Going EXTREMO at Monteverde!

Ok, so we have crossed the border from sneaky rip-off central into blatant rip-off central- COSTA RICA! Not only do they think that it is acceptable to charge $9 for a box of cereal here, but they also have tipping jars at all of the supermarket counters... what the? Despite this though, Costa Rica has been so beautiful- all very lush and green, and we just spent 3 days at one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen, Monteverde, so I thought that I would dedicate a whole blog to it :)

Our first stop was in Tamarindo, a beach town also referred to as "Tamagringo" for very obvious reasons- it's centro-america. Not the most amazing place, but we did meet some cool people at our hostel there, but other than that, there was nothing that would make me go back there. But following on from this, we headed up into the mountains to a place called Monteverde. (Look out below- the green dots are our footsteps).

               Map: http://www.costarica-discover-it.com/costa-rica-map.html

It took us a whole day of bus travel, but we finally arrived up a very long and winding road into the town of Monteverde. This town is famous for its zip-lining tours, having established the first zip-line in Costa Rica. Originally we were going to by-pass it because we figured that we would be zip-lining in South East Asia and it might be cheaper. However, an Aussie couple that we met in Nicaragua raved about it, so we decided to give it a go.

The first thing that I noticed was the temperature change- gone was the hot and humid climate, and in its place was a cool breeze. Amazing! On our first full day we took the advice of the owner of our hostel and went and climbed a giant tree. It was just insane, the roots had grown around the outside of the tree and gradually the trunk had hollowed out. So what is left? One of the most awesome natural playgrounds in the world- OH&S in Australia would have a heart attack! We climbed so high that we could see the monkeys in the trees BELOW us! Pretty cool.

We also visited a serpentarium and a frog house too which house rare and common species found in Costa Rica.

The next day we woke up super early (5:30am-aarrrggh!) to head to the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve. This is a protected area of forest which houses hundreds of animal and plant species and is protected from poaching and deforestation. It is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen in my life- so green, with hundreds of thousands of year old trees and plants everywhere. We walked around the reserve for about 4 hours- my legs were feeling sore for the next few days, that's for sure! Good news is that the ankle is holding up well, and we got to see some beautiful birds including hummingbirds, and also a crazy black snake right near the pathway! No sloths though... hopefully we will be seeing them somewhere else along the way.

So as if hiking for four hours wasn't enough for us, we had also booked ourselves in for Extremo Zip-lining! This is where you are attached to a cable that runs along the valleys and through the trees in the area. We got fixed up with our harnesses, helmets, and trusty gardening gloves (as we needed them in case we needed to brake on the lines) and headed up into the trees.

The whole experience was amazing... you got a first class view of the scenery, felt like your were a monkey travelling through the trees, and then they had two special lines, which was the "Tarzan Swing" (so scary, you just jump off a platform and swing around... my jump was followed by a screaming "f%&^^&**%$ck!" whereas Jono, as always, was cool calm and collected like he had jumped off platforms every day of his life) and the "Superman" (where you cable in a superman flying position-amazing!). It was right up there with bungee-jumping in India, and the guys who ran it were very cool as well, despite joking on every line that the harness was broken as they pushed you out onto the wire. Hilarious.

So that was our Monteverde experience! It was such a great place, and the zip-lining was the best! Right now we have travelled down south to a beach called Santa Teresa, but I'll write about our adventures here next time....

Nicaragua... in a nut shell

Here it is, at long last I have finally set up a blog so that I can tell you guys all of my travel stories without forgetting who I've told what, and to avoid telling stories twice and boring you all :)

So... Nicaragua. Where do I start? When we arrived in Mexico, the general consensus among travellers coming up from the south was that Guatemala and Nicaragua would knock your socks off. Guatemala certainly lived up to its reputation and has probably my favourite place that we have travelled to date. And so after a very small stint in El Salvador we arrived in Nicaragua with high hopes. We arrived very late at night after a very long and tiring bus trip where we experienced driving through an amazing electrical storm.

So truth be told, I was a little bit over life by the time that we got to Leon, Nicaragua. After the hostel that we were staying at stuffed up our booking, we were even more over life. But finally we settled into our dorm beds, and drifted off. The next day was spent sampling Guatemalan coffee (amazing) and walking the streets of this run down colonial- style town. We arranged to go volcano boarding the next day, and after downing some very tasty $1 mojitos, we passed out early so that we could be fresh for our volcano boarding experience.

Volcano boarding is the thing to do in Leon, and no one that we had talked to had been disappointed. It involved us hiking up a volcano for 45 minutes with a wooden sled in tow, wearing some very sexy workers suits, and sliding down one of the sides of the volcano on a little wooden board. Suffice to say it was absolutely awesome, and all we wanted to do when we'd gotten to the bottom was climb back up to the top to do it again. The fastest speed that a person has gone down the volcano is 87km/hour. I think I only managed about 40km/hour because I'm totally uncoordinated and kept falling off, but that was scary enough!

So all in all, Leon was pretty cool, volcano boarding was awesome, and the scenery around the volcano was amazing. The town itself was run down, but quirky. Very different vibe here... a tad more sketchy maybe?

On from Leon we travelled to a surf break called Miramar, which is near a beach called Puerto Sandido. Not much to do here but lay in hammocks and surf, which is a pity as there was hardly any surf, but it was the first time I had hopped on a board in central america. The ankle held up well, but my surfing was pitiful and only made it onto my knees- have got a bit of work to do :) Stayed only 2 days as the place we were staying was a rip-off ($17 for a dorm bed- ludicrous!) and made our way to the city of Granada, the pearl of Nicaragua (according to the Lonely Planet).

Granada was nothing like a pearl for me... it was dirty, and sleazy and the hostel that we stayed at was atrocious. Some people love the place, but it definitely wasn't for me. I'm not a fan of unwanted male attention at the best of times, but when the police are whistling and hissing at you as well as the general scumbags, you know that something is up. The best part about Granada was the 1 hour massage that we got in this fancy hotel. $30 for the two of us, and they threw in some chinese cupping and hot stone massage as well. I've never had a massage before, but once I got past the weirdness of a stranger rubbing my body I was pretty content to lie there and enjoy the experience. We only stayed a couple of nights, and then ventured to a lake situated about 30 mins from Granada (which is in the crater of volcano- so cool) to enjoy the next few days. This place was bliss, the water was so warm and bright blue, so we lazed the days away relaxing on tubes and kayaking, it was paradise!

To finish off our Nicaragua experience we settled at a beach called Maderas, near a beach town called San Juan del Sur. Unfortunately we still haven't been too lucky on the surfing front, the waves were only good for a couple of days, but I did get out there and I am standing up on the board again (yippee!) and Jono got some great waves as well. We also went one night to see Olive Ridley turtles nesting on the beach, and hatchlings taking their first swim out to sea, which was an incredible experience.

So these experiences sound amazing (and they were) but it was the people of Nicaragua that let the country down for me. We continued to get lied to, and ripped off, and it felt like being in India again, struggling to get an honest price and answer for tours, hostels, buses and taxis. So we were back on our toes, but those scumbags that we did encounter really let the whole Nicaragua experience down for me. BUT the places were cool (bar Granada) and we still had an awesome time :)

Hope you guys have enjoyed the first blog experience, let me know what you think! Much love and miss you all xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo