Colombia...Ecuador... and now Peru

Here´s the update! We are going to be home in a week so we´ll keep this short. Colombia was brilliant! We showed up in Cartagena the day before the largest annual celebration and were not dissapointed, in fact it might have been the wildest couple days of our lives. Unfortunately we don´t have many pics to show because it would have been camera suicide¡¡¡ As soon as you step out of your hostel you´re slapped in the face with paint and flour, and for the duration of your excursion the berage doesn´t stop. By the end of the night everybody looks like dancing evil clowns, but it was rad!!

So after leaving the continent´s largest colonial Spanish port we headed off to the Bogota to check out the infamous city of 11 million. We took a gondola to the highest point which was cool, the city is massive from that perspective. Then headed about an hour out of town to check out a massive underground cathedral that was dug out of an old salt mine. Words can not describe the size of this place. At one time almost 9000 people can fit in it, damn big.

And off to Quito, Ecuador we went, smack dab on the equator. But cold. Cool really old town though, 78 catholic churches within the city limits, kind of excessive? But that´s the Spanish for ya I guess.

From there we headed to da beach for a few days of waves and Capairinas. Great chillout mini vacation before we took the 30+ hour bus journey to Lima, Peru. And directly onto a plane to where we lay our bags right now, Cusco. A city resting light at about 11,000ft and our last stop till Machu Picchu. So we shall leave you my good people because we have run our of air and must retreat to the bar.

Chau and see you all soon!

PANAMA...PANAMA-A

Ok, soooo, we´re now in Cartagena, Colombia trying to rewind our minds back to when we last wrote, which must have been Costa Rica... Since then we´ve wound our way through Panama, sailed through the San Blas Islands, and landed in South America. Here´s some more details and a few pics...

Our first destination in Panama was Boquete, a beautiful little mountain coffee town nestled below Panama´s only volcano, from the top of which you can see both oceans. We never made it up there, due to rain, but did get to zip-line at 80 kilometers per hour (look at us using the metric system!) through the forest canopy (got to check that off the unofficial trip "to do" list). Later that day we trekked through muddy no-man´s land for about an hour in search of hot springs, which we finally found and thoroughly enjoyed...

Next we spent a couple days in Bocas Del Toro, a Caribbean island chain. It was beautiful and laid-back (said to be like little Jamaica) but again we got lots of rain and decided to cut that section short and head on to Panama City. Had a fun Halloween (aka 80´s night), checked out the city and the infamous canal, but mostly just tried to pass the time until our boat set off for the San Blas islands.... And it was incredible! Check out the pics and we´ll save the stories for later!

The Rica

Cuba Libres in a can!! Rad. Enough said.... ok so here it comes. These are some pictures from Costa Rica. We headed out to the Oso Peninsula on the southwest tip of the country to check out some wild life. Let me tell ya, it was wild. The town that we stayed in has the highest concentration of macaws- it was a trip having these ridiculously colored birds flying all over the place like crows. Me gusta! Check the pics.

White faced monkey family- there was about 20 of these little mongrels.

Stellar frog picture that Em snagged, this is one of the rarest frogs to see... so we were told.

This was a super cool waterfall that only has water for 4 months out of the year. If you stand directly underneath the water it feels like getting a bag of softballs dropped on your head, but we had to try.

Living in a post card

1 off-road trip to secluded beach...$3

1 surfboard rental...$10
1 bad wipeout and a broken board..$170
Troubles in paradise...priceless.

Sorry for the cliche but I couldn't help it. So here's a little update my friends, we just spent the last week on a remote beach in Nicaragua just north of San Juan del Sur. This place said post card all over it (no people, great surf, the sun setting behind wild rock formations, turtles laying eggs on the beach.... we already miss it.)

After bidding the ocean farewell we headed inland to Isla de Ometepe, the largest island in a freshwater lake (and supposedly home to the only freshwater sharks in the world). The island is made up of two volcanoes, one of which we were hoping to climb but got totally rained out (when they say "rainy season" they really mean it). So we ended up relaxing, eating, watching all the weird animals that secretly inhabit the finca (boa constrictors, HUGE beetles, etc.) and playing a lot of shithead-our new favorite card game- with our two new travel buddies, Angie and Daniel. (We met in Flores, Guat. and later ran into in Nicaragua- we've been traveling together ever since! Coincidentally they're from Bellingham, Wa).

Earlier today we (barely) made it through the Nicaragua/Costa Rica border and now we're in San Jose, Costa Rica on our way to wander down some of the southern beaches/jungle. We have to catch a super early bus, so we're off to bed- hopefully we'll get to post some more pics soon!!

Poisonous bed mates

Upon arriving at Finca Ixobel (a little ecofriendly ranch started by an American woman in the 70s) we found out that one of our sleeping options was a tree house! Seeing as how we both adore tree houses there was really no need to consider other options... that was until we returned after dinner and fully realized that our lovely little tree house was in the middle of the pitch black jungle and already had many inhabitants. Our bed mates for the night?- armies of ants, large spiders, and a scorpion. Creepy sleeping situations aside, the finca was awesome- beautiful scenery, great food, and the craziest inner tubing EVER (when they said "not for wimps" they meant it...)

Many chicken bus hours and one rainy night in Coban later, we arrived at beautiful Lanquin, Guatemala (see pics). From there we saw Semuc Champey (pics are trapped in the camera), easily one of the world´s most beautiful natural wonders- look up pictures to see for yourself! We also did a wild cave scramble/swim/jumping via candlelight, and got to jump off a huge bridge into a raging river (sorry moms!) Christian also decided to play monkey and climbed up a huge tree, then jumped through the branches into one of the Semuc pools... he survived...

Cuba Libres and Palm Tree Pilings

We are alive! In fact we are more than alive. We have succesfully leapt over the line to thrive. We are currently sitting in a cafe on an island built by Mayans in something like 800 A.D. (Flores, Guatemala). A little update.... Belize was delicious, our time was spent on Ambergris Caye, a rad little island filled with papusas and golf carts. (Jan-you were so right). Most nights were spent doing.... homework, or drinking cuba libres on the end of a dock, or both, mostly both. The good news is we got our diver's certifcation (for all of you not certified, DO IT!!!!) We got to dive in the Carribean surrounded by baracudas, sting rays, turtles, every fish you've never heard of, and sharks... lots of 'em!!! And we were 65 feet under the sea!!
It was definitely sad to see the little island sink into the horizon. But let us tell you the adventures we found on the way to Guatemala....... long wild bus rides, seemingly influenced by roller coasters. We had no idea buses handled so well, on windy dirt roads, at 60 mph, in the middle of the night. Guatemala meets Disneyland. We could try and tell you about Tikal but words are poor paintbrushes for such a place, so you will have to wait for the pictures. Next up- Poptun, Guatemala... Besos y abrazos!!

Damn...here it comes.

T minus eight days and counting....

The count down has begun......

35 days till the fun gun unloads its crazy clip on stop numero uno, BELIZE!!!