Travelling still on my mind

It seems a long time since I updated this, I have been working and travelling has been the last thing on my mind. I did find out recently that my contract at work will be extended for another 12 months so this does give me some scope to plan travels again. I do now have another trip in mind, it has been something I have dreamt of during the summer and it is still a good 2 years minimum away as it will take me that long at least to save up the money, I don't want to make the same mistake again!

I wont even reveal the planned length of the trip or its location(s) as yet but this blog should be be alive and kicking again soon as things very slowly start to fall into place!

Some sort of clarification for anyone reading

This is for my benefit as much as anyone elses. First of all I should say this is still very much all about South America. I am still very focused on getting there and have a new target date of March 4th 2011 which is the date the Carnival starts that year. I figure 2 years of saving and no fussing about in countries I have already been to is the way to go. I am pretty sure I am beginning to sound like a cracked record but it is becoming an obsession now, I have to go to South America and I will work my butt off to get there, I will update on here occasionally with my progress, again this is more for my own benefit but if anyone is reading then feel free to follow this one man crusade which is bordering on ridiculous right now.

The last few weeks I have visited Sweden, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. 8 New cities in 5 new countries, tomorrow I have a 16 hour bus ride to Berlin where I will spend my final 4 nights before I head back to the UK, a one day stop in Ipswich (sorry will not have the time to catch up with peeps this time) and then I am back to the hostel in Hartington where 'operation 2011' will begin.

The pictures will be on Facebook in about a week, I should warn you though if you are not interested in churches, snow or cobbled streets they probably wont interest you.

Cya.

The end of the road..

I regret to inform those reading that I am actually returning home tomorrow about 4 months earlier than planned. There are a few reasons for this mainly financial based (too much alcohol, too many tours, Costa Rica being so frickin expensive etc). I also have a job lined up at home and a potentialy amazing opportunity elsewhere in Europe which would potentially mean I could avoid that job if all works out. I leave with a few regrets, namely not even making it to South America which was my main destination but it will still be there next year and that is a plan for another day. I think I can say that I have done everything I wanted to do in the places I have made it to and so much more.

Since my last update precious little has really happened. I have only been to 2 new places Jaco and Puerto Viejo the rest has been spent killing time and sorting out various shit for coming home here in San Jose. So those 2 places, Jaco is another beach resort a little seedy but its safe to say we got lucky with our hostel which had a pool and a really good bunch of people. Highlights included a bar which had free drinks from 9pm untill midnight, no strings attatched! and my last night where I may have attended the best barbeque of all time, cooked by a lovely Israeli couple who are amongst the most memorable people I have met on my trip and a repeat of this and a week on Tel Avivs beaches later in the year awaits me which should be awesome. I also should mention Pierre, a cynical, sarcastic guy from Denmark who was pricelessly funny and someone you really just had to meet. Puerto Viejo on the caribbean coast was rainy and almost not worth mentioning, the only highlight was bumping into the Israeli couple again and sleeping in a hammock for 2 nights which was an experience if nothing else.

Caroline went home on the 1st and I cant deny this affected my decision to leave, hopefully we will have many further adventures in the very near future and I am already planning for that. Back in San Jose hasnt been anything to write home about other than one glorious day and night spent with Yemima yet another Israeli girl, going to Israel later this year is definatly going to happen!

I suppose I should sum up the trip and its difficult. Its hard to decide whether the people or the places were the best thing but I will go for the people. I can now go Sweden, Denmark, Israel, France, Australia, The U.s, Canada and have a place to stay with a new friend but its not just that, meeting travellers is so much more rewarding than meeting someone in a bar for example. Everyone is up for meeting everyone, the overwhelming majority of people are incredibly nice and I could just talk to them for hours. I have done so many things which I never have before. Some examples are climbing a volcano, surfing, hiking in caves, hitchiking in the back of a truck, sleeping in a hammock and eating sushi. Just for the statistics my favourite country was Guatemala and my favourite hostel was Lanquin also in Guatemala.

I hope I can add some pictures to this when I get home and I will keep the blog going as this journey is not over by any means.

Untill next time then!

A bad couple of days

I am currently in the Costa Rican capital San Jose at a slightly overpriced hostel, needless to say I am taking full advantage of the free internet! After around a week on the beaches at Tamarindo and then Montezuma we headed to the capital a couple of nights ago and then got a bus the following day to La Fortuna which is 4 hours North-West of San Jose, the problems started as soon as we got on the bus. First Carolines daypack was stolen, no passport, wallet etc in there but still quite a lot of useful stuff. We then did the volcano tour and she messed her knee up on the hot springs, which were actually the best thing about the whole 2 days untill that point.

We went to bed at our hotel and were awoke the next day by banging on the door, it turned out the toilet had overflowed and drenched the entire room whilst we were sleeping a lot of Carolines clothes got soaked and my camera got some water in it and now doesnt work, not really sure if that can be repaired, any ideas? hoping that the memory card with my pictures on will be okay at least and I can find a PC with a card reader on it to upload them and then just buy a new camera in Panama or something if it comes down to it.

We are now back at San Jose and with Caroline leaving in a week I was half tempted to join her and fly home, but I am over that now and keen to just look forward to Panama as Costa Rica with all the scams and it being so touristy and expensive has left a bitter taste in the mouth and not the greatest memories to be honest. We are off to Jaco tomorrow which is another beach resort as we just want to relax rather than spend every day on buses before Caroline goes home.

Oh and its raining in San Jose, I guess the rub of the green cant last forever hey.

Pura Vida in Costa Rica

I have been in Costa Rica for a couple of days now. The place is Tamarindo which is a beach resort, its a bit pricy and touristy but we like it all the same. My last 2 nights in Nicaragua were spent in Isla Ometepe which is an island with 2 enourmous volcanos in the centre. We stayed in 2 different villages on the island, the first was Santa Domingo which is tiny and renowned for its great beach, sadly the tide was in and there wasnt a beach. All the same we had a nice fish dinner and I taught Caroline how to play chess which she then beat me at. After an uncomfortabe nights sleep in a creaky double bed we saw a small collection of ruins and went for a swim in a supposed healing pool afterwards. I thought if I dipped my credit card in it would come out with more money on it but apparantly it doesnt work that way.

As we chose not to do the 12 hour volcano climb and the beaches were all out of action we didnt really experience much of Ometepe which was a shame, the boat ride over from San Jorge was pretty cool though. The second night we spent in Altagracia whic is a larger town and I had more of the staple Central American food which is pretty much Chicken, refried beans, rice, eggs and salad and if based on food alone I could happily live here, its excellent food.

The next day was another early start as we had to catch the bus to where the ferry left, then catch the boat again, a taxi to the chaotic Costa Rican border, 2 more buses one of which we had to get off so Caroline could use the toilet, another 2 buses and a mile stomp in the dark and we arrived at our hostel very tired. The hostel is very cool, it is a dorm room with a kitchen, balcony, tv and proper air conditioning, I could get used to this! our days here have been spent on the bach and god forbid I am actually getting a tan at last. We will probably leave here tomorrow but plan to stay in Costa Rica untill Caroline flys home on the 31st. After that I will be off to Panama for another chapter of the trip. I wont mention the weather again.. (its bloody hot!)

Granada and San Juan Del Sur

I am back in one of my favourite Central American destinations from last time, San Juan Del Sur. We got here a little late to soak up the rays on the beach today so have simply enjoyed a few beers, Caroline taught me a bit of Spanish though what will actually stick in my brain is another matter.

Granada really didnt liven up untill our second night there. A group of Americans turned up, sadly I was stuck in a conversation with a local who went on and on about the problems in the country, after about an hour of this I finally managed to get away and enjoy the night, many beers were drunk and we went on to a club down the street, after a few hours of this we stumbled home and I passed out in a hammock which simply seemed like a good idea at the time. The next day we all headed to Volcan Mayasa and went up the volcano for another unique and incredible experience. We headed out again that evening but after an interesting local Nicaraguan meal nobody could quite manage another heavy night so we went home for a relativly early one.

I think we will stay here a couple of nights and then head to Isla Omettepe, which has more Volcanos and some good hiking as well, after that its onto Costa Rica though neither of us know where we want to go there!

4 countries in the first week of 2009!

After debating all evening in San Salvador as to whether we would go to Santa Ana or La Libertad we decided eventually to fuck El Salvador its overpriced and everything interesting is miles out of the way, so we got up at 4am the next day for an 11 hour bus ride to Nicaragua. The bus was destined for Managua the capital, I knew from previous experience what a dump that place is so we got off at Leon which is a smaller, far more intersting place. The hostel we stayed in had a good atmosphere and a surprising amount of British people there, we were there for 2 nights. In the full day we had there we spent most of it on the nearby beach at Las Penitas where I got burnt but the sea was lovely and warm and the waves were awesome. We had most of our meals at a lovely Cafe next door to our hostel, it was ridiculously cheap and very filling.

Last night we played poker with another English guy and a 50 year old guy from Birmingham who we keep bumping into everywhere. Anyway I won, took the Cordobas home (local currency) and then passed out in a hammock, woke up to find a guy being arrested in the hostel for god knows what, it was a very random night.

Today we headed to colonial Granada which seems to be a really nice town though its a bit overly touristy, I don't know how long we will stay here, my travel buddy heads home at the end of the month at which point I am going to stop off and spend a month improving my Spanish, Boquette in Panama seems to be the best bet at the moment for that.

I know I write this every entry but the weather is still amazing and I still cant believe how awesome everything is going!

New years and that jazz

Since the last update I have pretty much whizzed through Honduras and today arrived in San Salvador the capital of El Salvador and am actually staying at the same place I did almost 3 years ago when I visited here with Jay.

New years was excellent, despite feeling like crap at about 6pm I discovered the joys of trying something new and it made the night amazing and cleared the illness somehow. The night was long and a lot of fun but the undoubted highlight was the moment Guatemala saw in the new year in Antigua square and everyone embraced and I thought that there was nobody there that I had known more than 2 weeks but everyone felt like friends. You really had to be there.

on the 2nd I set out for Honduras with Caroline. We started in Copan and saw the ruins which were not quite up there with Tikal but interesting nontheless. The next couple of days we went through a few other small Honduran towns, Santa Rosa and Gracias which was the capital of Central America many years ago.

Now in El Salvador I think we will try to hit the coast and maybe meet up with some people we met in Lanquin, the weather continues to be amazing.