Estreli
Once in Nicaragua we had to figure out where to spend the night. We decided on Estreli. This was a little city in Nicaragua untouched by tourism. Luckily we found an awesome hotel where the owner let us camp in his secure parking lot for the night for super cheap. He also gave us tons of great advice on places we should visit. Another friendly country. That night we explored the streets of Estreli, ate at a vegetarian restaurant and ate cheap ice cream. It was nice to stroll the streets of a city where no one wants to sell you anything. It was the real Nicaragua. The next morning we got talked into breakfast at the hotel and then went shopping at the fruit market.
Laguna de Apoyo and Granada
We finally left Estreli and decided to head to Granada. On the way Karen read about another crater lake that sounded worth checking out so we made a detour. We drove down into the crater and started looking for a place to camp. Fortunately we ran into the nicest couple at a hotel that told us to camp for free a little ways down the road and past the basketball court. Perfect! We followed the directions he drew with leaves and found a great little spot right on the lake. It was a local washing, bathing and fishing spot. We set up, went for a swim in crystal clear water and cooked up an awesome dinner. That night we were ready to settle in and play a game of scrabble when we heard voices down at the lake. We went to investigate and we found a honeymooning couple fishing with a few locals so we joined in. Fishing consisted of baiting a hook with a freshly caught sardine, then throwing it lasso style out into the lake before pulling the line back in by hand. Fishing the simple way. We were going to stay out there until Pete caught a fish, but after 3 hours he hadn’t had a single bite. Karen caught a little fish that she returned to the lake and Peter our local fisherman caught about 10. He must have cheated. The next morning we jumped in the lake to wake up, cooked up an awesome feast and chatted with the local Jehovah’s witnesses. We were going to spend another night there, but were advised against it due to the influx of party hardy’s that come from Managua for the weekend. So we packed up and took off to Granada. Once we got there we parked and walked around for hours looking for a place with parking. We finally found a hostel that had free parking at the local firehall so we went for it. The beds were awful, but the shower had water and the owner Gus was hilarious. That evening we went for dinner and ran into two friends that we’d met in San Pedro and invited them to Cafe Nuit for live music later that night. Then we found a cheap restaurant on the street and were entertained by some awesome break dancers and were unfortunately harassed by a cracked out young boy. So sad. The live music that night was incredible and the dance floor was intimidating. They can really move their hips. We definitely need to practice more.
Playa El Coco
The next morning we decided to head to the beach. Our original destination was San Juan del Sur, but when we got there we knew we had to leave so we headed south on a dirt road to Playa El Coco which we’d heard was the prettiest beach in the area. 15km and an hour later we arrived in paradise. It was a small strip of beach with a few private homes and a restaurant. We lucked into an empty lot that we were told we could camp in for free right on the beach. It was too good to be true. We went for a swim, poached the shower and bathrooms at the restaurant and chatted with the local guy who lived on the beach with his family. That night we hung out with a super nice Nicaraguan couple on their honeymoon who were also camping on the beach and spoke English so we were able to discuss poverty, politics and baseball for the night. The next morning our bubble burst. At 7am we woke up to a work crew coming to build a wall around our free campsite. The last “public” access to the beach was about to disappear because the mayor illegally sold all the waterfront property to gringos. So sad. The Nicaraguan couple were planning on returning some day with their family, but it was not to be. I can totally understand wanting waterfront property, but it’s sad when the locals (and cheap tourists) lose their beach access. The work crew didn’t mind that we were there so we decided to spend another night and leave the next morning before the landowner arrived. It was our first drizzly day for awhile so we lounged around, checked our email and tried to stay out of the worker’s way. Then we went to bed early as we decided to hit the Costa Rican border the next morning. We didn’t spend much time in Nicaragua, but again we were getting pulled south.
Monday, December 21, 2009
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Honduras
Three Countries in One Day!!
The Honduran Border
Up and out the door before the sun was up, we were ready for anything. Before we reached the border the tramadores(supposed helpers) were already hassling us. Knowing that they wouldn’t give up and that it is a confusing border we decided to pick one early on so he could fend off the other vultures. Exiting El Salvador was quick and easy, it was paying off that we got an early start, because there were no lines. Off we went on to the dreaded Honduran side. Here our tramadore went to work, moving quick, stressing out, and getting little done. He kept telling us to relax but he was the one who needed a chill pill. The main office opened at 6:00am but the office dealing with tourist vehicles didn’t open till 8:00am, which left us hanging out with all of the border rats for the next two hours. Karen stood guard over the van while Pete waited patiently at the office door waiting for the grumpy border officials to come to work. We were almost on our way without any problems when our “friend” insisted he needed 15 dollars which he then handed over to a police officer who wasn’t even paying any attention to us, in fact he had his back to us and was reading the paper. Neither of us understood this fee and weren’t happy. Then 20feet up the road four more police officers stopped us and wanted $20 because we didn’t have a list of all our belongings (Pete made Karen throw our list out two days before). Pete had enough by this time and told the officers that he had all the time in the world and started a list on a pad of paper. After a few minutes they waved us through, Karen ripped the paper work out of the tramadore’s hand and gave him a measly $4 tip for his services not so well done. He should have quit while he was ahead.
Honduras
•Police check #1: “Hi, this will be really easy for you two if you give me enough money for a drink”
Bribe $1.00(probably got two drinks out of that, he was happy)
•Police Check #2: “Hi you’ve got a big problem. You don’t have any reflectors. All micro buses need reflectors, why don’t you have any? This ticket will cost you $200.00 at the bank and we’ll keep your licence or you can pay us $40.00 here.”
Bribe $5.00(with a bit of smooth talking)
•Police check #3: “Why are all the police officers asking for money at these check points?” He smiled and we were on our way.
Bribe $0 (Guilt trip: priceless)
•Police checks 4, 5, 6, 7 “Sorry we have no more money and yes we have our safety triangles and a fire extinguisher.” “Thanks have good day.”
Bribe $0 and a smile.
We decided to make a detour and try a smaller border crossing that was up in the mountains. This was great because it was five to ten degrees cooler and the border was very relaxed with no one bothering us. We arrived at noon which meant that it was closed for one hour for lunch. We used this time to unwind and have lunch ourselves. Once it opened we breezed through the border process and were in Nicaragua.
The Honduran Border
Up and out the door before the sun was up, we were ready for anything. Before we reached the border the tramadores(supposed helpers) were already hassling us. Knowing that they wouldn’t give up and that it is a confusing border we decided to pick one early on so he could fend off the other vultures. Exiting El Salvador was quick and easy, it was paying off that we got an early start, because there were no lines. Off we went on to the dreaded Honduran side. Here our tramadore went to work, moving quick, stressing out, and getting little done. He kept telling us to relax but he was the one who needed a chill pill. The main office opened at 6:00am but the office dealing with tourist vehicles didn’t open till 8:00am, which left us hanging out with all of the border rats for the next two hours. Karen stood guard over the van while Pete waited patiently at the office door waiting for the grumpy border officials to come to work. We were almost on our way without any problems when our “friend” insisted he needed 15 dollars which he then handed over to a police officer who wasn’t even paying any attention to us, in fact he had his back to us and was reading the paper. Neither of us understood this fee and weren’t happy. Then 20feet up the road four more police officers stopped us and wanted $20 because we didn’t have a list of all our belongings (Pete made Karen throw our list out two days before). Pete had enough by this time and told the officers that he had all the time in the world and started a list on a pad of paper. After a few minutes they waved us through, Karen ripped the paper work out of the tramadore’s hand and gave him a measly $4 tip for his services not so well done. He should have quit while he was ahead.
Honduras
•Police check #1: “Hi, this will be really easy for you two if you give me enough money for a drink”
Bribe $1.00(probably got two drinks out of that, he was happy)
•Police Check #2: “Hi you’ve got a big problem. You don’t have any reflectors. All micro buses need reflectors, why don’t you have any? This ticket will cost you $200.00 at the bank and we’ll keep your licence or you can pay us $40.00 here.”
Bribe $5.00(with a bit of smooth talking)
•Police check #3: “Why are all the police officers asking for money at these check points?” He smiled and we were on our way.
Bribe $0 (Guilt trip: priceless)
•Police checks 4, 5, 6, 7 “Sorry we have no more money and yes we have our safety triangles and a fire extinguisher.” “Thanks have good day.”
Bribe $0 and a smile.
We decided to make a detour and try a smaller border crossing that was up in the mountains. This was great because it was five to ten degrees cooler and the border was very relaxed with no one bothering us. We arrived at noon which meant that it was closed for one hour for lunch. We used this time to unwind and have lunch ourselves. Once it opened we breezed through the border process and were in Nicaragua.
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
El Salvador
Playa El Zonte
It took us awhile to exit Guatemala, but when we entered El Salvador we knew right away we were going to like this country. Everyone was super mellow and friendly, even the police officers. The empty scenic coastal road wound us through tunnels all the way to Playa El Zonte. Once there we were flagged into a hotel where they agreed to let us camp in their parking lot for $7 a night. The hotel and restaurant was right on the beach, had hammocks everywhere and the staff were incredibly friendly. We spent the next two nights lounging around, studying our Spanish, chatting with the locals and playing in the white wash. We also had our first meal of cheap papusas (fried tortillas filled with cheese, beans and some kind of meat). We were going to stay longer but we met a friendly local who told us not to get stuck on the beach and that we needed to explore more of his country.
Lago Coatepeque and Cerro Verde
Lago Coatepeque is a crater lake surrounded by nice homes, hotels and restaurants. We camped in the parking lot of a restaurant, relaxed on their giant dock and swam in the refreshing water. While hanging out here we met a ton of very friendly locals, at one point our van was surrounded by an El Salvadorian family who was very interested in us and our trip. The next morning we drove a long way up out of the crater and continued up to Parque Cerro Verde, a group of three volcanoes clustered together. The tours up to the top didn’t start until 11 am so we had time to join a group of police officers for some breakfast. We had the choice of hiking up to Santa Anna which was the highest of the three with a crater lake on the top and a 360 degree view, or Izalco which wasn’t as high but offered a more difficult hike. We opted on Izalco because it was a lot cheaper and our police escort said it was his favourite. He turned out to be a great guide with lots of information on the area, and stories of the civil war. At the top there were many steam vents which could quickly burn you if you weren’t careful. The only disappointing thing about the summit was that it was lower than our starting point so we started the hike with 1300 steps down to the base of the volcano, then a hike up and back down the volcano meaning that the hike ended with 1300 steps back up. That evening we relaxed at a beautiful campsite overlooking Volcan de Izalco and enjoyed the cool mountain air along with 100 city church kids camping for their first time.
Ruta de las Flores and Suchitoto
We left our campsite early and made our way to Juayua, a small town originally known for its coffee culture and now for it’s crazy weekend food fairs. We got there on Saturday so we parked the van on the edge of town and wandered around until we discovered an awesome hostel that was just opened by a guy from France. He let us camp in his beautifully tiled, open air garage, perfect! Then we went to the food fair and indulged in a couple of meat platters and some fresh fruit shakes. When we got back from the food fair we ran into a Peace Corps volunteer and two engineers without borders that were staying at the hostel and were going to some local waterfalls so we joined them. At the end of a long dirt road we arrived at a beautiful wall of waterfalls that fell into a big fresh water pool. The water was almost cold! It was heaven for our hot bodies. That night we drank an entire bottle of wine while chatting with the owner of the hostel and a Swiss guy and then went out to a bar for some food and conversation. The next day we had a bit of a late lazy start and then we started doing some much needed work on the van. We installed our thermoswitch and fixed the relay for the 2nd stage fan that the Guatemalan mechanics had messed up and finally got our horn working!! Now we can honk at everything! Then a whole swarm of Peace Corps volunteers arrived at the hostel for a game of basketball with some locals. They invited Pete along so we went into town and Karen cheered them on. No one kept score, but they were all dripping with sweat and had smiles on their faces. That night we were exhausted so we went out for dinner and then hung out at the hostel, attempting to get caught up on our journals. We left the next morning and followed La Ruta de Las Flores through a few small coffee towns where we stopped and overindulged in sweets and coffee so that the rest of the day we felt ill. We finally looped around to Suchitoto, a small colonial town that we’d heard was the heart of El Salvador. It took us awhile to find a place to stay, but we finally found a local piscina down by the lake that was more than happy to let us camp on their property. We were super hot so we quickly hopped in the pool to cool off. Then we spent the evening chatting with the family and went to bed early. The next day we set off to explore the town, but everything seemed closed. We wandered around in circles for the day and then finally made our way back to the pool, did some laundry and had another quiet night. The family there was so sweet that when we went to pay for the night they gave us a framed picture of their church as a gift. The people here have such warm hearts and really love people visiting their country. I guess to them it means that the civil war is finally over.
Santa Rosa de Lima
Travelling in El Salvador was an unexpected surprise. We thought that we would pass through in a few days, but ended up staying for over a week. We wanted to stay longer and return to the beach, but something was telling us to keep moving south so sadly we left Suchitoto and headed to Santa Rosa de Lima to spend our last night in El Salvador before our day of border crossings to get into Nicaragua. After turning down one pay by the hour hotel that had a jumbo roll of toilet paper and a mirror above the bed (need I say more? There were also condoms on the nightstand) we found one that seemed half decent, had wifi and air conditioning. That evening we blasted the A/C, finally worked on the blog and went out for awesome and cheap papusas at a local papuseria and went to bed to rest up for our big day.
It took us awhile to exit Guatemala, but when we entered El Salvador we knew right away we were going to like this country. Everyone was super mellow and friendly, even the police officers. The empty scenic coastal road wound us through tunnels all the way to Playa El Zonte. Once there we were flagged into a hotel where they agreed to let us camp in their parking lot for $7 a night. The hotel and restaurant was right on the beach, had hammocks everywhere and the staff were incredibly friendly. We spent the next two nights lounging around, studying our Spanish, chatting with the locals and playing in the white wash. We also had our first meal of cheap papusas (fried tortillas filled with cheese, beans and some kind of meat). We were going to stay longer but we met a friendly local who told us not to get stuck on the beach and that we needed to explore more of his country.
Lago Coatepeque and Cerro Verde
Lago Coatepeque is a crater lake surrounded by nice homes, hotels and restaurants. We camped in the parking lot of a restaurant, relaxed on their giant dock and swam in the refreshing water. While hanging out here we met a ton of very friendly locals, at one point our van was surrounded by an El Salvadorian family who was very interested in us and our trip. The next morning we drove a long way up out of the crater and continued up to Parque Cerro Verde, a group of three volcanoes clustered together. The tours up to the top didn’t start until 11 am so we had time to join a group of police officers for some breakfast. We had the choice of hiking up to Santa Anna which was the highest of the three with a crater lake on the top and a 360 degree view, or Izalco which wasn’t as high but offered a more difficult hike. We opted on Izalco because it was a lot cheaper and our police escort said it was his favourite. He turned out to be a great guide with lots of information on the area, and stories of the civil war. At the top there were many steam vents which could quickly burn you if you weren’t careful. The only disappointing thing about the summit was that it was lower than our starting point so we started the hike with 1300 steps down to the base of the volcano, then a hike up and back down the volcano meaning that the hike ended with 1300 steps back up. That evening we relaxed at a beautiful campsite overlooking Volcan de Izalco and enjoyed the cool mountain air along with 100 city church kids camping for their first time.
Ruta de las Flores and Suchitoto
We left our campsite early and made our way to Juayua, a small town originally known for its coffee culture and now for it’s crazy weekend food fairs. We got there on Saturday so we parked the van on the edge of town and wandered around until we discovered an awesome hostel that was just opened by a guy from France. He let us camp in his beautifully tiled, open air garage, perfect! Then we went to the food fair and indulged in a couple of meat platters and some fresh fruit shakes. When we got back from the food fair we ran into a Peace Corps volunteer and two engineers without borders that were staying at the hostel and were going to some local waterfalls so we joined them. At the end of a long dirt road we arrived at a beautiful wall of waterfalls that fell into a big fresh water pool. The water was almost cold! It was heaven for our hot bodies. That night we drank an entire bottle of wine while chatting with the owner of the hostel and a Swiss guy and then went out to a bar for some food and conversation. The next day we had a bit of a late lazy start and then we started doing some much needed work on the van. We installed our thermoswitch and fixed the relay for the 2nd stage fan that the Guatemalan mechanics had messed up and finally got our horn working!! Now we can honk at everything! Then a whole swarm of Peace Corps volunteers arrived at the hostel for a game of basketball with some locals. They invited Pete along so we went into town and Karen cheered them on. No one kept score, but they were all dripping with sweat and had smiles on their faces. That night we were exhausted so we went out for dinner and then hung out at the hostel, attempting to get caught up on our journals. We left the next morning and followed La Ruta de Las Flores through a few small coffee towns where we stopped and overindulged in sweets and coffee so that the rest of the day we felt ill. We finally looped around to Suchitoto, a small colonial town that we’d heard was the heart of El Salvador. It took us awhile to find a place to stay, but we finally found a local piscina down by the lake that was more than happy to let us camp on their property. We were super hot so we quickly hopped in the pool to cool off. Then we spent the evening chatting with the family and went to bed early. The next day we set off to explore the town, but everything seemed closed. We wandered around in circles for the day and then finally made our way back to the pool, did some laundry and had another quiet night. The family there was so sweet that when we went to pay for the night they gave us a framed picture of their church as a gift. The people here have such warm hearts and really love people visiting their country. I guess to them it means that the civil war is finally over.
Santa Rosa de Lima
Travelling in El Salvador was an unexpected surprise. We thought that we would pass through in a few days, but ended up staying for over a week. We wanted to stay longer and return to the beach, but something was telling us to keep moving south so sadly we left Suchitoto and headed to Santa Rosa de Lima to spend our last night in El Salvador before our day of border crossings to get into Nicaragua. After turning down one pay by the hour hotel that had a jumbo roll of toilet paper and a mirror above the bed (need I say more? There were also condoms on the nightstand) we found one that seemed half decent, had wifi and air conditioning. That evening we blasted the A/C, finally worked on the blog and went out for awesome and cheap papusas at a local papuseria and went to bed to rest up for our big day.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Guatemala
Panajachel, Lago de Atitlan
We cruised over the border at La Mesilla with ease and again weren’t stopped at any military check points. If you didn’t know better you’d fly through these borders without any paperwork. The only blip was when Karen ignored the poor fumigation guy thinking he was trying to con us into something. Always on guard in these places, but mainly they’re there to help. We had planned to stop in Huehuetenango, but after a brief lunch stop we realized that we were now in a tiny country where you can gain a lot of ground so we pushed on to Pana. After descending a super long hill we drove through the busy narrow streets looking for a campground. We found one up a deserted back alley and opted for the fancy looking place further up. We ended up with a beautiful site right on the lake with, as always, no one else around.
San Pedro, Lago de Atitlan
After the long descent into Pana we were a bit nervous about how the road would be getting into San Pedro. We wanted to head there to possibly take Spanish classes as Pana was just too hectic for us. The next morning we went into Town and asked how the road was. Two of the answers we got were: “there is no road” and “I drove it once and won’t do it again...it’s too steep and narrow”. Then finally one guy assured us that it was paved and driveable so we decided to go for it. Two white knucked hours later we had conquered the beast. It was definitely steep and had the tightest switchbacks we’ve ever driven. It also wound through a few confusing towns where twice we went the wrong way on one way narrow cobbled stone streets, but we made it!! We were rewarded with an awesome little lake town where people still dress in traditional clothing and speak their native tongue. We quickly signed up for language classes starting the next day and decided on a home stay with a local family. At 5:00 that night the mother, Rosa came and met us at the school and we piled her in the van and drove up the steep streets to her house where luckily they had a driveway for Patience to have a well deserved rest. The school, the homestay and the town were so perfect that one week very quickly turned into two. The school was called La Cooperativa and it had an amazing garden scattered with individual palapas overlooking the lake. The school helps out local families in need and we were able to visit three of the families our last day of school to deliver them much needed food. These families are mainly single women with children or childless widows. One of the things that struck us the most is how happy everyone is even though most of them have next to nothing. Definitely a lesson to be learned by all. Our brains were crammed full of Spanish grammar for four hours every morning fuelled by coffee and a break time snack. In the afternoons we drank local coffee and ate sweets while doing our homework in funky lakeside cafes, watched some local basketball games, took salsa lessons, watched Spanish movies, went running and did lot’s of yoga. The family we stayed with were super nice and Rosa and her daughter Karina stuffed us to capacity with enormous portions of amazing meals three times a day. Our favourites were the panqueques with fresh fruit, homemade tortillas (I can still hear the clapping sound of them being prepared) and fried platanos. We even had our own private bathroom and bedroom with a tv to watch cheesy Spanish shows on. They also hosted two fiestas that we were able to help out at by serving tamales and coffee to the locals who thought that we were just hilarious. The only downside was the celebratory fireworks that started at five am and continued nonstop throughout the entire day. Our hearts will never be the same. On the weekends we went on a canopy tour, visited San Marcos, hiked the Nariz de Indio and the San Pedro Volcano. We spent a lot of time with Tyler a guy from Arizona who was a great hiking partner and full of funny one liners. San Pedro was the perfect place to learn and hang out, but after two weeks it was definitely time to get moving. On Sunday morning we got up early, packed up the van and went to leave when we heard a strange new noise, uhoh. We had to leave our homestay so we drove down the hill and started investigating. We ended up getting some amazing help from Indy a motorcycle mechanic and narrowed it down to a heater fan that was running continuously for some reason and found the relay that would turn it off. It was too late to leave at this point so we headed to the pool for some amazing bbq’d ribs and smoked pork. Some friends we’d met earlier in the week kindly let us park in their driveway for the night. So we were able to relax, play some poker and cuddle with their new puppy.
Close to Montericco
The next morning with the relay unplugged we were ready to reconquer the crazy hill on the way back up. This was way less stressful then the drive down and we were back on the PanAmerican again. First stop was at a local mechanic shop where they tested the relay and then proceeded to try and diagnose our problem, but we could tell right away that this was a bad idea. We distracted them before they caused too much damage with our non functional horn and they got to work on that instead. At first they couldn’t get it to work and then they couldn’t get it not to work and finally we settled on non functional, but with an idea of what we could do later. Although they still tried to rip us off and we had to talk them down to 50% of what they were asking for a job not done. Then we were off to the beach. Once again we managed to avoid all the major cities and rolled into Montericco before dark. At the end of the road we were faced with an expensive boat ride to get to the beach so we decided to turn around and found an abandoned campground. We took a much needed shower, watched some locals play soccer and then hid out from the mosquitos in Patience.We went to bed really early in order to rest up for another busy border crossing.
We cruised over the border at La Mesilla with ease and again weren’t stopped at any military check points. If you didn’t know better you’d fly through these borders without any paperwork. The only blip was when Karen ignored the poor fumigation guy thinking he was trying to con us into something. Always on guard in these places, but mainly they’re there to help. We had planned to stop in Huehuetenango, but after a brief lunch stop we realized that we were now in a tiny country where you can gain a lot of ground so we pushed on to Pana. After descending a super long hill we drove through the busy narrow streets looking for a campground. We found one up a deserted back alley and opted for the fancy looking place further up. We ended up with a beautiful site right on the lake with, as always, no one else around.
San Pedro, Lago de Atitlan
After the long descent into Pana we were a bit nervous about how the road would be getting into San Pedro. We wanted to head there to possibly take Spanish classes as Pana was just too hectic for us. The next morning we went into Town and asked how the road was. Two of the answers we got were: “there is no road” and “I drove it once and won’t do it again...it’s too steep and narrow”. Then finally one guy assured us that it was paved and driveable so we decided to go for it. Two white knucked hours later we had conquered the beast. It was definitely steep and had the tightest switchbacks we’ve ever driven. It also wound through a few confusing towns where twice we went the wrong way on one way narrow cobbled stone streets, but we made it!! We were rewarded with an awesome little lake town where people still dress in traditional clothing and speak their native tongue. We quickly signed up for language classes starting the next day and decided on a home stay with a local family. At 5:00 that night the mother, Rosa came and met us at the school and we piled her in the van and drove up the steep streets to her house where luckily they had a driveway for Patience to have a well deserved rest. The school, the homestay and the town were so perfect that one week very quickly turned into two. The school was called La Cooperativa and it had an amazing garden scattered with individual palapas overlooking the lake. The school helps out local families in need and we were able to visit three of the families our last day of school to deliver them much needed food. These families are mainly single women with children or childless widows. One of the things that struck us the most is how happy everyone is even though most of them have next to nothing. Definitely a lesson to be learned by all. Our brains were crammed full of Spanish grammar for four hours every morning fuelled by coffee and a break time snack. In the afternoons we drank local coffee and ate sweets while doing our homework in funky lakeside cafes, watched some local basketball games, took salsa lessons, watched Spanish movies, went running and did lot’s of yoga. The family we stayed with were super nice and Rosa and her daughter Karina stuffed us to capacity with enormous portions of amazing meals three times a day. Our favourites were the panqueques with fresh fruit, homemade tortillas (I can still hear the clapping sound of them being prepared) and fried platanos. We even had our own private bathroom and bedroom with a tv to watch cheesy Spanish shows on. They also hosted two fiestas that we were able to help out at by serving tamales and coffee to the locals who thought that we were just hilarious. The only downside was the celebratory fireworks that started at five am and continued nonstop throughout the entire day. Our hearts will never be the same. On the weekends we went on a canopy tour, visited San Marcos, hiked the Nariz de Indio and the San Pedro Volcano. We spent a lot of time with Tyler a guy from Arizona who was a great hiking partner and full of funny one liners. San Pedro was the perfect place to learn and hang out, but after two weeks it was definitely time to get moving. On Sunday morning we got up early, packed up the van and went to leave when we heard a strange new noise, uhoh. We had to leave our homestay so we drove down the hill and started investigating. We ended up getting some amazing help from Indy a motorcycle mechanic and narrowed it down to a heater fan that was running continuously for some reason and found the relay that would turn it off. It was too late to leave at this point so we headed to the pool for some amazing bbq’d ribs and smoked pork. Some friends we’d met earlier in the week kindly let us park in their driveway for the night. So we were able to relax, play some poker and cuddle with their new puppy.
Close to Montericco
The next morning with the relay unplugged we were ready to reconquer the crazy hill on the way back up. This was way less stressful then the drive down and we were back on the PanAmerican again. First stop was at a local mechanic shop where they tested the relay and then proceeded to try and diagnose our problem, but we could tell right away that this was a bad idea. We distracted them before they caused too much damage with our non functional horn and they got to work on that instead. At first they couldn’t get it to work and then they couldn’t get it not to work and finally we settled on non functional, but with an idea of what we could do later. Although they still tried to rip us off and we had to talk them down to 50% of what they were asking for a job not done. Then we were off to the beach. Once again we managed to avoid all the major cities and rolled into Montericco before dark. At the end of the road we were faced with an expensive boat ride to get to the beach so we decided to turn around and found an abandoned campground. We took a much needed shower, watched some locals play soccer and then hid out from the mosquitos in Patience.We went to bed really early in order to rest up for another busy border crossing.
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