No Itinerary

Day 38

We are currently in Montezuma, a small beach town on the Nicoysa peninsular of Costa Rica. It takes approximately 2 minutes to do a lap of the town by foot, but after a fair amount of long hot journeys and big cities this is idea. We have our first cabina on the beach (yay), and this morning got up to watch the sunrise which was beautiful.

The town is perhaps a little too dominated by tourism, particularly Americans (like much of the rest of Costa Rica). For this reason we are glad to be heading to Nicaragua shortly as I am sure it will offer a more authentic experience.

However, I must say that we love Costa Rica anyway and have been amazed by the diversity of experiences we have had here. First, I must of course mention the kind hospitality of Anneli, with whom we have been staying with on and off during our stay. Aside from catching up with a good friend, it was wonderful to be able to wash our clothes properly, watch TV in English, cut costs by cooking at home and, crucially, leave half our belongings behind while we traveled around the country.

We went first to Tortuguero, in the North East of the country. It is a national park, only accessible by boat. For this reason we decided to take a tour, rather than embark on the journey alone. It also meant we saw much more wildlife and learnt so much more about the environment than we would if we traveled alone. We saw so much wildlife but I few we can recall are: howler and spider monkeys, poisonous frogs, iguanas, a Jesus Christ lizard, caymen (a bit like crocodiles), toucans, and a huge number of birds. The area is famous for the turtles which nest on the beaches, but alas we didn’t see any as it was not the right season.

We stayed in Tortuguero town which numbered no more than 200 people, but operated as an entire community with a police station, primary and secondary school, gym. It is primarily Caribbean, populated by Jamaican descendents, and the majority of people who live there make their money from tourism. It was a lovely relaxed place and made me feel the furthest away from home yet!

When leaving Tortuguero our adventurous spirit kicked in and, rather than returning with the tour we decided to take a 4hr boat ride down the length of the country to get to Puerto Viejo, a small beach town famous for its relaxed vibe and reggae.

As we sailed down the canal we laughed about how much better this was as a way to travel than sitting in a small minibus. That was, until it started to rain. The kind of rain you get in rainforest areas, i.e. torrential. Since our motto seems to be, always be prepared, we did of course have the necessary rain gear. However, I for one, seemed to get completely soaked despite this.

After another 2 rain storms we finally arrived near our destination and after a short bus ride or 2 down incredibly potholed roads we were there. We stayed in a wonderful hostel, called Rocking J´s, which was complete with rentable cabinas, tents, a hammock hotel (if you don’t mind the mozzies), and tree house. We spent one night in a tent, which was fun, particularly since it was under cover so not really like camping at all. We even had blankets, a mattress and pillows.

After a lovely weekend in San Jose, relaxing in the park, we arrived here, which brings me full circle. We leave tomorrow to visit the cloud forests in Monteverde and then on to see our first active volcano.

Day 22

Last night Jo and I finally made it to see a futbol match in South America. We saw River vs Estudiantes play at a local stadium in Buenos Aires. I do not know much about futbol over here, but we are told River are top of the league so it was a pretty good team to see play.

The atmosphere in the stadium was absolutely incredible. The nearest thing I can liken it to is some kind of tribal warfare, with both sides beating drums for the duration of the match. We were seated in a safe part of the stadium but in the ends by the goal mouths things looked crazy with people on masse jumping up and down on the stands at the slightest provocation! On top of that the game itself was pretty special, with 4 goals (ended 3 River, 1 Estudiantes) and countless yellow cards.

We also met some nice guys from Montreal who were about to head to the Antarctic for 10 months to conduct a weather experiment. I didnt quite grasp the full story, but they gave us their website which is…

www.sedna.tv

Check it out if you are interested. Im about to take a look myself

You may have noticed the absence of photos in our blogs. This is because it is proving quite difficult to easily upload images to the site from some of the hostels we have been in. Instead I have been uploading photos to a kodak gallery which I will shortly be emailing to as many people as I can.. If you want to take a look and havent been invited please email me and Ill add you to the list.

While we have a luxury of a broadband connection and no long queue of people wanting to use the computer I will try my best to retrospectively add some images to the posts I have previously made.

Day 21

As we boarded the final leg of the flight from Salvador to Buenos Aires we were suprised to see a familiar face. Moshe, who we met in Salvador, and who left for BA at least a day before us. He has missed a connection, which fortunately for us meant we got to travel into the city with him and make some plans for meeting up later in the week.

We arrived at our hostel to find they didnt have enough beds for us, and wanted us to move to a different hostel (where we had just dropped moshe in a cab). As we were exhausted we were not inclined to move and so eventually agreed with them I would sleep with the boys for one night. No problem since people in BA dont really go out till 2am and dont get back till about 8am in the morning, so for the night I pretty much had the dorm to myself anyway!

Buenos Aires is a huge huge city. Not only in terms of the area it covers, but the size of the buildings and of the roads. It makes some of americas biggest cities look tiny. Such was the extent of this that Jo and I had the general sense while walking around that it was not the city that was big, but that we were small like ants. It is a big city, and it is a great city. I hate to jump on the bandwagon but like everyone I have met who has been to Buenos Aires I would move here in an instant (assuming I could bring a UK salary). It is sophisticated, has great food, bars and restaurants and is phenomenally cheap.

The first day we walked around San Telmo, the area most famous for Tango (although we didnt see any), and found a clothes market very similar to that which you might find in Shoreditch (trendy London). The difference being clothes were 3 pounds instead of 30! Needless to say we have done alot of shopping here and plan to do some more tomorrow.

Day 20

Today we leave Salvador. I am very glad to leave. Carnaval was fun, if not quite what I had expected, but it really takes it out of you. The area in which we were staying, the Pelhourino, was where the more traditional drumming processions took place. Literally right outside our window, all night. Looking forward to getting some sleep soon!

One of the best things about Salvador however was the friends we made at the hostel. A quick hello here to Sabrina, Moshe, Pashant and Nikki if you are reading this, you really made it all so much fun.

Onwards now to Buenos Aires. Everything we have been told about the city has been fabulous so we cant wait to arrive

Day 16

There are two ways you can spend carnaval. The first, which is the cheapest option, is to be part of the crowd who watch the carnaval processions from the side of the street. The locals call this being piposca (meaning popcorn). The other way is to join a bloco, where you pay for a tshirt or outfit which allows you to follow a particular groups truck during their carnaval marches. It is relatively expensive, but the safest way to spend carnaval (aside from sitting in your room) as you are protected from the theiving masses by a rope and a large number of security guards.

The day we arrived in Salvador we were talked into joining the bloco for a local group called Olodum. This turned out to a great idea as Olodum really are an amazing drum band who have a huge influence in Salvador. Aside from playing with Michael Jackson, they have a local school which teaches drumming to the kids and gets them off the streets. The drummers in the main band are all huge characters and throw drums around in the most impressive way. In addition, our African costumes, complete with headress, , were by far and away the best of any I saw. Jo and I almost became local celebrities as everyone clamoured to have their photos taken with us (well I guess it is a little odd to see a Chinese and a white girl dressed as african women in the middle of Brazil!).

The first carnaval march was a bit of a disaster however as it started more than 5 hours late (at 2am no less). The locals in the procession got rightly angry and began a small demonstration which included one guy burning his hat and screaming ….down with Olodum. He seemed pretty happy with them however when they started marching so all ended well.

The second carnaval march was amazing. We were the first in the procession and Jo and I danced right at the front, and as we danced along the beachfront the sun slowly went down. This for me at least, was the best part of carnaval.

The thrid march was more stressful. We were on the main carnaval route and things were very busy. After a while Jo and I decided to leave the bloco and try to head home. Bad idea, since as soon as we got outside the ropes we got caught in the most immense crush. I think it only lasted about 5 minutes, but it was enough to make us be glad carnaval was coming to an end.

While packing this morning I noticed that Lucifer wasn’t in his bin. I think he’s in my rucksack.

:/

I’m in Palolem with my buddies from Panjim, it’s another beautiful palm fringed beach. but this time with a pleasant mix of travellers, hippy types and package holidayers. If anyone ever fancies two weeks in goa on the cheap, this is the place to come.

There was a fantastic rainstorm two nights ago which was fun, but I didn’t sleep much that night.

There is a particularly evil-looking spider in my waste paper bin. He sits in his web flexing his legs in a menacing way.

I have called him LUCIFER.

Strangely enough I have had a lot of spider related dreams recently.

Pictures to follow.

I’ve been staying in Pajim for a few days, Panjim is the state capital of Mumbai. It’s a useful hub for getting to places and a nice place to meet people. I’ve met a nice bunch of travelers who I’ve been hanig with for a few days chatting and having nice dinners.

Hooray.

I can also finally post some pictures of Bogmalo for you too. Bogmalo is one of the more touristy areas of Goa but it’s still wonderfully undeveloped by any other standard.

At Bogmalo I learnt to scuba dive where I met Pip, Willie, Gary, Rupesh and Mahesh and loads of other people. Here are some pictures of my diving chums as well as the comedy moment when we nearly sank the diving boat.

Now I’m in Panjem (Panaji, Panjim it’ got loads of names, I’ve met loads of traveller types and had lots of nice dinners.

I’m a qualified advanced scuba diver. Yay!

I’m stuck in Bogmalo until Saturday though because I can’t get my card signed until then. Which is a shame as I’m a bit bored here. I never was much of a sunbather.

Met a few nice people though mainly through diving. I’m currently sat in a beachside restaurant watching the people from my dive school struggle to pull the boat up the beach :). I helped for a bit but I didn’t actually dive with them today and my beer was getting warm so I’ve retired back to a supervisory capacity…

The diving here isn’t spectacular which makes it a good place to do a course since I don’t feel like I’m missing out on any good dives while I’m doing all the boring navigation and search and recovery stuff.

I’ve seen some cool stuff though, loads of fish, a couple of lobsters, even a tiny purple octopus which was ace. I don’t think I’m going to eat any more seafood though, they’re all too magnificent in the wild. I have already developed a severe hatred of people fishing.

Hmm, Panjim next methinks, or maybe Palolem. So many choices…