All good things must come to an end...

It's so cold here!...was our exclamation as we stepped outside the Sacramento airport. We arrived Wednesday in Sacramento after a very early morning flight from Costa Rica (1 am!), a long line in customs and going through security again, and another long flight from Houston to Sac. Our last bus ride, the bus from San Jose to the airport, didn't feel like the end of our trip but rather just the next step in our journey.

But we are back now, glad to have some things again and annoyed by other things once again. What a whirlwind adventure we had; three months seemed to go by so fast! While we are glad to be back, there are many things we will miss. The relaxed, slow pace of life down there. People yelling out what they are selling, '¡Sandia, sandia, sandia!'  The bus drivers happily honking "Hi" to each other as they pass on the roads. The extremely tasty mangoes. The central american cows. Gallo pinto (beans and rice dish). Warm sun and warm ocean. The fruits and vegetables. The lower prices of everything. How colorful everything was from the buses to the buildings to how everyone dressed.

With that Pura Vida and Diacachimba! These are the mottoes of Costa Rica and Nicaragua, respectively, meaning 'good life' and 'fantastic day.'

Thanks for reading and we hope you enjoyed our tales and photographs.
With love,
Karen and Chet

Karen, Chet, and Wyatt. Just kidding. The awesome central american cows with their big floppy ears, a flap of waggly neck skin, and a big hump on their back. 

A really cool hibiscus with a frilly pompom at the end of its stamen. 

Karen displaying her new dress in Oaxaca. 

Beautifully bright buildings in Granada.

Gallo pinto and fresh salsa that we made.

Pura vida.

Arenal!!!

We arrived in Arenal by way of minibus, boat across Lake Arenal, and another minibus. Arenal is located on the east side of the mountain chain that winds its way through Costa Rica. The main town is called La Fortuna and is located at the base of the enormous Arenal Volcano. The volcano was relatively active up until 2010, when it entered into a dormant phase. Lava used to be visible at night flowing down the mountainside. Where Monteverde was quite chilly (we were wearing jeans and long sleeve shirts), Arenal is very warm and humid. It feels like we are back in the jungle again.

Wind turbines along the dirt road from Monteverde to the boat launch.

A third of the way across lake Arenal. The volcano is just visible among the clouds.

Our first full day here we decided to visit the La Fortuna waterfall. The falls are located about 6 km from town so we decided to hitchhike. Unfortunately no one picked us up, so we ended up walking the whole way. Lucky for us, it was a beautiful walk.

A view of Arenal volcano. Seen on our walk to the waterfall.

The falls were very impressive. The water thunders down from 75 meters above, pounding into a large pool below. It was a popular destination and there were a lot of people there. Fortunately the water was quite cold and no one could stay in for long. We hung out for a bit, ate lunch, and took lots of photos. Hitchhiking back we were lucky and caught a ride almost immediately.

Karen in the pool at the base of the waterfall.

The next day we decided to visit one of the attractions Arenal is most well known for: hot springs. There is a river here that is heated from the volcano to hot tub level temperatures (90s for sure). Developers have taken advantage of this and there is a swath of resorts boasting to have the "best" hot springs. Most of these resorts have outrageous prices ($100+) for day passes. Some say this is to prevent locals from coming to the resorts and limit the clientele to strictly tourists.

Since we are on a budget we decided to go where the locals go for their hot spring experience. It is located next to a giant resort called Tabacon. Tabacon actually used to own this part of the river, but lost it to the public in a lawsuit. Now it is a free, public access hot spring called Tabaconito (little Tabacon).

We hitchhiked out to the springs as it was a solid 14 km walk along a road with no shoulder and taxis charged $25+. The hot springs weren't what one would think of as traditional hot springs (a still pool that reeks of sulfur). This was a full on flowing river, or rather a stream, that had been heated from the volcano to 90+ degrees. The river was crowded with locals (we were the only gringos) as it is Semana Santa, a major week long holiday. We walked upstream and found a pool with no people to claim as our own. The water was hot, almost uncomfortably so as the air temp was quite high as well. It was still quite refreshing to soak. Once out of the water, with a breeze blowing the river was amazing. We stayed for several hours, alternating soaking and enjoying the light breeze. We timed our exit perfectly, arriving at the road just as the one bus that runs a day started to drive by. We flagged it down and caught a ride back to town.

Karen enjoying a soak at Tabaconito

For last bit of touristy tourism, Chet and I took a river cruise safari down a river called Caño Negro. The boat trip was about two hours with lots of wildlife viewing. We saw many, many different birds from King Fishers to Little Blue Herons  in addition to spider and howler monkeys, a sloth, iguanas, jesus christ lizards (the lizards that walk on water) and many caiman (caiman are reptiles similar to crocodiles but smaller in size and less verocious).

Spider monkey hanging from its tail to eat leaves.

Iguanas on the shore.

Caiman on the shore...it's about a meter long, just a little guy.

Love,
Chet and Karen

Monteverde

We caught a 6:00 am bus from Granada, Nicaragua to Cañas, Costa Rica. The trip went very smoothly and involved perhaps the fastest border crossing yet (only about an hour and a half!!). From Cañas, we caught a bus to Tilarán where we discovered we missed the last bus to Monteverde by about 15 minutes. We had no choice but to stay the night.

Tilarán was a quiet, beautiful mountain town. We read, napped, and ate Tritz (Costa Rican equivalent to an Its It ice cream sandwich). It was a relaxing day. We whiled away the morning and caught the 12:30 to Monteverde.

Monteverde is located high up in the mountains of Costa Rica. The mountains form what is called "The Continental Divide". Warm, humid air is blown up the mountain range east to west. As the air rises, it cools and forms clouds, which are ever prevalent in Monteverde. These clouds provide the water for the unique cloud forests which Monteverde is known for.

Our first full day in Monteverde we walked to a grove of strangler fig trees. Strangler figs are crazy trees! They grow from a seed which is deposited by a bird high in the canopy of another tree. The fig grows up and down using the 'host' tree as scaffolding. Over many years the fig completely encompasses the host tree, effectively strangling it, and the host tree dies. Over time the dead host rots away, leaving a hollow passage up the center of the thriving fig.

We walked around looking at the massive, hollow trees. They were breathtaking. We climbed up through the center of some of the bigger ones, making it up quite far.

While we were hanging out and climbing, a herd of coatis (Costa Rican raccoon) came through the brush on the hillside below us. A few minutes later a pack of Capuchin monkeys came to say hello. They were crazy monkeys, jumping quite far and falling long distances before grabbing on to another branch. Karen and I also saw some emerald toucanets (We didn't get a photo, but here is the wikipedia page), a beautiful green bird with a large beak (think cross between a parrot and a toucan). They were very noisy.

After the fig tree grove, we walked several kilometers to a butterfly garden. It was pretty interesting. They had a large swath of of butterflies as well as scorpions, tarantulas, millipedes, and cockroaches. There was also a leaf cutter ant colony in a box which you could look inside and see their process of farming the fungus which lives off the leaves they bring back.

The next day Karen and I (Wyatt had gone out drinking with a lady friend until four in the morning and was too tired) went to the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve. I had my student ID so I got in the park for a bit cheaper, but Karen didn't have hers so she had to pay $20 to get in.

The reserve is perched on top of the mountain and is constantly besieged by a mist and howling wind. The forest is not quite the jungle you would expect. It is much colder up there (we hiked in long pants and jackets for a good portion of the day) and the forest reminded us of the redwood forests of back home with all the ferns and greenery. We got to the reserve at 8 in the morning because we heard the parks can get quite crowded in the afternoon. The buses back to town were very sporadic and we ended up catching the 2 pm bus. Having so much time, we decided to get our money's worth and hike as many trails as possible. We hiked just about every trail that was open, about ~7 kilometers.

We didn't see as many cool critters as we had hoped, but the ones we did see and hear were pretty awesome. We saw this crazy bird, probably about the size of a turkey, called a Great Curassow. It was just standing 50 feet away in the middle of the path; it was pretty skittish though so we didn't get very close. We also saw a Black Guan, about the size of a red-tail hawk, that had made some crazy noises (Their call and wing click sound). We saw a very tame coati that didn't even care that we were there. The plant life was pretty spectacular too with huge strangler trees, super tall fern trees, and epiphytes covering everything (epiphytes are plants that grow on other plants without harmming or benefiting from their host like orchids and ferns). Some of the things we didn't see but only heard were pretty cool too. There was one bird call that sounded like a musical rust swing and we found out later was a three wattled bellbird (link to sound); wish we could have seen one of those guys but they were always really high up in the canopy. Later, we found out we had heard a quetzal but never got to see it. When we got back to our hostel, we googled 'monteverde bird calls' and were able to figure out what we had been hearing. The internet is an amazing thing ;)

The coati

We also did a free hike to the top of the highest point in Monteverde, the hill that is home to the TV towers. After the steepest hour hike ever, we arrived at the top of the hill in the middle of a cloud. Even though we didn't see much at the top, it was definitely an awesome hike through the forest.

Wyatt and I (Karen) also went to an orchid garden right down the road from our hostel in Monteverde. Wyatt grows his own orchids back home and so was stoked to go. The garden was fairly small in size but contained over 450 species of orchid, all of them found locally in the Monteverde region. Most of them were miniature with many flowers smaller than a thumb nail. Orchids are interesting in that they have neither pollen or nectar to offer pollinators, but need the pollinators to help them reproduce. So they develop 'tricks' to get the pollinators to come to them such as scents, very bright colors and the large modified petal that draws the bug in. It was a really cool tour.

Sunrise before our 6 am bus from Granada. 

Costa Rican money is definitely the prettiest. Somewhat makes up for how annoying it is to deal with. $1 = 500 colones. 

Climbing inside one of the Strangler Fig trees. 

Strangler Fig from a distance. 

Really old, really cool Strangler Fig. 

At the butterfly house. 

Karen and a giant tree in the cloud forest. 

View from the Cloud Forest. 

Tame coatis in the forest. 

Great Curassow in the cloud forest. 

Note the gigantic tree ferns; they look like palm trees in this picture!!

At the top!

The guys and the very very steep road.

Costa Rican national flower. 

One day bloom orchid. 

The tiniest orchid! 

Lots of love,
Karen and Chet

Granada

Writing last Tuesday:
Going to the market today was a little more of an event than usual....
After a lunch out, Chet and I decided to go to the market to get vegetables for dinner.  We have been going to the market generally around 4 in the afternoon.  By that time, the market is generally winding down. So we thought we'd go check it a little sooner than later today. As we walked down the street towards the mercado, we began to be aware of a commotion ahead. We passed two police diverting cars (but not pedestrians) from the road and then we saw it...smoke slowly creeping out of the upper story of the building that partially houses the market (some of the vendors have booths inside the building while others line the street next to the building). Then Chet pointed out the cause of the smoke. Electrical lines had somehow melted or snapped and were spraying sparks all over the tin roof where the sparks then rebounded to the wooden frame of the building. Within minutes, we began to see flames hungrily licking the upper story. As the fire began to rage, people stood in the streets watching the scene unfold or hurriedly packed up their wares, closing shop as quickly as possible. At a loss of what to do, we headed back to our hostel, only a block away. The hostel smelled horridly of a melted electrical smoke that had drifted over from the fire. We excitedly relayed the news to Wyatt...the market is on FIRE! 'Should we go check it out?' was his reply. And with that we grabbed our cameras and headed back out.  After what must have been a half hour since the electrical lines started sparking, the power was finally shut off and the fire trucks finally arrived. By the time we'd gone back out to rubber neck and take pictures like the rest of the crowd, the flames had died out, but the building continued to billow a gnarly, noxious smoke (luckily the wind was blowing the smoke away from us!). After watching the progress for a bit, we decided to move on. Almost an hour or two later, we headed back.  The building was roped off, but you could still walk in the adjacent alley where a few vendors had reopened for business. So we bought our veggies for salsa and went home. And that's that!

Smoke billowing out of the tall market place building down the street.

The markets we've been going to in Nicaragua are open air mazes of precariously constructed booths with vendors selling everything you could need from fruit and veggies to flip flops to bulk rice and beans and dog food to even meat and fish. There are a few grocery stores around, but the produce is much better in the local markets. It is so crazy to me; the vendors all sell the same things, competing for business. The veggie people all sell the same type of Roma tomato and onion. The fruit people all sell bananas, mandarins, limes, and mangoes. Doesn't seem like the most logical business plan to me...to all sell the same thing. But that's how it's done here I guess.

Yesterday, we went to the craziest of all markets for a day trip.  Renowned for its markets, Masaya is a town about 30 minutes away from Granada. Hot and sweaty from the ride on the chicken bus, we arrived in Masaya...in the middle of a gigantic, tent city maze of a market. It was crazy, overwhelming, and amazing. The smell was pretty intense too with a mixture of fish and meat that had been warmed by the heat. After walking around for awhile, trying to find our way through the never ending maze, we decided to walk to the local artisan market. Once again, everyone was selling similar things, but we all bought a couple souvenirs anyway. Later, we walked down to the water front, which was a very high cliff with a wonderful view of the crater lake below, Laguana Masasya. Unfortunately, we found out later that that lake is extremely polluted from the nearby city and factories dumping their wastewater there for many years.

Writing several days later.....
While in Granada, we took several other day trips as well as wondered around the beautiful town.  One day, we headed up to Laguana Apoyo (another volcanic crater lake, but not polluted) for a beach day and rented some kayaks. Another day, we took an afternoon/night tour of Volcan Masaya. The volcano is still active and one of its craters spews sulfurous gases. The tour took us to see all the different craters (there are 4 different craters, but two are inactive), told us the history of the volcano and other fun facts, and took us into a lava tube/bat cave. It was all really cool and I'm glad we did the tour instead of going up by ourselves. Our other days in Granada were spent wandering the colonial style town. All of the buildings were very tall and colorful, and went right up to the sidewalk, making the town seem small and somewhat claustrophobic. But, if you got high enough up above the roofs, you could see that all the buildings had little courtyard areas and the buildings went much deeper into the block than one expected from first glance on the street.

One day while walking around we passed a barberia. On an impulse Wyatt and I decided to get haircuts. I pointed to a picture of the style I more or less wanted and away we went. The buzzer kept clogging up as my hair was rather long but the guy did a great job, finishing up with a flat-edged razor. It was probably the fastest, most professional, and least expensive (40 cordobas~$1.50) haircut I've ever had. With a large pile of hair on the floor, I left feeling lighter and very satisfied.

Church in Granada. Note the front is only a facade!

All the buildings were so colorful there.

Cathedral in Granada. 

Laguana Masaya 

Laguana Apoyo 

Active Masaya volcano. 

View of Granada and Volcan Mombacho from a church bell tower.

Love,
Karen and Chet

Isla Ometepe!

We are now on Isla Ometepe in the middle of Lake Nicaragua (sometimes known as Cocibolca Lake). It took us half a day of traveling from San Juan del Sur to get here with many transportation changes along the way. First was a chicken bus from San Juan to Rivas. The bus dropped us on the side of the highway...we thought we would be dropped at the bus station...drat.  The moment we got off the bus we were approached by some taxi drivers,but not just any taxi drivers...bicycle taxi drivers.  Not wanting to walk all the way across town to the bus station, we decided to go the four kilometers to the ferry in the bike taxi. Half serious and joking, Wyatt at one point asked if he could try riding the bicycle. Our driver replied with his consent. Climbing aboard the bike, Wyatt got the hang of it after only a couple foibles. He said it was much harder than he expected since the cover of the rickshaw acted as a sail in the steady wind and that the steering was super touchy. After a few minutes and safely maneuvering us through a construction zone, Wyatt was done and handed control back to the driver. After an hour and a half wait on the dock in little San Jorge, we boarded a ferry to Ometepe. The lake was pretty rough from the wind but thankfully we were on a big enough boat that we didn't really feel it except for the side to side sway. A long long time ago, when Chet came here with his family, he said they took a smaller boat to the island, one that each time the boat hit a wave, the boards seemed to move and rub against each other as if the boat was going to fall apart (He thought he was going to die on that boat). But not to worry you...we took a very sturdy metal, three story ferry made in the Netherlands (all the signs were in Dutch still!)  And so we made it to Ometepe after a long ride. I like the ferry. It's kind of a break from the madness on both land sides, just a slow toodle across the water watching the scenery go by very slowly.  As soon as you get off the ferry though, you are suddenly jerked from that dreamy serenity back into the hustle and bustle of the land bound world, with multitudes of taxi drivers vying for your attention.

After talking to the bus people, we found that we would have to take the bus way out of our way, switches buses, and then finally be on the right track to our destination.  For only a couple dollars more and in a LOT less time, we opted for a taxi. We are staying at a hostel in the very small town of Santa Cruz (all the towns on the island are pretty dang tiny).

Ometepe is comprised of two volcanoes, the active Volcan Concepcion and the non-active Volcan Maderas. We are staying on the non active one :)  But we do have a pretty killer view of the active one right from our porch at our hostel and can even see it smoking away in the afternoon once it has shed its morning cloud cloak. Ometepe is part of the "Ring of Fire" chain of volcanoes that go up the Pacific coast of North and South America and down the Pacific coast of eastern Asia.

On our first afternoon here, we walked down to Playa Santo Domingo. At first glance, the beach looks like an ocean side beach on a calm day, with little wind waves rolling in and you can't see the other side of the like so it looks like the ocean. But on closer inspection, the water is not salty like the ocean, the waves are very small, and one can just make out the land on the other side of the lake.

The rough water leaving the mainland for Ometepe.

The second day here...we had the adventure of adventures.  We decided to hike the non active volcano, Maderas. Chet, Wyatt, and I are all pretty good hikers, having hiked and backpacked a bunch back home so we felt prepared to hike the mountain. To be honest, we weren't in the greatest hiking shape so we were pretty dang sore in the legs today. But anyways, we hiked a volcano! Over ten years ago, several different people died hiking the volcanoes, so it is now required to hire a guide if you want to hike the mountains.  Through our hostel, we set up a tour with a guide.  There is a local union of tour guides here that trains the guides in survival skills and the trails of the mountains. Our guide, Gerald, was a little reserved at first and taking it a little slow.  Later when we'd finally gotten back to our hostel, we found out it was his fifth time this week and his 1263rd ascent of Maderas (AND he's climbed the other, taller volcano over 800 times!). Over his nine years as a hiking guide, he has accumulated many stories. One being where after he had led a tour, he drank some beers with his hiking group, and then fell asleep in a hammock (the hostel has several hammocks around), waking up around 3 AM. After walking home in the complete darkness and not wanting to get in a fight, he told his wife that the group just took a really long time to hike the mountain this time....

Back to the hiking...Maderas is about 1400 meters high (4200 feet) with a lake that resides in the caldera at the top. We started at about 8:30 in the morning and made it back to our hostel around 5:30 pm, an all day hike to be sure. The first half of the hike was mostly dry and open with spectacular views of the island whereas the second half was very muddy and shrouded in forest. There are three different paths that can be used to hike the volcano. Unfortunately, we didn't get to take the one that lead to the lake in the interest of time. But we did get to go to a pretty awesome view point above the lake. The ascent of the volcano was pretty steep and slippery; there were no switch backs in the trail and it was very muddy. We made it though, albeit shoes thoroughly coated in mud! On the way back down the volcano, our guide was feeling much better and was flying down the hillside. Going down is not my favorite part with the havoc it wreaks on one's knees and feet (especially if you're not wearing proper hiking boots). Our guide later mentioned that we had to go down the hill very fast to get down before sunset since we didn't have lights.  Even though we were all pretty sore today, it was so awesome to get out and stretch the legs with a nice and strenuous hike.

Yours truly looking over the lake at the top of the caldera.

View of the other volcano during our hike of Maderas.

Giant fern 'monkey's tail'.

Tomorrow we are going to Granada, a couple hours away.
We will keep you updated!
Love,
Karen and Chet