North & Central America Trip – Nicaragua, Costa Rica

Hi everybody, the last time we spammed you we’d just arrived in Nicaragua, after fleeing dangerous Honduras. However, it’s Nicaragua that should have a travel warning!

Our list of injuries include:

– Me getting whacked in the voicebox by a surfboard, meaning I couldn’t speak for three days (Claire loved this)

– Claire getting bitten by a scary spider in bed

– Me falling out of a hammock (I thought I’d be awesome at lying in hammocks by now!)

– Claire getting her finger munched by a kayak’s springloaded seat

– Me getting me hand shredded by a thorny plant when the kayak wasn’t going the right way

– One million insect bites on both of us (we are going to single handedly introduce Malaria to the United Kingdom).

– Getting the political chapter in verse from a crazy 55 year old American who introduced himself by asking ‘in New Zealand, do you have Muslims there.. y’know the violent type?’

– Emotional scarring when a 20-something Nicaraguan girl emerged from the room of the same-said crazy wrinkly American.

– Inhaling toxic fumes from Masaya volcano, which the Spaniards believed was a gateway to hell. Fortunately I had my gas mask.

– Having the worst guts ever while being stranded with only a concrete longdrop.

– Spiritual damage from enduring a evangelical sermon on the bus.

(You’d think the pictures of Jesus above the windscreen would be enough?). After the sermon the preacher tried to sell pens with flashlights on the end. Riiight.

Aside from all that, other highlights include getting a surfing lesson in San Juan, and surprisingly succeeding in standing up and catching some waves. Heaps of fun and we have a new addiction to pursue.

Our major stop was Isla de Ometepe, which are twin-volcano islands sitting in the middle of a lake.

The pictures really say it all, but a particular favourite was our 50 cent nature walk featuring a family of monkeys, birds that sounds like wild hogs, and colonies of crazy red insects.

However our relationship was a little shaky after Claire found a new little boyfriend on the island who desperately wanted his picture taken.

But we reconciled in time for our 3 1/2 years anniversary, and celebrate with our first bottle of wine in months, Chataux de Plonc tasted like nectar from the gods.

Then we dragged our beaten, broken, bodies into Costa Rica, and what a change!

Immediately we were assaulted with American food, cars that work, a lack of mangey dogs, hot showers and Burger King and McDonald’s.

We went to an actual supermarket and chowed down on parmaham and melon. Bliss.

We’re now in the Eco-Disneyland of Monteverde. Beautiful, but sucks the US dollars right out of you. A $45 zipline canopy tour (see the cloud forest at 50km per hour), a $10 frog house, $17 entry to national parks… The only damage we’ve suffered here is fiscal.

However we’ve been cooking our meals for the first time in ages…

Teriyaki chicken never tasted so good!

Clarita y Pepe