The Rainy Season

So there are some drawbacks to hiking in the rainy season... namely getting mud all over you anytime you try to hike anywhere. Here we are at the end of a supposedly "easy stroll to the beach."

It might have been easier had we not gotten lost in the jungle for two hours, which included our discovery of the abandoned crew housing for Survivor, Panama.

You know you´re in a Gringo bar when...

... Alka Seltzer is on the menu.

Costa Rica is Real Pretty

We ran a marathon race through Costa Rica (well, not literally a marathon race, those are only for crazy people) and made it in and out of the country in four days. This was because Costa Rica is expensive and because it seems to have more tourists than Ticas in most places.

However, during our one day spent in Cahuita National Park, we realized why so many tourists come to spend so much money-- because it really is gorgeous and incredible. In our only Costa Rican hike we saw three different monkey species, two two-toed sloths, a 4 foot snake and a live bed of sand dollars.

Real Friends Visit

Carrie came to Nicaragua to share in our joys of hostels without hot water, toilet paper you can´t flush, ceaseless meals of rice and beans, chicken buses, watching children sniff glue, pushing taxis through mud and constant power and water outages.

She claims to still love us, so you know she´s a trooper and an extraordinarily good friend.

California History

Much of our lack of blogging occurred during the week Matt and I spent on the very remote Rio San Juan (pictured above), which forms the border between Nicaragua and Costa Rica. The area had incredible wildlife, including the only freshwater man-eating sharks in the world (no joke, although the sharks start out as salt water sharks and swim up river from the Caribbean).

The area also has a very rich history in pirate lore and it was long looked at (before Panama) as the best way to open up a passage between the Pacific and the Atlantic. During the gold rush, going from New York south to the Caribbean side of the Rio San Juan, west on the river and then up the Pacific Coast to San Francisco was the shortest distance between the two cities and there is much California memorabilia in the area.

El Castillo, the fort above, served as a safe harbor for entrepreneurs headed for the gold rush in California and there´s an artist rendering of San Francisco in its museum that has Alcatraz shaped just like a Central American volcano.

Cerro Negro at 20 MPH

Matt`s Version:

Central America has a lot of volcanoes. Some are dormant, and some are very active, but until we reached Nicaragua, none of them had been walked on by the Mary.

I´d tried to get her to come with me, but she had gracefully declined (read: wimped out) several times until I successfully pressured her to climb Cerro Negro outside of Leon in Nicaragua.

We went on a 4am hike with an organization that gives all its earnings to help street children in Leon, and climbed up to the top and into the crater of a volcano where sulfurous steam and heat leaked from the ground.

The countryside was lush and beautiful. The views from the volcano were spectacular. The weather was perfect.

But the thing that made the day was seeing Mary´s face when she saw the 500 foot, 45 degree descent on loose lava gravel, which we were expected to run down.

The real story (AKA: Mary´s Version):

See this photo? It was taken from the top of Cerro Negro, the volcano that we ran down. Hopefully you can appreciate how insanely scary it is to throw your fragile body down a hill full of loose gravel at a million miles per hour. For the record, Matt still has a scar from this activity.

Technical Difficulties

From some emails and comments I´ve received, it appears that ya´ll are not aware of the trials and tribulations of updating a blog from the illustrious third world. Let me explain (and create excuses as to the major delay in updating this of late).

First, there´s the simple problem of operating a camera when you can´t buy batteries that work. While it´s no problem to buy "dura-free" and "ener-cell" batteries, these only last long enough to turn the camera on to watch it die. Having finally found batteries, I still needed many other items to update this blog. Specifically:

A) Power

B) A computer made after 1989

C) A computer with USB outlets

D) Internet powered by something other than third-world dial-up providers.

Happily, I have found batteries and A-D at a lovely hostel in Bocas del Toro. While I can´t do much about the computer situation, we have stockpiled batteries. Happy blog reading!