Happy Holidays

Hello all,

I hope everyone had a good Christmas and is gearing up for a great New Year. I've had quite a few weeks packed with awesome adventures and have managed to make my way down to Columbia. I'm going to be adding a bit more detail into my posts (as per my father's request, Hi Dad!) and probably some more pictures as well.



After Nicuragua, I headed down to Costa Rica on a 10 hour bus ride. My first stop was Monteverde, which is a gorgeous little town north of San Jose, nestled in the rainforest. I spent a few days exploring the jungle and seeing some amazing animals. My favorite being a sloth, who contrary to his name, was moving quickly along a telephone wire. Consequently, I got a blurry night photo.



I then spent a day walking on a series of suspended bridges and then speeding down some ziplines! It was an adrenaline rush to fly through the canopy of the jungle. I even managed to down the tarazan swing (video below) and the superman zipline, which is a no hands, facedown run! Scary, but fun.

ll

I headed down to San Jose for a few days before I left for Panama City and just did a little exploring around the city. There were lots of beautiful parks and neat old buildings. I even managed to catch the tail end of the Santa Claus parade. Salsa dancing Santa Claus is hilarious.



I flew straight on the Panama City seeing as the next available bus was the 24th of December and I had plans to meet people in Columbia on the 22nd! Panama is very modern in comparison to many of the other Central American cities I visited. The skyline is dominated by skyscrapers and most the the facilites were similar to any North American city.



I did visit the canal, however forgot to charge my camera batteries, so have no pictures to back up my claim! I will say this though, it's big. I plan on finding an overhead view via google image search and passing it off as my own. No one will ever know.....

I finally made it to Columbia, on a 45 mintue flight, and would have been greeted with a welcome sign and my friends in Santa hats, if only they's taken the right bus! I did appreciated the effort though! We spent a day in the beautiful city of Cartegena before we headed off to Taganga for Christmas. The city of Cartegena spares no expense when it comes to Christmas decorations and the city comes alive with lights in the evening! The views from the old fortress walls that surround the city are breathtaking.



Four hours north of Cartegena is the little fishing village of Taganga, where we would spend our Christmas. Not much to say really, except there was plenty of sand, sun and good friends! We spent Christmas eve sitting on the beach with a bottle of beer and a sunset!



We didn't do much aside from cook an amazing Christmas feast; steak, mash potatos and fried veggies and do a little snorkling between tanning on the beach. I'm no longer fish belly white! Although I am still jealous of the bronze brits, who are darker than most of locals now.

After a few days of relaxation, we headed over to Tayrona National Park to check out the amazing beaches that line the coast. What they fail to mention however, is that to get to these beaches, you have to trek two hours throught the jungle to get there! I'm still debating whether it was worth it...



As a result of the strenuous activity, today had been spent doing nothing but laying in a hammock. A much needed day considering we are headed out on a Lost City trek tomorrow, which consists of 6 days of walking (mostly uphill I'm told) through the jungle. We are going to ring in the new year sitting on the steps of temple that is thousands of years old! I'm excited for that, dreading the hike! I'm sure I'll live.

I hope everyone has a wonderful New Year!

Cameras Rule!

As they say, you don't know what you got 'til it's gone. This was very true in the case of my stolen camera. It's an odd experience to be a tourist minus one. So I finally made it to the city and now I have a brand spanking new camera which takes amazing photos (many of which y'all are about to see!)



I loved my time in Antigua more than I can possibly say. I got to experience the beautiful city and take in all the amazing sights (see above), get to know a few of the locals and most importantly I've made some really amazing friends. Many of whom I get to see again really soon! But it is good to be on the road again and seeing even more of these amazing countries.

Here's a quick run down of the highlights of the past week or so. Climbing the Pacaya Volcano, which was an exhausting, but ultimately satisfying experience. The video doesn't even begin to explain what it's like standing next to flowing lava!



Being asked to by a drunken man to father his 10 children also rates high on the list. I wasn't even offended because I was too busy being impressed by his perfect English!

We also attended a festival in Cuidad Vieja which is called to Day of the Devil. You can imagine what it's about! It does all culminate with the burning of a giant devil though, so the good guys win in the end. The city was on full display with carnival rides, tons of street food, live music and even fireworks. The best ride was the children's Ferris Wheel which was powered by hand! Craziness.



I'm currently enjoying the lovely town of Granada, Nicaragua. It's colorful, lively and has some amazing views of the lake.



I hope everyone is doing well where they are and getting ready for the holiday season. I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Ciao.

And I´m back

Hello all,

I´m sorry for taking so long to post again, but here´s a little info about what´s been happening. First off I got both my passport and credit card, so I´m free to travel again as I was before. Unfortunately, my friend´s foot turned out to be broken, so we´ve been sticking in Antigua for awhile to let her rest and to wait for her passport. This has allowed me to take some spanish lessons and they have been amazing. I´m not very good yet, but with a little practice I´ll be fluent in no time! We´ve also experienced two small earthquakes since we´ve been here. It´s a very surreal experience to have the ground move beneath your feet. Fortuantely they were small, which is fairly common here I´m told, so no damage or anything.

I´ve also made some Christmas plans. A group of people here at our hostel are all traveling south at the same time, so we are going to meet up and spend the holidays together. They´re an amazing group of people, so I should have a great time. As is the norm for my trip so far, I´m going to be surround by Brits!

The plans for this weekend are hopefully a climb up the Pacaya Volcano, but I need to buy a camera first.

I hope all is well with everyone and feel free to leave comments to let me know how you´re all doing. I love getting news from back home.

Adios Amigos.

Hello all,

As many of you already know, I had some bad luck in Guatemala. My friend and I were robbed of our passports, money, cameras, iPods and more. We're both okay, just a little shaken up. We gave chase to our bandits, barefoot into the jungle, but unfortunately couldn't catch them. We've spent the last couple of days cancelling credit cards, making our way to our respective Embassies to sort out our passports and just generally trying to make sense of the craziness in the moment.
The positive part of the whole situation are the people we have met that have offered their support and assistance. An American Army medic, a fellow traveller willing to translate and even the women assisting me at the Embassy.
Mostly I want to say thank you for the love I've received from my family and friends. All the e-mails and wall posts with offers of love, concern (and even money!) have lifted my spirits and made me realize how lucky I really am.
I will continue my journey and my blogging and not let the actions of two people dictate how I spend my time.
Thank you all again! Keeping sending me messages!

Finally Some Sun!

Caye Caulker has already provided us with more nice days than Mexico and we've taken full advantage. Our first day here on the island was spent just lounging in the sun and laying in the hammocks provided by our hostel. It's an idyllic setting for not doing much...



The following day we all headed out on a snorkeling tour on a sail boat. It was amazing. We saw fish, turtles, rays, small sharks and a whole lot more. We were also provided food for the trip which included ceviche. Yum.



The next day, we went kayaking around the two small islands that make up Caye Caulker. It was relaxing except crossing the split (the space between the two islands) where the current is a little strong. We finished out evening dancing at the Reggae bar. Norwegians sure can party hard!

Perhaps my favorite thing about the island is the relaxed pace everyone has. There are no cars (only Golf Carts and bikes), all the roads are sand and most businesses are only open for a half day at best. I haven't had shoes on in 3 days and I haven't missed them at all! Even our lobster supper takes about and hour to get from Fran's open air grill on the beach and nobody really cares. Just more time to relax and socialize.

I'll definitely miss both the island and the Norwegian girls who I've come to love!

*The connection here sucks, so I'll post more photos later today

Rain Rain, Go Away...

Hello from Tulum,

As I'm sure some of you know, we are in the midst of Hurricane Ida. We haven't had much wind, but more rain than I've seen in a thousand years. (Bonus points if you can identify what song that last sentence is from) Despite the rain, I've been determined to see all that I can, and am willing to get wet to do it. My new friend Phillip from Germany, the hot Argentinian guy and myself went to the ruins on the beach and they were spectacular. They are located right on a cliff, overlooking the ocean.



They are smaller then the ones at Chichen Itza, but have a different vibe and are very cool. Of course it rained and we tried to hide in a stone walkway, but eventually gave up and just walked in the rain.



As a result of being wet and in air conditioning constantly, I have a wicked head cold...of course the cheap Mexican Rum doesn't help either. In my defence however, there's not much to do in Mexico when it's raining! The only really nice side effect of the rain is that I've gotten to know all the people at the hostel quite well because we usually eat dinner together and then spend the soggy night playing cards and such. I've met Americans, Canadians, French Canadians, Norwegians, Dutch, Germans, Belgians, Argentines, British, Welsh and a whole lot more. It's really awesome!

Today, a couple of British girls and I went to Akumel, just north of Tulum, and swam with the sea turtles. It was spectacular. They are only meters away from you grazing on the ocean floor and they are huge. We had a nice morning without rain and I of course managed to get burned in the 10 minutes of sunshine today! Oh, and I also saw a manta ray.



Tomorrow I'm off to Belize with a couple of girls and who know what adventures await. Love to all my friends and family!

Mexico

Hello people of the interwebs...actually probably just people that know me personally. I finally made it south and am currently in Cancun. Yay!
I went yesterday to the Chichen Itza ruins which were amazing until it decided to rain on us and I got completely drenched from top to bottom. It was ridiculous, but I give our tour guide credit for powering through and finishing the tour despite the massive downpour.


Then we headed to the second part of the trip, an underground cave. It was really neat and would have been even more fun if I hadn't still been soaked from the ruins. Wet jeans shorts suck...especially for 5 hours.


At least the food was amazing. Authentic Mexican, which is hard to find in Cancun!
Adios for now, amigos.