

I honestly wasn't expecting to be dazzled, not quite sure why.  I guess we hadn't meet many people who had been there so there wasn't that buzz created from shared conversations. Not so many tourist often results in a really underdeveloped tourist structure, ie super friendly locals who are incredibly curious, very simple hostels, transportation and attractions and very very simple local foods.   El Salvador had shades of this. 

We were in and out of San Salvador, not so safe. We decided to skip the beaches, we don't surf, and the pacific coast isn't great for sun lounging, nor do we really enjoy roasting in the sun. 

We arrived at Ruta de Las Flores and discovered we had a arrived for the towns annual saints day held on their WEEKEND FOOD MARKET.  Yep you heard me, we arrived in time for a WEEKEND FOOD MARKET!!  And it was amazing.  It's billed as an international food market, but really it's one giant bbq.  Stall after stall after stall of aromatic (I wish I could bottle it) bbq'd food of all descriptions. There was also pumpkin boiled in honey - amazing.  I gorged.  Ok I wish I did, but I filled up quick.  Fortunately while Mark climbed his volcano I went back to the market and ate seafood...  Soooo good!

We also checked out some of the surrounding towns which were - ok - with two Swedish friends, Karin and Elin, but the highlight really was that amazing food festival.

typical offerings

where to start??

pumpkin boiled in honey

Following the food orgy we headed to Honduras, which is for another blog.  If you want to see more of Mark's photo's (sans food), click the link here.  

Finally I'm contemplating a series of 'best of' blogs (best beaches, best islands etc) anyone interested?? 

Nubile Nicaragua*

We have three weeks left - ahhhh! 

Ok Nicaragua.. I've been raking my brains on what to put in this blog, and how to start it.  Hence the less than impressive opening paragraph.

After Costa we were looking forward to heading to Nica, meeting up with our friend Allen and hitting Corn Islands for Christmas and New Year.  Except...

NEVER ever cross the Costa Rica/ Nicaragua boarder just before a holiday.  It was a mess. Getting into Nica took (no exaggeration - it's Bridget writing) 5 hours of standing in the sun (it wasn't raining any more - small mercies) in a queue that snaked around the building, through the car park and into the bus station.  There were loads of Gringos who cheated and paid to jump the queue, and much resentment because of this.  As I still couldn't stand too much, and certainly not with my bag on my back, poor Mark had to line up while I watched the bags.  What a hero!

Once through immigration and into Nica it was all about getting those elbows out to get onto the bus.  Just when you thought they couldn't squeeze another body on a family off six would arrive and you'd find your nose in the elbow of someone who hasn't washed in a week and the lady next to you spits her chicken bones onto your skirt because she can't move her hands to put the bones into a bag or out the window.

Thankfully this was our worst bus experience in Central and Nicaragua picked up from that point onwards. 

Meeting Al in Granada was pretty exciting.  He came with gifts from friends, Christmas pudding, mince pies and a couple of jars of Vegemite for Mark.  We had Christmas in Granada, complete with Al's festive jumper and then flew to Corn Islands and settled into Little Corn.

Every other visit by Al has been actioned packed and very very busy.  He's either hiking with Mark, or we've put together a massive itinerary involving loads of site seeing and much drinking.  This time it was (to Mark's slight disgust) all about lazing on the beach and finding the nicest cafe on the island to drink cocktails, gorge ourselves on good food and watch the world go by.  We managed a bonfire on the beach with horrible marshmallows, got some fresh coconuts and mixed the juice with rum and tried to avoid sandflies and mozzies.  It was AMAZING!!  No hiking, no ruins or site seeing, just a whole lot of chewing the fat and relaxing. 

We said good-bye to Al and headed to Ometepe which is an island in the middle of that massive lake in Nicaragua (can't miss it on a world map).  Mark climbed a volcano and I discovered the best breakfast of Latin America - sadly on our last day.  My mission when we get home is to recreate it.

From there we went up north near Leon and we to a small coastal town to go turtle watching.  Up and down the pacific coast of Costa and Nica over the months October to January turtles come to lay their eggs and then hatch. Unfortunately we were too late in the season to watch them lay eggs, but we did manage to arrive in time to help release baby turtles after they hatched.  Quite elated we head back to our hotel room to find a bat going for a swim in our loo - our life is cool!!


So that's the boring we did this, we did that bit on Nica.  What did I think of the country and people, and food? There are some amazing gringo run restaurants.  The local's favourite meal is gallo pinto (rice and beans) it's served with every meal, and we fast developed a loathing for the stuff.  The people are friendly an there's a good mixture of tours if you want them and cheaper activities.


*This was the only acceptable aliteration.  "Nice Nicaragua"  just didn't cut it. 

Costa Rica

I'm writing this on a bus again - clearly I find the elbows to the head (because there is no such thing as too many people on a bus here), small children being deposited on my lap, the sounds of the bad spanish love ballads and reggaeton, and extreme bouncing (the suspension probably died in the mid 70s) inspiring.  That or it's the forced inaction...

So, setting aside comments on chicken buses (which I actually do enjoy), what can I say about Costa Rica?  Well, it's probably the number one Latin American destination for people in the US. I've heard it's there number 5 destination globally, but I can't google that while on a bus, so no quoting ok :). 

With green tropical forests, blue oceans, mountains, volcanoes and an abundance of wild life results in a stunning country.  That influx of tourists from the US means you don't have to go far to find English speakers, menus are in Spanish and English and there is a huge, well oiled tourism machine running in the country.

Unfortunately it was raining pretty much constantly for the seven days we were there*.  And when a country is geared up for outdoor activities, this kind of sucks.  Costa is THE place to go zip lining across forest canopies, hit the rainforest trails,  cling to canopy rope bridges,  hike to volcano tops, sit on a beach, surf and go animal watching.  Not really something you can enjoy in torrential downpour.  And I'm not even slightly exaggerating with the torrential bit.  Since my foot was still 'wobbly' I wasn't so keen on slipping, landing on my butt and damaging my foot even more. 

The other problem with Costa was all of the tourist activities were WAY out of our budget.  Want to hike in the national park - that'll be US$25 thank-you.  Hit the hot springs  - US$40 please.  Without a government run tourist office information on the very few free activities wasn't easy to come by.  Considering it was raining anyway, we really didn't do much. 

Now you may have never been around Mark when he's bored and unable to do the ten or so activities he's decided to do that day.  I have, and it's not pretty.  Honestly we couldn't leave fast enough.

With sunshine and many many $$$ Costa would have been amazing.  We had neither which sadly killed it a bit for us.

We did manage to find one free hot stream (hot springs are so passé) which, accompanied by the others) we enjoyed in the evening, complete with candles and some cheap vodka and ginger ale.  In the spirit of true Rican entrepreneurship tour companies where running US$19 trips to the hot springs - without the vodka.

We also had a day or two without rain so hit a beautiful pacific beach up near the board of Nicaragua.  It had black sand, which was kind of cool.









 Photo's for Costa can be found here, here and here.



* by all accounts it was doing this everywhere in Central and resulted almost universally negative opinions for pretty much whichever country you happened to be in.

Feed me - brief synopsis of life since Panama and what next

On an early morning bus in Honduras and have just realised (horror upon horrors) we've left the vegemite behind. Me - I could care less about the putrid stuff. Mark's a little less blasé.

I am quite bummed about the rest of the food we left behind - my stomach is getting more and more insistent in reminding me it's breakfast time. Also that bag of mixed nuts, olives, apples and hard boiled eggs would have made a pretty amazing backpacker bus breakfast. Agh stop thinking of food Bridget!!!!

So other than a loudly growling stomach what is news?? I can walk sans hobble. We had our friend Allen join us over the Christmas, New Year break (bringing the much loved vegemite). We've crossed seven borders and been to five countries. Milestone birthdays have been celebrated and Maya step pyramid visited. We've taken numerous chicken buses and seen a multitude of men dresses in cowboy regalia complete with seriously cool Texan style cowboy hats. At 5 hours we've had our slowest boarder crossing yet and if I ever see rice and beans (gallo pinto) again it'll be too soon!!!

We've also finally made our decision on what we do and where we go and the end of our traveling circus. With just six weeks* left of a three year traveling adventure we'll be hitting London for two weeks and then downwards towards home, Perth. It wasn't a terribly easy choice, nor particularly fun for Allen to watch as we made it, but it's done and personally I'm looking forward to heading back to Australia after over six years travel and living abroad.

Mark being the clever dickens that he is, has a job lined up back in Perth, amusingly enough with a group of lawyers that I once worked with.

I've started actually writing out a list of meals I plan to cook as opposed to just day dreaming about them. We're staying with my folks who have about the best kitchen I've ever seen!!

I think I'll write a separate blog each for Costa Rica, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Honduras. We spent about 3 hours in Guatemala catching buses between boarders so there really isn't too much to share.

I'll leave you with a photo from this current bus journey. As you can see three years of travel has matured me nicely :)




*slightly shocked at tht.  It feels like our leaving drinsk in London were just a few months ago.

Hammocks of Panama

We're on a bus to Costa Rica now and I'm slightly concerned because everyone keeps on talking about how overwhelmingly expensive it is. At this point in the trip (two and a half months to go) the funds are running low. I don't think we'll be like some backpackers we've meet who've finished on a USD10 a day budget in somewhere like Brasil, but we aren't feeling flush.

We're probably only going to spend a few days in Costa, enough time for me to hit the old 3 - 0, but Christmas will be in Nicaragua and New Years with Allen (a friend from home) on Corn Islands. Hopefully diving with Hammerhead sharks. I love my life right now.

So since my last, complainy complainy pants post what has happened. Geographically we haven't moved a lot. We ended up spending 10 odd days in Bocas del Torro hanging out with the lovely Sam and Sarah. Then onwards to Boquete.

As for activities, well in Bocas Mark would hike to one of the more amazing tropical beaches we've seen on this trip, I'd hobble from our room to the hammock and wait for my foot to improve. Mark would catch a small boat to one of the outlying islands go body surfing and drink beer at a beach bar, I'd hobble from our room to the hammock. Mark would go check out an organic coffee and chocolate cafe situated at the highest point on the island surrounded by jungle, I'd (you've guessed it) hobble from our room to the hammock.

Don't think he abandon me - not at all he also spent a fair bit of time keeping me company. And with Sam and Sarah, and then Henrick, we cooked up a storm including but not limited to amazing Bolognese (thanks Mark), the best stir fry I've had in months (nice work Sam), amazing toasties (kudos Henrik and Mark) and with the help of the owner a pretty fine Caribbean chicken stew.

After ten days and a very careful hike to that amazing tropical beach for me (slowly with hiking poles) I deemed myself ok for the stress of moving to Boquete. So we said good-bye to lovely friends, I strapped up my foot and Mark heroically carried my backpack (13kgs), his mega pack (18kgs) and his 'daybag' (8kgs) between bus stops, on and off boats and to hostels. Without complaint! That's love!

So what happened in Boquete? Mark went on a gruelling day hike to a small town, I sat in the hammock. Mark hiked to a hot spring, I sat in a hammock.

Good news is, I like hammocks, I have lots of books to read and often had good company. Better news is, my foot's getting good enough, so I should be able to do a few short hikes myself.

If you're wondering why there is so much hiking planned in a beachy part of the world, Mark's a wee bit obsessed with hiking right now. If this all sounds right up your alley (the hiking) he swears by, and will happily talk your ear off about, a website called www.besthikes.com. As for me, I'm hanging out for Nicaragua which will involve a whole lot of white sand, blue sea and maybe a cocktail or two.

Foot update and photos

We're still in Bocas del Torro eagerly awaiting a fully functioning left foot for me.  I can hobble now, but I think Mark will be carrying my backpack around for a while.  I'll have to get a photo to show you how impressive a feat that actually is.

Since it's been raining here a fair bit, he's been slogging away on photo's and has posted a few new albums on his picasa site.

Check them out here https://picasaweb.google.com/mark.bridget.

I may just be a wee bit biased, but I think there are some beautiful shots there.  If you're feeling lazy, here are a few of my faves

Panama hates me

We're in Bocas del Torro (Mouths of the Bull) in Panama having spent a few days sailing from Columbia through the San Blas islands to Panama and then sightseeing in Panama City.

Now you may wonder why I said that Panama hates me, it all started out nice and happy sailing through the San Blas Islands on the Gypsy Moth, an English owned charter boat.  Sym, Amy and little Halley sail tourists back and forth between Columbia and Panama through the tropical and somewhat deserted islands of San Blas.  Think perfect blue seas, coconut plants and white sandy beaches.  We were also promised fresh coconut rum, but alas on an island full of coconut trees the tiny little bar couldn't find any coconuts... I guess that’s where the bad luck began.

Gypsy Moth dropped us of near the San Blas Islands, and from there we took a 4WD to Panama City.
Unfortunately it was POURING with rain and my backpack - on the roof - was soaked completely through.  We arrived in Panama City to find every single hostel was completely booked out, bar one with rooms that were closer to something you'd expect to see in a mental institution.  But that was ok, because it was soon decorated with every item of clothing we own as well as sleeping bags, mosquito nets, silk liners and all that miscellaneous stuff you don't realise you cram into your bag.  I had exactly three items of dry clothing and a room that resembled a chinese laundry.

But that was ok, Panama City is beautiful, and everything is better in the morning, so we wondered around, dodging the occasional downpour and taking in the sites and sounds of Panama City.  We stopped off back at our hotel room , where the next bit of bad luck struck

I'd recently seen a fellow backpacker go past on crutches and thanked our lucky stars that we'd not had that problem, nor had we had any serious injuries.  Stoopid woman.  In our room I slipped and landed on my foot - which is pretty pathetic way to injure yourself really.  I now can't walk without limping, can’t carry my bag or traverse a distance of more than 5 metres without pain.  Poor Mark's now my bag boy, occasional crutch and general 'fetch it boy', which he's taking with remarkable good grace.

Thinking that some time spent sitting on a beach would we good and wouldn't involve a lot of movement, we caught a bus with some friends from the boat trip, Sam and Sarah, to Bocas del Torro.  This involved an amazingly horrible night bus, and then two very wet boat trips.  This resulted in a migraine for me :(.

I'm not going to lie after everything else, I cried and sobbed.  I then took a lot of drugs, passed out and waited for the sunshine to come out. 

But everything is always better in the morning….