First, thanks to Erica for putting me in touch with Ecuadorians. I'd imagine that it will come in quite handy in what looks to be a great place.
Second, apologies for not posting more. I promise to be more diligent now that I'm on my own.
Third, it has been a day of firsts. I got my first pseudo-mullet, made my first ceviche, and as a corollary to the prior point made my first hostel meal. Four lucky people (me included) enjoyed the Nate Miller special ceviche (corvina, onion, sawtooth coriander, limon, some local chili, and a bit of salt) along with a chili-onion chutney fried tuna fillet over some white rice. If I do say so myself, it was fantastic. When I asked the front desk people if they liked ceviche, they were quite surprised when I presented three coffee cups and proceeded to gain some mass with them. If the bulk of the hostel comes down sick tomorrow, its probably my fault. I was pretty proud of myself that the Peruvian said it was very good ceviche. For a recipe-less first effort, I think it augers well. The rest of the meal matched it, though it definitely lacked veggies.
I really wanted to upload some pictures, but this computer is not cooperating. I now have what amounts to a mullet, and really wanted to post that pic, but I guess it will have to wait.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Friday, March 12, 2010
Margaritaville
Yesterday while walking back to the hotel, I blew out my flip flop. No joke. That´s what I get for not traveling with a pair of Rainbows.
Today after relocating to more affordable environs, I found a little shoe repair shop that fixed the strap right up. Thinking a celebration was in order, I headed to the nearest bar and ordered a margarita. Apparently in Panama a margarita means triple sec and ice mixed in a blender. It´s as awful as it sounds.
I guess I should have spoken up when I heard the bartender and waitress debating how to make a margarita in Spanish. So it´s definitely my own damn fault.
Today after relocating to more affordable environs, I found a little shoe repair shop that fixed the strap right up. Thinking a celebration was in order, I headed to the nearest bar and ordered a margarita. Apparently in Panama a margarita means triple sec and ice mixed in a blender. It´s as awful as it sounds.
I guess I should have spoken up when I heard the bartender and waitress debating how to make a margarita in Spanish. So it´s definitely my own damn fault.
Friday, March 5, 2010
The Journey So Far...
It's been an interesting journey since Ian and Eco departed to the states and IB arrived down here. Had some adventures, some great times and met some really cool people.
The Saturday the aforementioned traveling companions departerd, there was a big, much-hyped concert in El Tunco. Four bands/djs, tons of people from San Salvador. The concert actualy turned out to be a bit of a bust, but the next few days in Playa Tunco were fun. Hit the beach, ended up at this crazy Salvadorean birthday party where everyone was painting each other in paint and spent a good ammount of time by the pool.
I then headed into San Salvador with Michelline and Lynn, two Canadians I had met in Tunco. They let me crash in thier hotel room at the Marriot Presidente (one of the nicest hotels in the city) in advance of my 3am bus ride to San Jose in Costa Rica. We ended up getting dinner at this really nice Itallian place where I had a great plate of papardelle with rabbit ragu. We then ended up playing Wii in the lobbly till 2:30 am with these guys from Louisians. Very random, but a great time.
The bus ride to San Jose took 22 hours and was about as fun as a root canal. It ended up getting in late and my hotel had cancelled my reservation, so I crashed at this sketchy place in some part of the city I had no idea where it was. The next day I figured out how to get to Bocas Del Toro in Panama without having to take another 12 hour bus ride to Panama City, and then have to fly back to Bocas.
I headed down to Puerto Viejo in Costa Rica for the night, with the plan to cross the border the next day. Puerto Viejo was one of the least appealing places I've ever been. It was this mix of burnout backpacker, rastas, and surfers, that mixed together with an undercurrent of violence made for a miserable place. A night at a crappy hostel with rain pounding on a corrugated roof rounded things out and I couldn't wait to get out of there.
The next day I crossed over into Panama and took a water taxi to Bocas. I crashed in a dorm with some random people and then IB arrived the next morning.
We found a pretty nice hotel and set up camp there. It was raining intermmitently for the next few days, and we tried to get in as much beach time as we could, but it wasn't as much as I would have liked. We took a tour of some islands, wandered around another, played futbol on the beach with locals and had a few fun nights out. For those that know IB and I and how we operate, one can imagine what I mean by fun nights out.
Tuesday, we headed by water taxi and local bus to a little mountain town called Boquete. We got here, grabbed some dinner with some INSANE girls from Boston and then hit the one bar in town open past 9. After closing the place down, we had to talk the crazy girls out of stealing beer from the fridge in the hostel that belonged to some other people. All in all, another fun night.
This morning we got up at 6:30 am and did some whitewater rafting. The river wasnt as hardcore as I would have liked, but it was still lots of fun. We are taking it easy tonight as we have a very early flight tommorow to Panama City. We are going to see the canal tommorow and then IB departs Friday morning. After that I've got a few ideas on what I might do, but nothing concrete. We shall see what transpires.....
No pictures as the stupid computer I am on wouldn't let me upload them. I will get them up as soon as I can for my loyal readers.
The Saturday the aforementioned traveling companions departerd, there was a big, much-hyped concert in El Tunco. Four bands/djs, tons of people from San Salvador. The concert actualy turned out to be a bit of a bust, but the next few days in Playa Tunco were fun. Hit the beach, ended up at this crazy Salvadorean birthday party where everyone was painting each other in paint and spent a good ammount of time by the pool.
I then headed into San Salvador with Michelline and Lynn, two Canadians I had met in Tunco. They let me crash in thier hotel room at the Marriot Presidente (one of the nicest hotels in the city) in advance of my 3am bus ride to San Jose in Costa Rica. We ended up getting dinner at this really nice Itallian place where I had a great plate of papardelle with rabbit ragu. We then ended up playing Wii in the lobbly till 2:30 am with these guys from Louisians. Very random, but a great time.
The bus ride to San Jose took 22 hours and was about as fun as a root canal. It ended up getting in late and my hotel had cancelled my reservation, so I crashed at this sketchy place in some part of the city I had no idea where it was. The next day I figured out how to get to Bocas Del Toro in Panama without having to take another 12 hour bus ride to Panama City, and then have to fly back to Bocas.
I headed down to Puerto Viejo in Costa Rica for the night, with the plan to cross the border the next day. Puerto Viejo was one of the least appealing places I've ever been. It was this mix of burnout backpacker, rastas, and surfers, that mixed together with an undercurrent of violence made for a miserable place. A night at a crappy hostel with rain pounding on a corrugated roof rounded things out and I couldn't wait to get out of there.
The next day I crossed over into Panama and took a water taxi to Bocas. I crashed in a dorm with some random people and then IB arrived the next morning.
We found a pretty nice hotel and set up camp there. It was raining intermmitently for the next few days, and we tried to get in as much beach time as we could, but it wasn't as much as I would have liked. We took a tour of some islands, wandered around another, played futbol on the beach with locals and had a few fun nights out. For those that know IB and I and how we operate, one can imagine what I mean by fun nights out.
Tuesday, we headed by water taxi and local bus to a little mountain town called Boquete. We got here, grabbed some dinner with some INSANE girls from Boston and then hit the one bar in town open past 9. After closing the place down, we had to talk the crazy girls out of stealing beer from the fridge in the hostel that belonged to some other people. All in all, another fun night.
This morning we got up at 6:30 am and did some whitewater rafting. The river wasnt as hardcore as I would have liked, but it was still lots of fun. We are taking it easy tonight as we have a very early flight tommorow to Panama City. We are going to see the canal tommorow and then IB departs Friday morning. After that I've got a few ideas on what I might do, but nothing concrete. We shall see what transpires.....
No pictures as the stupid computer I am on wouldn't let me upload them. I will get them up as soon as I can for my loyal readers.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Some Pictures
Here are some pictures of Central California-El Salvador so far. I´m still in Playa El Tunco and am going to be here for the next few days. It´s a cool little beach town that I´m having a good time in. From here I´m headed to Panama on Tuesday by bus.
Sunset in SB at Jake´s place
Jake fishing in SB
More fishing
The SB coastline
Nick´s boat
The handy´s
Sanchez El Pediphillio
Eddy The Boxer
NY is missing a bus
The waterfall in Juayua
Fireworks on the beach
Roca Sunzal
Our buddies Carlos (left) and Josh having some drinks with us
The pool at Roca. That´s my pasty leg
Sunset in SB at Jake´s place
Jake fishing in SB
More fishing
The SB coastline
Nick´s boat
The handy´s
Sanchez El Pediphillio
Eddy The Boxer
NY is missing a bus
The waterfall in Juayua
Fireworks on the beach
Roca Sunzal
Our buddies Carlos (left) and Josh having some drinks with us
The pool at Roca. That´s my pasty leg
Thursday, February 25, 2010
The Last Few Weeks...
Ive covered a good amount of ground in the last few weeks. By my calculations, Ive traveled a little less than half of the length of the coast of North/Central America by various methods. Healdsburg to SF to SLO by car, SB to LA by train and then LA to San Salvador by plane. Ill be throwing a bus and boat into the mix in the near future. A pretty good mix of transportation if i do say so myself.
The trip down the coast was great. Had a good time in SB with Jake fishing, bbqing, and hanging out on the beach. Being down there made me kick myself for not visiting more often while he has been in school. Headed down to LA to meet up with Eric after that and then took a miserable flight to El Salvador that was three hours late and had a lady sitting next to me that wouldn't move to the empty window seat so we could have some space between us.
Me, Eric and I-Dad stayed at Playa Sunzal for the next few days and had a great time. I tried surfing one day then decided my time was better spent hanging out by the pool. Eric and I-Dad got out every day, even in crappy blown-out surf, and caught some good waves.
On Tuesday we rented a car and drove up into the mountains. The car was a little Ford Escape with what appears to be a somewhat checkered past, maintenance wise. To make it go straight you need to keep the wheel turned almost a half turn to the right. Needless to say, it is lots of fun to drive. Within 30 minutes of being in it we had managed to blow the radio fuse and were tune-less.
Another endearing feature of the car is this alarm the seems to start dinging every time we drive through a sketchy area. We decided the it is a "Stupid Gringos Are About To Get Shot" alarm, and has been remarkably accurate when it comes to going off only in sketchy areas. Technology really is amazing.
We spent Tuesday night in a little mountain town called Juayuac (sp?) and visited a waterfall there and ate some pretty good food. We went to the local waterfall at dusk and were accompanied by two machete-wielding 16 year-olds who were a combined 8 feet tall. Apparently there have been several robberies of visitors to the waterfall by banditos. We escaped unscathed and the waterfall was awesome.
The next day we headed to Lake Ilopongo, a lake about 45 minutes outside San Salvador. We drove all around the lake on rutted and rocky dirt roads trying to find beach access that wasn't bocked off by massive villas of the San Salvadorean elite, among whom the lake is a popular weekend destination. We finally found a coupe of restaurants with beach access and were enjoying a leisurely afternoon on the dock when our waiter came to inform us that out ride had a flat tire. We tried to change it, but one of the lug nuts was frozen. Luckily for us, a friendly local college student taking a day trip to the lake had a air pump that plugged into the cigarette lighter, which we used to inflate the tire. A mad dash to the nearest gas station followed to further inflate the tire. From the gas station it was 4 miles into town where we were hoping to find a place with a pneumatic drill.
The tire held enough air to get into town. We stopped at a ramshackle service station that unfortunately didn't have a pneumatic drill, but they did have ingenuity. Using a lug nut wrench and a six-foot long length of pipe for more leverage, they had the car jacked up, the sticky bolt off, and the tire patched in a matter of about 15 minutes. The cost for this friendly, efficient service? $1.50. When they said the price I initially thought they were trying to rip off the gringos by charging us $150 bucks because I couldn't believe it could be so cheap. That is one thing we have discovered about El Salvador - people are really honest and we have yet to encounter anyone trying to charge us inflated prices because we are foreigners. It is quite a refreshing change from Southeast Asia.
Anyhow, after the tire adventure and an hour drive to San Salvador, we found a hotel in the nice part of town called Zona Rosa. We watched the US-El Salvador game at a bar across the street from our hotel and then headed to the big mall here because we had heard it was a good combination of safety/nightlife. The safety part was there, but not the nightlife. They bars and clubs weren't very interesting, so we called it a night.
Today my suggestion that we try and make San Salvador a somewhat worthwhile detour by visiting this museum near our hotel was laughed down, and we are about to head back to the beach.
I better go pack as my blogging is holding us up...
The trip down the coast was great. Had a good time in SB with Jake fishing, bbqing, and hanging out on the beach. Being down there made me kick myself for not visiting more often while he has been in school. Headed down to LA to meet up with Eric after that and then took a miserable flight to El Salvador that was three hours late and had a lady sitting next to me that wouldn't move to the empty window seat so we could have some space between us.
Me, Eric and I-Dad stayed at Playa Sunzal for the next few days and had a great time. I tried surfing one day then decided my time was better spent hanging out by the pool. Eric and I-Dad got out every day, even in crappy blown-out surf, and caught some good waves.
On Tuesday we rented a car and drove up into the mountains. The car was a little Ford Escape with what appears to be a somewhat checkered past, maintenance wise. To make it go straight you need to keep the wheel turned almost a half turn to the right. Needless to say, it is lots of fun to drive. Within 30 minutes of being in it we had managed to blow the radio fuse and were tune-less.
Another endearing feature of the car is this alarm the seems to start dinging every time we drive through a sketchy area. We decided the it is a "Stupid Gringos Are About To Get Shot" alarm, and has been remarkably accurate when it comes to going off only in sketchy areas. Technology really is amazing.
We spent Tuesday night in a little mountain town called Juayuac (sp?) and visited a waterfall there and ate some pretty good food. We went to the local waterfall at dusk and were accompanied by two machete-wielding 16 year-olds who were a combined 8 feet tall. Apparently there have been several robberies of visitors to the waterfall by banditos. We escaped unscathed and the waterfall was awesome.
The next day we headed to Lake Ilopongo, a lake about 45 minutes outside San Salvador. We drove all around the lake on rutted and rocky dirt roads trying to find beach access that wasn't bocked off by massive villas of the San Salvadorean elite, among whom the lake is a popular weekend destination. We finally found a coupe of restaurants with beach access and were enjoying a leisurely afternoon on the dock when our waiter came to inform us that out ride had a flat tire. We tried to change it, but one of the lug nuts was frozen. Luckily for us, a friendly local college student taking a day trip to the lake had a air pump that plugged into the cigarette lighter, which we used to inflate the tire. A mad dash to the nearest gas station followed to further inflate the tire. From the gas station it was 4 miles into town where we were hoping to find a place with a pneumatic drill.
The tire held enough air to get into town. We stopped at a ramshackle service station that unfortunately didn't have a pneumatic drill, but they did have ingenuity. Using a lug nut wrench and a six-foot long length of pipe for more leverage, they had the car jacked up, the sticky bolt off, and the tire patched in a matter of about 15 minutes. The cost for this friendly, efficient service? $1.50. When they said the price I initially thought they were trying to rip off the gringos by charging us $150 bucks because I couldn't believe it could be so cheap. That is one thing we have discovered about El Salvador - people are really honest and we have yet to encounter anyone trying to charge us inflated prices because we are foreigners. It is quite a refreshing change from Southeast Asia.
Anyhow, after the tire adventure and an hour drive to San Salvador, we found a hotel in the nice part of town called Zona Rosa. We watched the US-El Salvador game at a bar across the street from our hotel and then headed to the big mall here because we had heard it was a good combination of safety/nightlife. The safety part was there, but not the nightlife. They bars and clubs weren't very interesting, so we called it a night.
Today my suggestion that we try and make San Salvador a somewhat worthwhile detour by visiting this museum near our hotel was laughed down, and we are about to head back to the beach.
I better go pack as my blogging is holding us up...
Thursday, February 11, 2010
The Darién Gap
This is the best lead to a story I've read in a while:
"In Yaviza, a town of contrabandistas, barefoot prostitutes, and drunken men fighting in the streets with machetes and broken bottles, I'm spotted by two Panamanian policemen and ordered to the cuartel (barracks)."
If you don't want to read what comes after that first sentence, I say there is something wrong with you. I ran across this article after having my curiosity piqued by all the dire warnings not to travel to the Darién Gap. Thinking - how bad can it actually be? - I resolved to undertake a bit of research.
After an hour or two of research, I can confidently answer the above question with - that bad. The place sounds like a real hell-hole. If the thick jungles infested with poisonous snakes don't get you, it is easy to drown in a swamp, get kidnapped or just get lost and not be able to find your way out of the jungle. And don't forget the jaguars. They apparently have a taste for people.
The slow boat to Columbia is sounding better and better.
Getting Outta Here...
After being home for a bit over a month, I'm getting ready to get out of here. I haven't been doing too much and just the other day really started thinking about my upcoming voyage to Central and South America.
I've started planning my trip and think I'm going to be country-hopping by bus for the most part. Flights in Central America are really expensive due to a lack of competition, and one way flights are generally just a few dollars cheaper than round trip so it doesn't make much sense to be flying from country to country.
Right now all I have planned is El Salvador with Eric and Ian and then I'll be meeting IB in Panama the following week. After that, who knows. My initial plan was to bus from Panama to Columbia, then I did a little reading about crossing the Darian Gap. Apparently it is the only unfinished portion of the Pan American Highway and is infested with Columbian rebel groups and paramilitary death squads. As fun as hanging out with them sounds, I think I'm going to pass on that. Seeing as how I have no income, it isn't really worth it to anyone I know to ransom me, so I probably would be stuck with whatever group grabbed me until they got sick of dealing with me. Which might be quicker than you would expect...
My tentative plan now that the overland route seems unwise is to cross over by boat from Panama to Columbia. Apparently sailboats will make the run once they get enough passengers, but it takes a while and can be a bit sketchy. I better bring a life jacket.
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