Follow up to the survey

So, we of course tried both giving money to the taxi driver and leaving it at the hostel. We decided to leave it at the hostel because the money from the cabbie was never delivered. We felt very discouraged but were determined it would work to leave it at the hostel. Our friend went to pick up the money but they staff said it was never delivered. After we assured him in an email that we did indeed drop it off, he went back and after a lot of arguing, the staff eventually handed over the money.

We also found out later the cab driver did in fact drop off the money, just later than he said he would.

All in all, we should have remembered to pay him back in the first place, but we thought it was interesting that both methods did work, just not in the way we hoped.

Also, we are hoping to do a month or so of volunteer work in southern Africa in April/May and would love any ideas/contacts/resources that you might have. (Katy, we are eagerly awaiting more info from you!) Our main interest is to stay in one community for a longer period of time and get to know people and their culture.

Nicaragua: A Breath of Country Air

We just arrived into Matagalpa, Nicaragua and are feeling great. We dragged ourselves out of bed at 5am so we could catch a 6am bus to Managua, Nicaragua. We thought it would take all day to get there but we arrived at 2:30pm and so went ahead and caught another bus to Matagalpa. The 2 1/2 hour drive took us through lots of beautiful countryside and the mix of sun and rain produced an incredible rainbow. One end of the rainbow was just a few meters off the road and seemed to follow us as we drove.

We are on our way to Waslala, a small town Tessa`s friend Meaghan lived in over the summer. It already feels like a wonderful change of pace to be away from the big cities and the tourist scene, and we can`t wait to be even more remote for a few days.

Life gives you surprises, and surprises give you life

Quite a few people have told us to skip over San Jose, Costa Rica. We are so thankful that we did not take their advice.

After settling down and grabbing a bite to eat we decided to find an Internet Cafe. We planned to do some heavy duty work: Tessa was going to transfer all of her photos to a zip drive and we were going to strategize as to our next move. An hour and a half into the night, however, we realized that this plan was not working out: her photos and videos were not transfering quite as smoothly as we had imagined. Luckily, we were in the company of three amiable, and extremely passionate, Colombian computer animation specialists and we were able to enlist their support. Even with their assistance, the photo project was still quite an undertaking. Eventually, one of the Colombians and Alisa decided to make a quick run to the nearby grocery store to get a few treats. We knew that we were now in for the long haul.

While the photos were transfering we continued to chat. Soon our friends were pulling out their guitars, harmonicas, and boasting their deep-throated singing voices. We sang to the likes of Johnny Cash, Louis Armstrong, Buddy Guy, and various well-known Spanish artists (like Mana and Juanes). At one point, Andres, an up-and -international photographer, looks at us and asks if he can photograph us. Tessa and I look at each other, bewildered...I don´t think we are quite the modeling types. Nevertheless, we oblige and moments later bright lights are flashing in our faces. We are told to be serious. Look at the camera. Face this way and that. Alex came to hold our hands for moral support.

The rest is history. We will let the pictures speak for themselves (hint: there was a lot of professional editing involved).

Juan David, Andres, and Alex, we are eternally grateful.

Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica...where double dipping thrives

Our time in Puerto Viejo, a small town on the Caribbean side of Costa Rica, was quite pleasant. Our days were filled with bike rides to pristine beaches, short hikes through tropical paradises, juicy mangos, and some much deserved rest and relaxation. We spent the nights around a camp fire singing Spanish revolutionary songs and fell asleep on hammocks, listening to the waves roll onto the beach.

We walked through Cahuita National Park and got to view, up close and personal, two different tribes of monkeys. Two of the monkeys decided to take a bathroom break while they were above us. That spray, however, was of no concern- we quickly went to swim in the ocean.

On our way back from the park, we accidentally hopped on the wrong bus. Once we discovered our mistake, we jumped off and decided that we might as well try and hitch hike back. Within five minutes, a little fisherman and his crew picked us up and put us in the back of his truck.

Our last night in Puerto Viejo we met this crazy man. He is a famous gambler who just moved down the day before to retire. We decided to celebrate: mango margaritas, dancing on the street in the company of a fire dancer, and singing songs beside the bonfire....this man never failed to keep us entertained.

Our point of departure...

On Friday, we decided to leave Puerto Viejo. We went to purchase our bus tickets and discovered that there were no more seats on the bus. No worries, we immediately headed to the nearby, homemade dessert parlor that served Amish-prepared natural ice cream and organic coffee and cappucino drinks. (Every time we visited this place we tried to sample as many flavors as possible- and we were quite successful in this endeavor. Our ice cream parlor server would allow us to sample all the flavors we desired, but made sure that we used the same spoon throughout all of the sampling. We attribute this practice to Costa Rica´s strong commitment to conservation work).

We regrouped there for a while and eventually decided that we should attempt to hitch the 5 1/2 hour ride to San Jose, Costa Rica (this was against the advice of our ice cream server who guaranteed that we would never be able to get a ride out of her town).

It was at this point that we walked to the street and held up our sign: ¨Limon or San Jose.¨ We are pretty sure that the first car that drove by desparately wanted to take us to our destination but that they were just not able to...for that reason they honked, to show their full support of our venture. And for that, we were grateful and even more optimistic.

Within the next fifteen seconds a man in a little red car drives up and offers to take us in the direction we need to go.

This man, Mr. Ronig, has a wonderful story. He was in Puerto Viejo to finish writing his second children`s book. His first is called Hannah KaReese and the Island of Moorea (check it out and let us know how it is!). He started writing books for young people because he noticed that all the books his 9 year old daughter read starred boys. He wanted his daughter, and all other girls, to be able to read books with strong female characters.

We had wonderful conversations in the car and he shared stories about his work in the army (most recently in Iraq) and in medical missions. He tries to travel 3 times a year and never goes to the same place twice.

Originally, Mr. Ronig said he would take us part way to Limon but he ended up driving us all the way to San Jose! He wasn`t planning on going anywhere that day but he told us that he didn`t feel like writing. Later he told us that he drove us so that he would know that for at least one day that we were safe. We told him that our parents were grateful.

When we arrived in San Jose and were searching for a place to stop, we accidently turned down a one-way road. We tried to turn around in a driveway and got both front wheels stuck in a drainage trench dug between the sidewalk and the street. Thankfully, and luckily, six very helpful passerby stopped, and with a lot of effort and teamwork we managed to lift the car out of the trench.

Mr. Ronig dropped us off at a gas station and we walked into the city. We had no idea where we were but we found an internet cafe, googled hostels, and asked the man working there if he knew where the one at the top of the list was. As if things hadn`t worked out well enough already, the hostel we picked was less than a block away! We could already tell that we loved San Jose!

Bocas del Toro, Panama

Shopped till we dropped

We decided to splurge a bit in Panama City. We hit the streets and went crazy...

You can never have too much of a good thing...

We decided to entertain our hosts and held a fashion show. We tried on absolutely everything we have purchased on this trip. Needless to say, we are really good shoppers...

Panama City: The Most Beautiful Sidewalks in the World

You would not believe how much Panama City has to offer.  As described by our first couchsurfing host, "Panama City is AWESOME!"  When we asked him what he likes to do on a Friday night, he responded, "There is this street with this really nice sidewalk."  He couldn't have been more right on.  These sidewalks are phenomenal (as is the rest of this country).  

Our couchsurfing hosts, Lisa and Josue, have been giving us a wonderful tour of Panama City...live music,  great food, breathtaking bicycle rides into the sunset, and, of course, long walks on the sidewalk...