Costa Rica to Panama and Back Again

Our return to Toronto is fast approaching, but we thought we´d add one last entry.

After Tamarindo, we visited Quepos. It´s a small town about 6 hours south of Tamarindo. It´s a short bus ride away from a beautiful national park called Manuel Antonio. We saw so much wildlife there! Monkeys and tucans and sloths...oh my.
The beaches there were some of the best we´ve seen in our three months.

We also ended up spending a week in Panama on the Bocas del Toro islands! We met up with our Irish friend Ellie there and had a blast! Surprise, surprise, we visited MORE beaches! (Don´t you just HATE us?) We went dolphin watching one day. Our boat driver really knew what was up! He drove the boat around in circles and we got to see the dolphins jump and play in the wake. It was incredible!

And here we are, back in San Jose, Costa Rica and really loving the city! We´ve spent so much time in small towns and villages that being in the city is really fun. Throughout the trip we´d take buses into major cities and high-tailed it out to surrounding towns. I think being here is making us miss Toronto a little and the bustle of city life. It´s perfecting timing because we fly out on Saturday!

Even though we´ll be in Ontario for the summer, we plan on keeping up our entries while we´re at camp. So if you´re not completely bored of our blog, you can check it out! Thanks for all your responses and emails during our trip!

We can´t wait to see all of you again!

The Costa Rica Experience - Vol. 1

We arrived in Costa Rica with our new friend Ellie! She is from Ireland and is lovely! We had all been on connecting flights for a sum total of 12 hours when it should have only taken 5! But we got a FREE first-class meal out of it, so...well, we were fed anyway.
After a few nights in a lovely BandB, we moved on to Monteverde where the three of us went on an awesome canopy tour! We zip-lined through the jungle about 200ft above the ground. In the tour we were able to do what they called ¨The Tarzan Swing¨. It was pretty scary. Miranda screamed like a banshee and swore like a sailor.
For all those globally-minded friends of ours, we also went to a fair-trade, organic coffee farm! It was really interesting to see how hard people work, especially when they´re trying to be environmentally friendly!
We took a few buses after all that to Tamarindo! For those that don´t know it´s a pretty popular surf town. Mikey spent 3 days in the ocean and about 5 minutes on the board! He did better than Miranda, whose picture says it all. I think you can see her hand peeking out of the foam.
More to come from Costa Rica soon!

Roatan... another beautiful Island

We left Utila on a 38 foot Catamaran for Roatan, another one of the Bay Islands in Honduras. The trip took 4 hours and we have now decided that boats are the only way to travel! We even got to stop and swim in 2 miles of water, about 10 miles from shore... crazy.

Roatan was very beautiful, with beuatiful sunsets and much better beaches than Utila. In fact, in the 2 dyas we spent there, we rarely left them. One day we rented a moped and drove to West Bay beach, which is the nicest one we have seen yet! It had really good snorkelling, white white sand, and lots of sun! We went out for Thai food on April 29, our 2 month anniversary! It´s crazy how fast things have gone by already.

I´m sure this next bit of news is what you have all been waiting for (at least my mom for sure...): we bought return tickets! We fly home on May 24, getting in around 7 pm. We are excited to come home and see everyone again, but first we have to enjoy Costa Rica and a bit of Panama perhaps.

Island Paradise #2: Utila

So after a few buses and 2 nights in Tela (small, uneventful town) we took a ferry to Utila! They failed to inform us that if you sit at the front of the boat, you get wet! We landed on Utila soaked but ready to begin our next adventure.
Our plan was to take a 4 day course and learn to scuba dive. Unfortunately, Mike had a small ear infection and wanted to get checked out first. So we headed to the infamous "Dr. John". We showed up to the office at about 10am to sign in. I don't think Dr. John showed up until about noon, and Mike didn't get seen until 4ish! Did I mention we were the fourth people in line?? I think that the picture in our slideshow of the shirtless, hairy, chain-smoking, beer-in-hand, partying @ 3am guy will give you an idea of who this man is. Oh, Dr. John...we love him so.
Oh, so basically he said that Mike was in no shape to scuba. (I think his exact words were "$#!@ &*%$#@!*!! You're not thinking of scuba diving, are you?")

My ears are fine, so I signed up! (sorry Mike...) I had so much fun. Being able to stay underwater for up to an hour is so amazing! I got to see fish and corals from such a different perspective. Being able to swim up and down can feel like flying sometimes! The nice part was they let Mike come on the boat and snorkel for free! I have affectionately named him "snork". And quite often I've heard him mumbling under his breath "I hate scuba divers." (again, sorry Mike)

We are getting slightly behind on this... we have since been to Roatan, Honduras and are now in Costa Rica! We´ll post more in a couple of days!

Sailing!

We wanted to take a boat from Belize to Honduras that left from a town called Placencia. Placencia was an hour water taxi followed by a 7 hour bus from Caye Caulker... which didn´t sound too fun. So as were were wandering the street in Caye Caulker we noticed a very interesting sign. Ragamuffin tours was offering a 3 day sailing trip to Placencia! It was goiing to arrive Thursday night, just in time for the weekly shuttle to Honduras (Friday morning only!). Everything seemed to perfect, so we jumped at the opportunity and are so glad that we did!

We had such a good time sailing down to Placencia. There were 16 passengers and 3 crew members on a 45 foot sail boat... a little packed but we slept on Islands. Every day we had about 3 beautiful snorkeling stops, got to fish if we wanted to, and enjoyed good food. Actually, incredible food! Breakfasts and lunches were really good, your standard eggs and toast and sandwhiches... but dinners really stood out! We caught a baracuda one day and some lovely barracuda steaks were served up that night! The next night Miguel, our captin, cook, mechanic, fisherman... etc. really outdid himself (He is in the picture with Miranda). We had garlic covered Grouper with shrimp salad and conch ceviche, served with mashed potatoes and garlic bread. (as well as all you can drink rum!) It was so good that both Miranda and I asked for a little more... only to get a second meal!

We made a lot of new friends, some of whom we are meeting up with tomorrow on the Honduran Island of Utila. The sailing has to be the highlight of our whole trip so far!

Ahhh the Ocean...

After spending weeks trekking through inland Guatemala and Mexico, the site of blue waters and the feel of a nice cool breeze was incredible! Our first stop in Belize was Belize City, where we bought lunch, snorkel gear and a ride out to Caye Caulker. While we were waiting for the water taxi, we were approached by a Belizean man named Prince Charles Paris. Quite a unique name for quite a unique person! He managed to grab and hold our attention for a solid 30-40 minutes as he outlined the history of his country. We really enjoyed listening to him, as he was very entertaining, eloquent and knowledgeable. He was "worth his cheese... so we gave him some cheese".

After lunch we caught our water taxi to Caye Caulker. We both really love the island! The beaches and blue waters are beautiful, the food is excellent, and the whole vibe is very relaxed. The unofficial motto for the Island is "Go Slow". We have spent quite a few hours lying in the sun, sampling the local rums, and snorkeling. Just yesterday, we went on a full day snorkel tour to a Marine Reserve. We got to swim with sharks, touch sting rays and see turtles and all kinds of fish!

And then...

So, it's been a while since we've written. We'll try to update you quickly.

We ended up staying in San Pedro for another week and took Spanish lessons at San Pedro Spanish school and stayed with a local family. (see picture of us with our teacher) AND THEN we hopped on a crazy chicken bus and about 4 hours later we were in Guatemala City. AND THEN we decided to get on ANOTHER bus and trek another 6 hours to Rio Dulce. AND THEN we were really tired and grumpy and checked into the BackPackers Hostel. AND THEN we took another bus to "Agua Caliente" (Hot Water)which is a really awesome water fall that is...well...hot, but a cool river flows underneath it, so you can imagine how weird and interesting that is. AND THEN we hopped on ANOTHER bus for 4 hours to Flores. (Oh, did I mention that for 3 of those 4 hours we were STANDING on the fullest and hottest bus I have ever seen? ya.) AND THEN we took a taxi to El Remate, the hottest place on the planet. No breeze, the lake was warm and muddy, and we had run out of money so...in short, we fought a lot. AND THEN we went to Tikal. (another mayan ruin) Very cool to see but still...freakin' hot. We did get to see monkeys and toucans 'cause the ruins are in the middle of the jungle. AND THEN we took a morning bus into Belize AND THEN a water taxi to Caye Caulker where we are right now. On the coast again! Phew.