Screw you camera. New, very nice, very free camera from my brother.. Screw you.
So... (deep breath)
No photos. Maybe a little later.
We´re biking. And Im biking, again. It hurts. Rain, sun, all of it.. bussing and hostels and clean clothes, life was so easy a little while back.
But, it was also expensive. We´re living a cheaper life now, which is a lot better for my wallet. And, to boot, its a lot better experience..
My brother, Harrison, is rediculosly good at spotting animals. We´ve seen more animals in these days of travelling together than Ive seen in my entire trip.. almost. Well, no.. not even close. But we´ve seen a lot.
Evening Before, and Day One (after several days of hostel hopping, and a 4 day stint with my best bud Eddie, who lives on the carribean coast of Costa Rica):
We bussed to San Jose the night before. Had to ride around the city some with our bikes, as many hostels were full. That night, and including most of the morning of the next day, we discussed our options of departure. It turns out, we are a horribly indesicive bunch (is it just me, or has my spelling been getting progressily worse? Damn you lack of school.. maybe lack of reading books too.). For us, it was a toss up of leaving the country by bus, or leaving by bike, or a combination of the two.
But in the end, we left on bus, for a place called Ciudad Quesada, which is north west of San Jose. From there, we hopped up our hoppy bikes and scoodled down towards a town of La Fortuna. After a withering and breathtaking (literally) 28 ish kilometres, we were nearing La Fortuna, when we noticed a sign saying "Hand Made Guitars" in front of a house.
So to be honest, it was kind of tough, adjusting from riding solo, and comfortably riding for long hours, and not needing to spend any money really on food... to riding with a group of people, and having opinions matter other than my own, and riding with people whos general biking speeds differ from my own.. and, jeepers, spending so much money on food. I feel my dealing with this was showing from time to time, so I said to them:
"Hey, you guys wanna go back there and check out that guitar shop?"
This differed from my earlier postion of thinking, "I think we should ride as long and as fast and as hard as we can because I think we should be riding 70km a day, and not thirty, because I know that I can, why cant you?"
So we stopped. And we went inside, and asked about the guitars.. the fella there said the man would return in the morning, we said that we could come back. He asked us, "You guys are going to sleep in La Fortuna?" I answered, "No, well, perhaps. Were looking for a place to put our tents and camp." And he said, "Well.. you could put them underneith that roof over there. Id be okay with that."
And there we were. Our first group hola-awesome-generosity experience. After talking to the family of them a little more, they offered us the option of showering, which we happily took up, and they offered us dinner, which we politely turned down due to our fooood(Im hungry as Im writing this) laden bags that we carried from a near by store. We set up camp, after they happily weed-wacked us a trail through the shin-deep grass to the roof.
The next day, after they cooked breakfast for the four of us, they took us for a walk around their farm.. describing how it was that they did things.
First off, they cooked with gas, that they created. From cow manure, from the cows that they had there for milk.
The cow waste is mixed with water, and drained into 20 foot plastic tube, which is sitting in the sun. The manure ferments, and as it does, it releases methane. The methane rises to the top, and is extracted by means of a valve connected to the top-most point.
The manure, after fermented, is exactracted at the other end of the tube, mixed with minerals and a few other natural ingredients, and is used to fertilize their crops, some of which are grown purely to feed the cows.
In addion to the large amount of vegetable and fruit crops that they were growing, this family also had crops for medicinal use, and had a special garden for such plants, containing around 10 different plants with different properties.
Their goal is to become self-sufficient, and to encourage others to do the same. They feed themselves almost entirely from their land and animals.
Day 2:
Busted out, crossed La Fortuna. Got rained on. Climbed up part of Volcan Arena, got rained on some more. Climbed some more large hills, got hit with more relentless torrents of rain. Arrived at some hotsprings, tired and needing lunch. These hotsprings were supposedly the only ones in the area accesible by the unpaying public. We discovered them to be a torrent of chocolaty-brown water and debris, due to the intense amount of water that had fallen. We bathed anyways, it was still very warm. Warm, brown, chocolaty water.. kind of like Willy Wonka's house..
After a lunch of tortilla chips, random sweets and bean paste, while being pummelled by yet another monsoon, we started riding again, continuing our awesome trend of climbing.
In the end, we passed by many a mudslide, all of which had happened that day.. lucky that we didnt end up underneith one.
That night, after realizing that our current pace would not get us near a town until late that night, we decided to find a place to camp. It so happened, that amongst all these terrifyingly expensive Costa Rican hotels, there was one family who had a relativly bare concrete building in their yard, which they frequently rented out to budget travellers such as ourselves. We paid 2 dollars a person for the night, in return for a roof, running water, and a toilet.
The following days included more camping, more rain, some sun, Tucans, and a lot of monkeys.
4 or 5 days ago, the lot of us crossed into Nicaragua. It was an emotional moment. The next day, we hopped the ferry to Ometepe, recieved some free beer(!) from some other travellers, and proceeded to throw a camp down on a beach infront of a hotel.
That night was one of the buggiest nights Ive experienced in Central America. The sand we were camping on turned out to be a flowing mass of these small, round, grey insects. They didnt bite, but were really strange none the less. The more memorable ground dwelling insects were those of the ant variaty. There was a variaty, to some extent, but the most present were ants of a small, black, very painful stinging bite variaty. There were numerous encounters, including some very invasive actions by the ants, as they attempted to quickly build homes out of our trash, our backpacks, and Rob's tent.
Another memorable species of insect were of a small, fly type varity, which were very successful at filling all and every crevece on a persons face, and which provided a living, moving coating for any other portion of skin that was not covered by clothing. They did not bite either, and only seemed to be so forward in their actions when you attemped to use a flashlight at night. I lost on of my flashlights in El Salvador, and the other in Panama, so I was in luck.
But all in all, we lived, we managed to outsmart the ants (after some time), and Harrison was subject to a full force monsoon without a fly on his tent (his tarp blew of in the worst part of the storm that night).
Last night we took the middleofthenight boat to Granada, from Ometepe. Slept in some very fishy smelling wet fishish stuff on the cargo deck of the boat.
Yesterday, we arrived at the area to catch the midnight sailing to Granada approximately 12 hours before we needed to. So, after double checking departure times at the dock, we backtracked and headed for a beach with a big Canadian flag painted on a sign next to it.
It would turn out that a group of girls from Quebec came, and over a period of 3 months, built a large playground next to the beach we were at. That was in 2003.. unfortunately, now the playground is beginning to be overgrown, and the only creatures that play on it are the monkeys that live by (according to the woman that lives near by).
More on that woman.. an old woman called Natalie over to her, as Natalie was wrestling with her bicycle on the beach. I came over to say hi aswell, and translate (as I usually do). After helping her carry some things to her home (which was about 20 feet away from the beach), and meeting her family, they spontaneously invited us into their home, to wait out the hours until the ferry.
That evening, we watched two movies with them, made an enourmous dinner (the family was 11 people strong BEFORE we showed up), and had somewhat of a party, all talking and laughing, taking turns telling stories, and comparing the qualities of Nicaragua and Canada. This family had previously housed two of the volunteers from Quebec.
They also had a pet parrot, who yammered at us continuously in spanish. I could only understand a little bit. But he liked being on the heads of people, so that is where he stayed for some time.
So, that is the past. We are now staying in a relativly cheap hostel in Granada. The next weeks will unfortunatly be different than the past weeks, as time constraints and wishes to do and see certain things have put a limit on the amount of biking that may take place. For part of our group, I believe that it may just end here in Granada. But thats life.
For me, I will be riding for perhaps one or two more weeks, thanI will be bussing my last stretch back into Guatemala, to ensure that I once again can volunteer at Maya Pedal, before we all fly home.
Sorry for the delay. Take care all.
Tyler
No photos. Maybe a little later.
We´re biking. And Im biking, again. It hurts. Rain, sun, all of it.. bussing and hostels and clean clothes, life was so easy a little while back.
But, it was also expensive. We´re living a cheaper life now, which is a lot better for my wallet. And, to boot, its a lot better experience..
My brother, Harrison, is rediculosly good at spotting animals. We´ve seen more animals in these days of travelling together than Ive seen in my entire trip.. almost. Well, no.. not even close. But we´ve seen a lot.
Evening Before, and Day One (after several days of hostel hopping, and a 4 day stint with my best bud Eddie, who lives on the carribean coast of Costa Rica):
We bussed to San Jose the night before. Had to ride around the city some with our bikes, as many hostels were full. That night, and including most of the morning of the next day, we discussed our options of departure. It turns out, we are a horribly indesicive bunch (is it just me, or has my spelling been getting progressily worse? Damn you lack of school.. maybe lack of reading books too.). For us, it was a toss up of leaving the country by bus, or leaving by bike, or a combination of the two.
But in the end, we left on bus, for a place called Ciudad Quesada, which is north west of San Jose. From there, we hopped up our hoppy bikes and scoodled down towards a town of La Fortuna. After a withering and breathtaking (literally) 28 ish kilometres, we were nearing La Fortuna, when we noticed a sign saying "Hand Made Guitars" in front of a house.
So to be honest, it was kind of tough, adjusting from riding solo, and comfortably riding for long hours, and not needing to spend any money really on food... to riding with a group of people, and having opinions matter other than my own, and riding with people whos general biking speeds differ from my own.. and, jeepers, spending so much money on food. I feel my dealing with this was showing from time to time, so I said to them:
"Hey, you guys wanna go back there and check out that guitar shop?"
This differed from my earlier postion of thinking, "I think we should ride as long and as fast and as hard as we can because I think we should be riding 70km a day, and not thirty, because I know that I can, why cant you?"
So we stopped. And we went inside, and asked about the guitars.. the fella there said the man would return in the morning, we said that we could come back. He asked us, "You guys are going to sleep in La Fortuna?" I answered, "No, well, perhaps. Were looking for a place to put our tents and camp." And he said, "Well.. you could put them underneith that roof over there. Id be okay with that."
And there we were. Our first group hola-awesome-generosity experience. After talking to the family of them a little more, they offered us the option of showering, which we happily took up, and they offered us dinner, which we politely turned down due to our fooood(Im hungry as Im writing this) laden bags that we carried from a near by store. We set up camp, after they happily weed-wacked us a trail through the shin-deep grass to the roof.
The next day, after they cooked breakfast for the four of us, they took us for a walk around their farm.. describing how it was that they did things.
First off, they cooked with gas, that they created. From cow manure, from the cows that they had there for milk.
The cow waste is mixed with water, and drained into 20 foot plastic tube, which is sitting in the sun. The manure ferments, and as it does, it releases methane. The methane rises to the top, and is extracted by means of a valve connected to the top-most point.
The manure, after fermented, is exactracted at the other end of the tube, mixed with minerals and a few other natural ingredients, and is used to fertilize their crops, some of which are grown purely to feed the cows.
In addion to the large amount of vegetable and fruit crops that they were growing, this family also had crops for medicinal use, and had a special garden for such plants, containing around 10 different plants with different properties.
Their goal is to become self-sufficient, and to encourage others to do the same. They feed themselves almost entirely from their land and animals.
Day 2:
Busted out, crossed La Fortuna. Got rained on. Climbed up part of Volcan Arena, got rained on some more. Climbed some more large hills, got hit with more relentless torrents of rain. Arrived at some hotsprings, tired and needing lunch. These hotsprings were supposedly the only ones in the area accesible by the unpaying public. We discovered them to be a torrent of chocolaty-brown water and debris, due to the intense amount of water that had fallen. We bathed anyways, it was still very warm. Warm, brown, chocolaty water.. kind of like Willy Wonka's house..
After a lunch of tortilla chips, random sweets and bean paste, while being pummelled by yet another monsoon, we started riding again, continuing our awesome trend of climbing.
In the end, we passed by many a mudslide, all of which had happened that day.. lucky that we didnt end up underneith one.
That night, after realizing that our current pace would not get us near a town until late that night, we decided to find a place to camp. It so happened, that amongst all these terrifyingly expensive Costa Rican hotels, there was one family who had a relativly bare concrete building in their yard, which they frequently rented out to budget travellers such as ourselves. We paid 2 dollars a person for the night, in return for a roof, running water, and a toilet.
The following days included more camping, more rain, some sun, Tucans, and a lot of monkeys.
4 or 5 days ago, the lot of us crossed into Nicaragua. It was an emotional moment. The next day, we hopped the ferry to Ometepe, recieved some free beer(!) from some other travellers, and proceeded to throw a camp down on a beach infront of a hotel.
That night was one of the buggiest nights Ive experienced in Central America. The sand we were camping on turned out to be a flowing mass of these small, round, grey insects. They didnt bite, but were really strange none the less. The more memorable ground dwelling insects were those of the ant variaty. There was a variaty, to some extent, but the most present were ants of a small, black, very painful stinging bite variaty. There were numerous encounters, including some very invasive actions by the ants, as they attempted to quickly build homes out of our trash, our backpacks, and Rob's tent.
Another memorable species of insect were of a small, fly type varity, which were very successful at filling all and every crevece on a persons face, and which provided a living, moving coating for any other portion of skin that was not covered by clothing. They did not bite either, and only seemed to be so forward in their actions when you attemped to use a flashlight at night. I lost on of my flashlights in El Salvador, and the other in Panama, so I was in luck.
But all in all, we lived, we managed to outsmart the ants (after some time), and Harrison was subject to a full force monsoon without a fly on his tent (his tarp blew of in the worst part of the storm that night).
Last night we took the middleofthenight boat to Granada, from Ometepe. Slept in some very fishy smelling wet fishish stuff on the cargo deck of the boat.
Yesterday, we arrived at the area to catch the midnight sailing to Granada approximately 12 hours before we needed to. So, after double checking departure times at the dock, we backtracked and headed for a beach with a big Canadian flag painted on a sign next to it.
It would turn out that a group of girls from Quebec came, and over a period of 3 months, built a large playground next to the beach we were at. That was in 2003.. unfortunately, now the playground is beginning to be overgrown, and the only creatures that play on it are the monkeys that live by (according to the woman that lives near by).
More on that woman.. an old woman called Natalie over to her, as Natalie was wrestling with her bicycle on the beach. I came over to say hi aswell, and translate (as I usually do). After helping her carry some things to her home (which was about 20 feet away from the beach), and meeting her family, they spontaneously invited us into their home, to wait out the hours until the ferry.
That evening, we watched two movies with them, made an enourmous dinner (the family was 11 people strong BEFORE we showed up), and had somewhat of a party, all talking and laughing, taking turns telling stories, and comparing the qualities of Nicaragua and Canada. This family had previously housed two of the volunteers from Quebec.
They also had a pet parrot, who yammered at us continuously in spanish. I could only understand a little bit. But he liked being on the heads of people, so that is where he stayed for some time.
So, that is the past. We are now staying in a relativly cheap hostel in Granada. The next weeks will unfortunatly be different than the past weeks, as time constraints and wishes to do and see certain things have put a limit on the amount of biking that may take place. For part of our group, I believe that it may just end here in Granada. But thats life.
For me, I will be riding for perhaps one or two more weeks, thanI will be bussing my last stretch back into Guatemala, to ensure that I once again can volunteer at Maya Pedal, before we all fly home.
Sorry for the delay. Take care all.
Tyler
posted by Squid at 4:51 PM
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