Kim's Blog

Updates, updates, updates....

2008-09-24T15:17:00.000-07:00

Well once again it has been quite a while since I have updated this lovely blog of mine. Everything is going swimmingly (literally and figuratively) down here in Zancudo. There’s not too much to update on because most of my days are spent relaxing. I have been slowly learning how to enjoy having time to myself. It’s been wonderful actually and I can only hope that I will be able to do the same back in Salt Lake City.
I have a general schedule that I follow most days. I run on the beach in the morning, it’s hard to sleep past 6am. On Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings I join my mom at Yoga. There is a group that gets together at Coco Cabinas at 8am for Yoga and a cup of coffee afterward. It’s great even though I am by far the youngest person there. The parents and I usually have breakfast together and then I spend the rest of the day reading, swimming, or playing cards with my dad. (We are always looking for new card games so if you have any suggestions please share.) In the evenings I cook dinner with my parents and then we usually put on a movie. It gets dark around 5:30pm and it usually starts raining at about 6pm. I really have no room for complaints. It is an excellent way to spend my last few weeks in Costa Rica.
Last week I did venture out of Zancudo. A friend that I met in Nicaragua invited me to come join her and her friend in Quepos to stay in the timeshare that her mom had. I had a great time and the buses to get there where an adventure in and of themselves: three buses in total, a man offering money for some reason that I couldn’t figure out, a two hour wait with a man screaming what I think was religious rantings, and then another two hour wait in a tiny town where no one knew when or if another bus was coming. But it was all worth it. I made it to the resort they were staying out to find Alana and her friend Mindy along with Niabm, another girl I met in Nicaragua, and her friend Leah. The five of us had a blast together. We kayaked, hung out at the beach, walked into town and cooked excellent meals together. Good times.
Oh and yesterday was an out of the ordinary day for me and my parents. We went on a tour up the river near the house with Susan, the woman who owns Coco Cabinas with her husband. It was a great time. Susan has been living in Zancudo for over 30 years so she is a wealth of knowledge about the history of the town and the plants and birds in the area. We spent half the day going up the river and exploring a side channel of the river. We took kayaks out in the side channel to explore around a bit. I had a wonderful time learning all about our “backyard.”
I can hardly believe it but I have less than a month until I return to Utah. Time has flown by and soon I will be going home. But not to worry I will enjoy every day I have here to the fullest!

On to Zancudo my new home...

2008-09-04T07:51:00.001-07:00

Traveling with the parents is definitely a lot different than what I've been experiencing so far. We spent the first few days in the city getting supplies for my parents house and they bought a car as well. I am not a fan of the city at all and running errands like that made me dislike it even more! We went to places that were exactly like Costco and Home Depot except everything was in Spanish. It was an exhausting few days so we were all ready to leave for Zancudo by the weekend. Oh and Chris showed up at the hotel early in the week as well so the whole family was together to drive down to Zancudo.

So on Friday we were off with plans to get to Zancudo late that afternoon. But you know things never go as planned. We were about two hours outside of San Jose when the clutch on the car went out. We were able to turn around and make to a rest stop of sorts. Dad called the car place and they sent someone out to try and fix the car. We were stuck there for over two hours waiting. When they got there they were able to fixt he clutch but then a bunch of smoke started coming out of the tail pipe of the car. The final decision was for us to swap cars so that the busted car could be taken back to the shop and we could continue on to Zancudo. Only in Central America. We didn't have enough time to make it all the way to Zancudo that day so we stayed the night in San Isidro and took off the next morning to finish the trip. Of course we weren't able to make it without a few hitches but we did make it!

Zancudo is beautiful. It is exactly what my parents would want in a place to get away. The town itself is made up of one dirt road. As you are headed into town you pass by a few houses, stores and cabinas to stay in. Everything is very spread out. The center of town doesn't get that condensed either. My parents house is about halfway between the start of town and the end of the road. The house itself is incredible. We are all upstairs for now but I move downstairs next weekend. The ocean is a hop, skip, and a jump away and there is no one on the beach. I've been entertaining myself by hanging out with the fam, reading, swimming, exploring the beach and town, studying spanish, writing. Basically relaxing and doing whatever comes to mind. There have been a few ups and downs trying to get the house put together but for the most part things are excellent and I am looking forward to a few weeks of hanging out before I have to return to reality.

Oh and just so you know we don't have internet at the house. We thought that we would be we can't get a signal here. We are trying to get someone to come to fix it but everything here happens on Tico time so I'm not expecting anything soon. I am actually writing all of these blogs in word and saving them to the computer with the intentions of copying them over to my blog when we get a chance to go to a resturant with wifi. Which most of them are closing for the season so I don't know what's going to happen with keeping in touch for the next few weeks.

Costa Rica here I am!

2008-09-04T07:50:00.001-07:00

On to the next part of my travels! After leaving Nicaragua I had a heartfelt ruin with my parents. I left Isla de Ometepe on a 5am ferry to see if I could catch an earlier bus out of Rivas, Nicaragua. The bus ticket I had purchased didn't leave until 1pm which would have put me in San Jose after dark and all the advice I had was to not take public transit after dark so I would have had to stay the night in a hostel if I took the 1pm bus. I knew that there were earlier buses so I figured I might as well try my luck out. And was extremely lucky to get the very last seat on the 8:30am bus out of Rivas. It was quite an ordeal to try and get that seat too. When I got to the bus "station" there were closed and it looked more like a tienda than an actual bus stop. Which it turned out to be. The woman at the "desk" checked tickets and then when it came close to time for the bus to come, walked us across the street and down the block to catch the bus on the side of the road. It was all very confusing with my minimal Spanish skills but it all worked out.

But my luck hadn't run out yet... The bus made a stop at the airport which I didn't expect. The airport is much closer to Alajuela than San Jose and so I figured there would be a cheaper bus from the airport out to where my parents where staying. As I was gathering my bags I realized that it was right around the time that my parents flight was supposed to land. I figured it wouldn't hurt to check the arrivals area to at least get information about their flight. As I was walking through all the taxi drivers trying to figure out where to get flight info I looked in the distance and low and behold... there where my parents!

Nicaragua! (In English)

2008-09-04T07:49:00.001-07:00

Oh me oh my. I was, at one point, doing so well at keeping up on my blog. I must apologize for the lack of updates recently. Here is a full synopsis of my experiences in Nicaragua. It will be long but worth your time to read it. Nicaragua is incredible!

Upon arriving in Nicaragua I made my way to the Bearded Monkey Hostel with several other people that I had met on the bus ride from San Jose, Costa Rica to Granada, Nicaragua. I arrived in Granada late Wednesday evening so I had a couple days to explore the city before starting language class. The hostel I stayed at was excellent. Great food, relaxing atmosphere, free internet and friendly people. Thursday I wandered around Granada to get my bearings. I wandered down to Lago de Nicaragua (the 10th largest lake in the world). It has fresh water sharks in it! I was also able to find Casa Xaltava, the language school. I talked to a Jose Luis and Juan Carlos to set up a time and date to meet my host family. I was to come to the school on Saturday to meet my family! Friday I went with a group from the hostel to Laguna de Apoyo, which quickly became my favorite place to relax in Nicaragua. The lagoon is located in a large crater and it is protected so there is minimal building in the surrounding area. I spent most of the day there swimming, kayaking, reading, writing and relaxing. Saturday I packed up my belongings and headed to the school to be placed with my new family for the next two weeks. Upon arriving I walked into a group from the school who were going to Laguna de Apoyo. They asked if I wanted to join them and of course I couldn't refuse. The lagoon is that incredible! Plus when I walked in I was recognized by someone! Gina, a girl that I met in Panama, happened to be studying at Casa Xaltava. She had no idea that she was going to be studying there and either did I, it was a complete coincidence that we ran into each other but we ended up becoming fast and close friends.

After a relaxing afternoon at the lagoon, interacting with other students at the school, I went to meet my family. Living with a host family can make or break your experience studying a language. I was very lucky and got an incredible family. I wont lie and say that it wasn't awkward at times but they were so incredibly nice that I couldn't of asked for a better family. My host mom was so cute and fed me far too much! I had a host brother who was about my age, Luis. He would sit with me at lunch and/or dinner and help me with my Spanish. He was learning English as well so we went over some English stuff as well. He also came out dancing with me and my friends on the weekends. He was a sweetheart.

My classes ran Monday-Friday from 8am to 12pm. I was one-on-one both weeks that I was studying there. For my first week my professor, Fernando, did a tiny bit of review and then jumped into teaching me all the irregular verb conjugations and then went straight into preterit. Learning a language can be so overwhelming but it felt so good to be speaking only in Spanish during class! My teacher for the second week, Bismarck, took a lot of time making sure that my sentence structure and grammar was correct. This was great because it gave me a little more confidence in speaking since I had some understanding of what I should be saying so that I didn't sound like a child. :) Although I did find that as soon as I got out of class my communication skills were not quite as good as I thought they were. Believe it or not but people in the street don't talk as slowly as my teachers do. I wonder why?

Besides classes, Casa Xaltava offered a look of other opportunities for students. They offered excursions almost every afternoon. I went on several excursions with other students from the school. We went to San Juan de Oriente, where they make incredible ceramics. We were able to see how it was all made, try making a pot on their wheel and then purchase pottery from the locals shop that had shown us everything. Catalina offers an incredible view of Laguna de Apoyo. Another evening I went to Volcan Masaya where we were went to a museum, got a history of the area, saw lava and had a tour of the bat caves near the volcano. Both weeks I went out to the markets in Masaya to check out what I could buy for souvenirs. I didn't go with the school because it was far to expensive to rent a private van when you could take the bus for 30 Cordoba or $.75.

Another excellent part of Casa Xaltava are the children. The school didn't actually start out as a language school. It started out as a house for young boys to live and get supplemental help with their schooling. Today the kids don't live there but they come every morning to get help with their homework. Most of the students who have classes in the afternoon worked with the kids in the mornings. I wasn't able to take classes in the afternoon because of space issues but I was able to play with the kids a lot. The kids were great to practice Spanish with. They were patient to an extent and weren't afraid to correct you. The last week I was there I was able to take the kids out to a baseball game with some other students from the school. Although the game was not all that exciting it was a lot of fun to go with the kids. (Baseball is bigger than soccer in Nicaragua.) The boys were definitely ladies men and I had one, Luis, decide that I was his new girlfriend. It was so hard to leave the kids. They made the experience that much better!

So the first weekend that I was in Granada they had a running of the bulls. It was Sunday and I went out with my host brother and some of his friends to watch. It was interesting but I didn't find it all that scary whereas others thought it was terrifying. The bulls were "let loose" in the streets and "chased" those "brave" enough to run in front of them. In reality the bulls were completely emaciated and did not want to be running anywhere. One of the bulls laid down in the middle of the street. Plus for the most part the bulls were under the control of the horseman who had them wrangled with ropes. Every once in a while a bull would get away and I did hear stories about a bull getting into the lobby of a hotel. So there was some excitement. What I found to be the scariest part where the other people. I was actually standing on the sidewalk right at the level of the bulls running by. I found absolutely no reason to run except for when the people around you pushed and shoved you. It was all very interesting in a sociological sort of way. I think that I was one of a small minority that felt bad for the bulls. The men and boys would rip off branches to slap the bulls with to try and egg them on. It was actually horrible to watch and I don't really feel bad for the people who were injured by the bulls. They kind of deserve it right?

The next weekend that I was in Granada happened to be the biggest weekend of the year. Good timing on my part! Usually the city it fairly quiet, as cities go. It is a beautiful colonial city, perfect for walking around without worrying about getting too lost. Anyways, for this particular weekend people from all over Nicaragua come to Granada for the festivities. On Friday I went to the rodeo, which is much different than rodeos at home; it isn't uncommon for people to die in the rodeo. Saturday I hiked Volcan Mombacho with two other girls from the school. That made me realize just how out of shape I've become from traveling but it was an incredible hike. We had spectacular views. In the afternoon the carnival started which was a massive parade with lots of bands and floats. There was a lot of advertising for the national beers as well, Tona and Victoria. (Each country in Central America has it's own national brewery.) Sunday was the Hipica. As very traditional horse parade. Unfortunately no one warned us that it would be nearly impossible to get back from downtown after the parade. There were so many drunk people and horses (yep they give beer to the horses) in the street that you could hardly move. Oh and at night we spent a lot of time at Cafe Nuit. A local dance spot. They would play your regular reggatone but they also had a live band who played meringue and mariachi and salsa. We had a lot of fun times at Cafe Nuit. :)

For my final weekend in Nicaragua I decided to spend time relaxing on Isla de Ometepe. An island with two volcanoes out in Lago de Nicaragua. I was planning on going by myself after my last day of class and then traveling on to Costa Rica from there. Well it just so happened that there were a lot of other girls interested in coming with me. (Did I mention that the whole time I was studying at Casa Xaltava there was only one boy studying there and he happened to be the youngest of all of us and had come with his mom.) So I went to Isla de Ometepe with 6 other girls from the school. We had a blast on the island. We rented bikes and rode all around the island, hiked on some trails and swam in the lake. There was hardly anyone else there so it felt like we had the whole place to ourselves. It was an excellent way to end my trip to Nicaragua!

What I did last weekend...all in Spanish!

2008-08-19T12:19:00.000-07:00

La fin de semana pasada yo me quedé en Granada por las fiestas. El viernes yo fui el rodeo con mis amigas Gina, Diana, Diana y Darsee. Después el rodeo comimos pizza a Don Lucas. Mis amigas quisieron mi a ir a la Café Nuit con ellas pero fui cansada entonces fui a mi casa a dormirme. El sabado fui subir Volcan Mombocho con Diana y Alana. Aunque es posible a tocas un carro arriba subimos la Puma sendero con un guía. En todo subimos 10 km. Después subimos Volcan Mombocho fuimos a ver el carnival en la calle. El carnival estuvo interesante pero salimos temprano porque extuvimos hambre. Tuvimos cena a la Braba de Mono. La comida allí es muy buema y barato. Después de comer fuimos a bailar y tomar a la Café Nuit. Yo no regresé a mi casa hast 3 en la mañana. El Domingo yo me relajé en mi casa con la familia. En la tarde yo encontré mis amigos a ir a ver la hipica de caballos. Me gusta a ver la hipica pero no me gusta caminar en la calle con otras personas y los caballos. La noche de Domingo tuvo cena con my familia pero después de comer yo salé a bailar con mis amigas. El Domingo estuvo mi amiga, Gina, ultima noche en Granada entonces quisimos a ir a bailar una otra vez juntos. Yo tuvo mucho divercion en la fin de semana pasada.

Today is the day!

2008-08-09T08:42:00.000-07:00

In a very short time I am going to be leaving the world of living hostels and moving in with my host family to begin my two weeks of language classes. I am a little nervous but more than anything I am extremely excited. I am ready to get away from the travelers world and settle into a place for several weeks. And about all else I am ready to learn Spanish. I even bought a silly notebook from the grocery store yesterday to keep notes in. So hopefully by the time I get home I will be able to hold an intelligent conversation in Spanish!

A little about yesterday... The morning began with torrential rain but it lightened up just in time for me to catch a ride out to Laguna de Apoyo. An incredible place! It is a lagoon at the bottom of a crater. It was so incredibly peaceful. I haven´t been in such silence in a very long time. So I took the day all to myself. Kayaked out on the lake for a few hours, swam in the water, read and wrote in my journal. A wonderful day to ponder my last few weeks of traveling.

Alright off to meet my family of the next two weeks...

Nicaragua!

2008-08-07T16:03:00.000-07:00

It is official, I am on my own! Lauren flew back to the US yesterday and I took a bus to Nicaragua. Another leg of the trip has begun. I am really looking forward to hanging out in one place for longer than three days. Currently I am staying at a hostel in Granada with plans to move in with a host family on Saturday and start language classes on Monday.

Today I spent the afternoon wandering around the beautiful town of Granada. I can´t wait to get to know the city even better. There are horse drawn carriages and brightly painted houses, cafes with wonderful outdoor seating and a local market to get lost in. I also found the language school that I will be attending and had a chance to meet some people there. I am really looking forward to starting classes! The school is a non-profit organization that helps young boys get through school so I will have the chance to volunteer helping the boys with their homework. I am a bit nervous to try and take on the task of learning a foreign language but I have more motivation now than I ever have before. How could I not? Living in Central America would make anyone want to learn Spanish. I feel like there are so many friendships and connections that I have missed out on because I don´t speak Spanish. I especially don´t like not being able to communicate with the kids that I meet. But that is all going to change soon...

making up for lost time...

2008-08-02T14:11:00.000-07:00

Sorry it has been so long since I have updated this travel blog! Although I don´t know exactly who I am apologizing too as I don´t who or if anyone is reading what I am writing it still makes me feel good to think that I am keeping in touch with at least a few people back home.

So this last week or so I have not been in much contact due to a lack of internet access so I will do my best to update. I think I am going to go for a day by day sort of list....

Monday 28th: Killing time in Panama City before our night bus to Boquete we (Lauren, myself and out traveling buddy Brian) find ourselves hiking to the top of a large hill with a great view of the city. On the way back to our hostel we had a very interesting experience. We thought that it would be just fine to walk about to Avenida Central which our hostel is located off of. It was only a few blocks from where we were but as we turned the corner to head towards the center of town we are stopped by a number of people including a chief of police to tell us that we were NOT allowed to go any further because it was far to dangerous of an area to walk through. We ended up telling the officer that we didn´t have much money (incase the cops were corrupt) so they called a police truck and we got a police escort back to Avenida Central.

Tuesday 29th: Made it to David, the city outside of Boquete. We were very tired from the night bus and ended up on the wrong bus. We went about 2 hours out of our way to a town called Volcan. So we had to hop back on a bus back to David and get the right bus to Boquete. Yeah for traveling blunders. We slept a lot of the afternoon away and made our plans to hike Volcan Baru that night at midnight.

Wednesday 30th: Arrived at the top of Volcan Baru for the most amazing sunrise that I have ever experienced. The hike itself was the most physically challenging experience I have had in a very long time. It took us around 6 hours to get to the top and about 5 to get back down. I can not explain in words the state of delirium that I experienced on the way up the volcano and the pure exhaustion and pain that I felt on the way down just added even more to the hike. But I will say that it was all worth it. Oh and I got to have my first encounter with an armadillo in the wild. That was quite exciting.

Thursday 31st: This day we lost our most friendly traveling buddy Brian. We had been traveling together for over a week and we all got along so fabulously that it was quite sad to see him go. But we know that he is enjoying the rest of his trip and we have plans to ski together in the winter. Lauren and I continued our trip on to Bocas del Toro. We arrived and ran into our friends from Salt Lake City that we had met in Panama City. We had a good time out that night at the Iguana bar (free drinks for the ladies).

Friday 1st: Can´t believe that it is already August! Today we headed to Bocas del Drago a beach on the other side of the island that we were staying on. It was a nice beach to relax on. The water was as calm as a bath tub and there were starfish everywhere. Dinner at a wonderful Indian restuarant and off to bed early from the lack of sleep from the last week or so.

Saturday 2nd (TODAY): Lauren and I awoke this morning from another night of not much sleep due to the lack of respect of our roommates. As we ate breakfast we decided that Bocas del Toro was really not the place for us. I would have to agree with Lauren´s comparison of Bocas to being in high school. All everyone does is wait to get dressed up at night and go out and get piss drunk. Every single night! And during the day you have to be able to spend a lot of money to be able to have anything to do. So we left. Yet again not quite in our plan but we are back in Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica. It actually feels really good to be back. We have 3 nights down here and then it is off to San Jose so that Lauren can fly home and I can head to Nicaragua for language school.

Ok I think that does it. You (who ever you are) are now updated to my travels. I hope that you are doing well and that you enjoyed reading this. And thanks for taking the time to read my blog. I really do appreciate it!

Next on the travel itinerary

2008-07-28T05:39:00.000-07:00

Panama is absolutely incredible! I highly recommend everyone to visit this beautiful country. Our first full day here be were able to go to the canal and check that out. It was quite the experience. The canal has had a huge impact on Panama and you can definitely see it walking around the Panama City. There is a lot of American influence here but it has also created an interesting mix of cultures. The one thing that keeps throwing me off is paying in US dollars while trying to communicate in Spanish! Panama mints some of its own coins but mainly uses the dollar as its currency.

Tonight we are catching a night bus back up to the northern part of Panama. We are headed to Boquete. A coffee capitol in Panama right next to a volcano you can hike to the top of and see both the Atlantic and the Pacific. It is supposed to be quite a bit colder up there too. I can't wait! After a few days in Boquete we are headed to Bocas del Toro. A much more touristy set of islands than we just left but they are still supposed to be absolutely incredible. More crystal blue water and white sand beaches. Damn I live a hard life. ;)

San Blas (aka Paradise)

2008-07-28T05:35:00.000-07:00

We have just gotten back to the hostel in Panama City after 4 days in the Kuna Yala (aka Paradise!). The last few days were absolutely incredible. Exactly what I was looking for. The Kuna people are beautiful, friendly people and we had the privilege of living with them for 4 days!

The Kuna have their own set of laws so they are technically separate from Panama. They are the only people who are allowed to own the islands and there are over 400 islands in the San Blas bay area. The islands are not large though. The one that we stayed on housed 300 Kuna and I could walk around it in under 15 minutes. The islands that we visited were absolutely beautiful. You can't swim on the islands that the people live on because their toilets are holes built out over the ocean. The islands you visit to swim look like you have died and gone to paradise. Small deserted islands surrounded by crystal blue water with excellent snorkeling, white sand beaches line the edges of the islands and the middle of the island is full of palm trees perfect for hanging hammocks. It was more beautiful than I could have even possibly imagined.

I was so happy there (not that I am not happy now). Our "guide" took us to stay with his family and his sister was there with her three little kids. I had so much fun playing with the kids. The little girl and I would play shark attack on the beach while my friends Brian and Tim rough housed with the little boys. We had wonderfully relaxing mornings, afternoons and evenings. Our last night there they made Lauren and I pasta since we don't eat meat and the locals performed a traditional dance for us. I kept asking myself "What else could I possibly want?" I have been so satisfied with life for the last couple days that I have to wonder what I am doing with my life back in Salt Lake City. I really need to remember this feeling and take it home with me to apply it to everything that I do!

oh the ever changing plans...

2008-07-21T10:19:00.000-07:00

Lauren and I have decided that Costa Rica does not want us so we are going to listen to the signs and leave Costa Rica. Yesterday, after getting robbed, we waited for over 1 1/2 hours for a bus that was supposed to come every 10-15 minutes. The bus was going to take us to Puriscal where we were going to catch another bus to Mastatal and then walk to the farm we were going to work at. As we waited at the bus station we were in fairly foul moods and it wasn't getting better. We looked at each other and nodded. We were going to the beach! So we caught a taxi to the Caribbean bus station and got tickets for the next bus to Puerto Viejo, where we are now.

This morning we treated ourselves to a wonderful breakfast complete with french press coffee and made a new plan of attack.

The new plan.... Today we are going to go to Panama and stay there until it is time for Lauren to fly home. We are going to Panama City first for 4 or 5 days. And then we are going to Bouquete. A smaller town higher up in the mountains of Panama. It sounded nice in the guide book, a little like the town we fell in love with in Mexico, San Cristobal. We will be there for 3 nights and then on to Bocas del Toro for several days of relaxing islands. We haven't quite solidified our plans as to how long we will b each place but I am sure everything will work out.

So that is where I am at. I am slowly getting over the loss of the electronics but it still really sucks. Especially not being able to take photos. Seriously thinking about getting a camera in Panama City. Depends, as always, on the funds.

Panama here we come....

Starting Costa Rica of right...or wrong

2008-07-18T08:24:00.000-07:00

So what are travelers two worse fears? How about losing their luggage and having their things stolen. I think those are up there on the list of things you do not want to happen when traveling, right? Well guess what? In the last two days I have been able to experience both of these traveling hazards.

Aeromexico kindly lost my luggage and wasnt able to find it for almost a day. I am very glad to say that my luggage has returned to me. So I thought I was good to go. We were no longer delayed and ready to get started exploring Costa! Oh but then this morning had to happen...

Lauren and I are staying in a private room in a hostel in San Jose. We lock the door everytime we go out and there is no one else who has a key to the room. Well this morning we went out for a run and Lauren couldnt find her ipod. When we came back to search the room I realized I couldnt find mine either. Then we both came to the realization that our cell phones and our cameras were missing. The worst part about it is that someone had to have stolen our stuff while we were in the hostel. So no pictures of this trip to share. ;( We do have to count our blessing though... Our passports and our wallets were left alone. (Which I think is a little odd as well.)

Anyways I am looking forward to getting out of San Jose and I will deal with the losses.

Highlights of Mexico

2008-07-17T11:19:00.000-07:00

- Days with absolutely nothing to do.
- Eating homemade bagels in the hand built house of Matt and Laura then planting 100 trees with them to celebrate tree day (and Matt's birthday).
- Having time to analyze and think about what my life has consisted of for the last 5 years.
- Reading amazing books... Eat Pray Love, Three Cups of Tea, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close..
- San Cristobal de las Casas!
- The people, coffee, and markets in San Cristobal.
- Las Palomas Hostel.
- Having a free room and breakfast at the wonderful Hotel Plaza Huatulco.
- Manfred (and his daughter Marisol).
- Surfing with the owner of Quicksilver.
- Having the time to about what I want out of life...

Sorry it has been so long...

2008-07-10T20:45:00.000-07:00

Wow how time flies. I haven´t been updating this once thought convenient blog as often as I thought I would be. Lauren and I have been traveling around through Chiapas, Mexico for the past 5 or so days, enjoying being tourists.

Ventanilla was an interesting experience. We spent our mornings filling little bags with dirt to be planted with mangrove seeds that we would collect in the afternoons. We also fed and cleaned the deer cages as well as helped take care of the volunteer´s house. All in all a good time but maybe a little bit too much time spent there. It all got a little old after awhile. The volunteer work wasn´t very structured and the other volunteer showing us what to do wasn´t all that motivated so it was hard to keep busy. My spanish did start to improve though as there were only two other fluent english speakers in the village.

Then it was on to San Cristonal de las Casas. I would recommend everyone to come here! But be warned it is cold. The city is just the right size to be able to explore but not get too lost. The markets are a lot of fun and there is incredible coffee here. (If you do come you must stay in Las Palomas. An excellent little hostel located within walking distance of everything.) San Cristobal is full of native indians. The villages surrounding the city (and the city itself) is so full of culture, it is incredible.

We have just arrived for one more night in San Cristobal from a two night excursion to Palenque. We stayed in a great little village called El Panchan. We were within walking distance of the Mayan ruins of Palenque. Exploring them was pretty incredible. The Mayans have such an interesting history and it was amazing to be able to stand in their buildings. Although I was a little disappointed at just how touristy it was with manicured lawns and scaffolding on some of the ruins. The next day we joined a tour of several waterfalls and hopped on a bus back to San Cristobal.

Sorry for the brevity of the last week or so. Free internet is great but it also means there are lots of people waiting to use the computer.

Oh other good news... I have started a flickr account and should have some photos up soon.

Ah the way plans change...

2008-07-02T10:47:00.000-07:00

So Lauren and I have finally made plans as to what we are doing for the rest of our Mexico trip and for our Costa trip. Did I say plans? Maybe a direction as to what we might want to do would be a more appropriate way to describe these so called plans.

We have left the wonderful Plaza Huatulco to carry out the rest of our Mexico trip. We were headed to Playa Mazunte to work at the Hostel Einstein for free room and board. If you didn´t know we found the hostel through WWOOF and were under the impression we would be working on organic gardens at the hostel. Our taxi driver convinced us to let him take us all the way to Playa Mazunte. He gave us a great deal and I was able to practice some Spanish with him along the way. He ended up dropping us off at the wrong hostel which turned out to be a most wonderful thing to do! We ended up meeting Laura. Her and her husband, Matt, are from England but have lived here for the last 5 years or so. She informed us that Matt worked in the next town over on a reforestation project. We were very interested to learn more, especially after walking to Hostel Einstein and realizing WWOOFers were used there mainly for free labor cleaning rooms and such.

So Lauren and I left Playa Mazunte on the back of Matt´s motorbike. We are now staying in Ventanilla working in a protected area. There is a beautiful lagoon with an island where they raise cocodrilas (crocodiles) and venados (deer) and several other types of animals indigenous to the area. Several years ago Ventanilla was hit by a hurricane that wiped everything out so this tiny town is trying to build things back up by creating a protected area. It´s all quite wonderful. There are only two other people in the town that speak english so I´m working very hard on my Spanish. We had some great impromptu lessons last night over beers. There is definitely no internet in the town so we have traveled into Pochutla today to use the internet and buy some groceries to try and save some money. So I am sorry to say that I wont be able to post trip updates until Sunday when we are in San Crisobal de las Casas, our next leg of the Mexico trip. At least that´s what we think. ;)

So much to say, so little time

2008-06-30T16:01:00.001-07:00

Huatulco Mexico is incredible. The people are more then just nice and the beaches are beautiful. It has been the perfect place for Lauren and I to relax and get over our jetlag. We have spent the majority of our four days here playing on the beaches and reading. It is exactly how we wanted to start our adventures.

We are leaving Huatulco tomorrow and headed to Playa Mazunte. Which is not far away. This is where we will begin our work as WWOOFers (willing workers for organic farming). We will be working at Hostel Einstein and don´t really know what to expect but are excited to travel on. We also have plans to travel into Chiapas, Mexico to experience the Mayan ruins.

That is all I have time for now. The hotel has been very kind to let us use their internet for free. But that also means that I am sitting at the hotel´s main desk feeling like an imposing American. More to come at a later date.

Only one thing to say...

2008-06-29T12:35:00.000-07:00

One week ago I was skiing in the Wasatch Mountains. Today I went snorkeling in the Pacific Ocean.

That is all.

Hello from Mexico!

2008-06-26T09:08:00.000-07:00

Lauren and I have safely arrived in Oaxaca, Mexico but not without some very interesting experiences. We landed in Mexico City and had the general travel confusion but we made it to the gate and met a friendly friend. It just so happened that he was catching the same flight we were so we started chating. We happened to mention that we didn´t really have a place to stay in Oaxaca and that we were just going to wing it when we landed. He offered to help us out because his friends were supposed to pick him up in a rental car. Well that didn´t exactly happen but we did end up getting a free place to stay last night with Christian (our friendly friend) and some of his friends after some lovely tequila at a bar with waiters who wore Mexican wrestling masks. So begins our adventures in Mexico...

We definitely missed the bus this morning to Huatulco were we have a place lined up to stay. We bought tickets to leave this evening around 9pm and are to arrive in Huatulco at 4:30am. So Huatulco tomorrow for a few days.

Hope all is well!

Intro...

2008-06-24T23:55:00.000-07:00

As the day of my departure for Central America quickly approached a friend of mine recommended that I start a blog to help me chronicle my trip. As I thought about it more I realized that a blog would be an excellent way for my friends and family to know what I was up to while traveling through Mexico and Central America. So here it is... I hope you enjoy the posts that I make and please feel free to make comments. I will miss you all but I know that you are all jealous that you aren't sitting on the beach with me. ;)

I hope to update this blog thing as much as possible so stay tuned for all the stories and pictures I will have to share...