Monteverde and Camera 2- Down.

So first things first, I have an adorable new baby cousin! His name is Dylan Robert Everard. Congrats Bob and Monica!!! I can’t wait to see him!

As for updates on the trip, we just left three-ish days in Monteverde. We had a great time there, of course. It’s a little higher up in the mountains, so we escaped the stifling heat and sunburns for a few days. We did a canopy zipline tour the first day, which was amazing and a ton of fun (http://www.cienporcientoaventura.com/index_es.html). We have some amazing pictures from that adventure, so be looking in the next day or two. Monteverde is a pretty tiny little town, so the visit pretty much consisted of tours and eating, which we enjoyed thoroughly. Megan and family did a hanging bridge tour and then a sugar cane tour the next day. They got to see how plaintains, sugar cane, and coffee are farmed, and they got to see a sloth, which was my goal for the whole trip. Unfortunately, when Marion, Andrei, and I did our ridiculously long hike through the jungle, we happened to miss all the sloths. We did have a really interesting picnic though.

We ended up leaving the same morning as the Harrises to head back to San Jose to make the trip today a little bit shorter. Otherwise, we would have been looking at about ten hours on buses today. However, plans got changed, and we’re staying another night in San Jose before heading to Puerto Viejo for more surfing and sunburns. I got robbed AGAIN last night on the bus. Somebody took my backpack, which had my other camera which I had only gotten back a week ago. It also had pretty much everything I own except clothes, so I’m off shopping today to try to replace my glasses, medicine, and other such pressing items. On the upside of things, because I do love an upside in these situations, I had my passport, debit card, cash, and immunization certificate on me, so life could be a whole lot worse. Our track record for cameras on this trip is not so great, but maybe we’ll make it out with a few pictures…

Anyway, so we’re headed tomorrow to Puerto Viejo, which is a Southern Caribbean beach town. We’re going to rent surfboards and practice getting thrown around a bit more. We’re also planning to snorkel because Puerto is home to one of Costa Rica’s only two living reef systems, and it has over 35 species of coras and 400 species of fish. So excited! We’re putting up new pictures on the links at the right side of the blog in the next couple days. We love and miss everybody!!!

Lindsay

Beach

We’re finishing up our beach weekend in Jaco and tomorrow we’re headed to Monte Verde.  It’s been a lovely couple of days.  The beach here is completely beautiful and unlike anything we’re used to.  We got some really good pictures that you’ll see up here eventually.  There are lush mountains and cliffs right next to the sand and the water is so blue and the perfect temperature.  And the shell collecting is top notch if you’re into that sort of thing. 

We arrived here during a torrential downpour but since then it’s been beautiful and  we haven’t seen a drop of rain.  I ducked out of the beach for the most part today because I got more sun than I wanted yesterday.  Apparently being sunburned is about as necessary to my existence as breathing.  Plus my handy spf 50 got stolen while we were on the beach yesterday, so I didn’t have a ton of options for being outside.  Lindsay, Andrei, and I got hit up by a very selective petty thief.  We left our stuff on the beach and went to play in the water, and when we got back someone had taken Lindsay’s shirt, but not mine, my sunscreen, but not Lindsay’s, and both of our sunglasses.  And nothing of Andrei’s.  But oh well. 

We’ve been woken up every morning at about 3:30 by what is quite possibly the world’s most obnoxious rooster.  His pathetic attempt to crow sounds as if he’s half-dead, and he clearly cannot decipher when dawn is.  But I would say that’s the only major setback in Jaco.  We’ve seen some incredibly large iguana/reptile things that I believe I’ve only witnessed it pet stores up until now, and some toads that are relatively impressive in size as well as a host of birds and bugs we don’t recognize. 

The Harris family and I lovely day walking around Jaco and looking at the various souvenir options.   Lindsay and Andrei took a surf lesson, which they thoroughly enjoyed.  I sat out because of that whole sunburn bit but they promised to teach me at the next beach stop, assuming my skin can handle the outdoors for that long.  We’ve all done quite a bit of porch-sitting and reading, so the whole weekend has been very relaxing.  I think that’s it for Jaco.  We love and miss you all.  We’ll let you know how Monte Verde is. 

Best,

Marion

a Parent’s view

Hello everyone.  This is Megan’s Mom and Dad.  We flew in yesterday (Bill used miles to buy our tickets and he surprised me by getting 1st class tickets.  Let me tell you, I don’t ever want to be a peon again.  We were treated so great!)  we arrived an hour late, found the shuttle to the hostel and were on our way.  Half way to the hostel, the shuttle turned around to go pick up 2 more people at the airport.  Megan was waiting for us in the lobby and let me tell you, it was soooo great to see her1  All of the girls are doing very well, In good spirits and enjoying their adventure.  We are in awe of them!  The biggest drawback was the hostel was out of water, which means NO TOILETS were working  for the  entire time we were there.  It was AWFUL!  We had to go out to find bathrooms, and many of the places around the hostel were also out of water.  We were very glad to leave there this morning!  Another really neat thing, Andrei, Lindsays boyfriend, ran into another guy he went to high school with.  They were in the ATM at the bank in San Jose, and this guy knocked on the glass.  His name is Greg and I think his last name was Stewart. Bill was talking to Greg on the way to the restaurant and it turns out Greg knows Bradley Burch, one of our son Russell’s best friends from Kindergarten in Tuscaloosa, Al.  Isn’t it a small world! Last night we had a great dinner with everyone at the Grande Hotel on the city square in San Jose, complete with a bottle of wine and a piano player and waiters in ties!  It was really swanky and nice!  You can be sure we all used the bathrooms there before we left. (No water at the hostel!!!)  We also went to an outdoor market downtown that had lots of handmade items.  It was fun and interesting.  The hostel was really nice except for the water situation.  There was a restaurant and bar upstairs and free internet.  Let me tell you that place was hopping till about 5 am this morning!  We got up around 8ish, packed and went to the bus terminal.  We caught a bus to Jaco (which is on the pacific side) beach.  It was a 2 1/2 hour ride through some beautiful country with  LOTS of vegetation, neat houses, and animals too.  We got off the bus and 3 of us went in search of a hostel while the other 3 guarded the luggage.  We are all staying at a really nice one about 1 block off of the beach.  We are looking forward to checking the beach out tomorrow.  When we checked in, the woman told us there was  a tropical storm brewing, We’ll have to see about that.  I would hate for us to be here on the beach in the rain the whole time.  The beach looks really nice and Lindsay really wants to take surfing lessons.   It is pouring right now, so we’ll see.  We checked into the hosteland each room has its own bathroom so we are really staying in a fancy place by hostel standards.  We found a crowded local place to eat dinner, and were all so exhausted, we couldn’t believe it was only 7 oclock.  I think we will all turn in early.  The kids are planning to stay for 2-3 days and then move on to Monteverde.  Plans may change if it rains the whole time we are here.  We’ll let you know.  This hostel doesn’t have internet so we have to walk into town to find a cafe to use the computers so you might not hear too much in the next few days.  To all you other parents, don’t worry about your daughters, they are doing sooo well!  You would be proud to see them handling all the little situations they face on a daily basis.  I don’t think I could have done this at their age! Pura Vida!

Pura Vida in Costa Rica

Yay!  We finally made it here!!!!  No more buses!!!!!!  Everyone is here and accounted for and I even have a new passport!  My parents arrive tomorrow on the 4th and then the day after that we are headed to M. Antonio in the Puenta Arenas province.  We are really enjoying San Jose.  We walked around today and stopped in a few places to look around.  It is good to be in a country where we will be for a while.  We are thinking about you guys!  Enjoy the 4th of July tomorrow!!!! 

Megan

Nicaragua

We have arrived in Managua for the night.  Again we are staying a little longer than expected due to yet another travel annoyance.  I got robbed today right off of the bus.  Our bus was stopped on the highway in the middle of now where Nicaragua for over an hour.  We decided to get off and get some air with our fellow passengers for a moment when someone boarded the bus and took my bag.  Darn.  That leads us to an appointment with the embassy tomorrow morning putting us a little behind schedule.  We are leaving here tomorrow on the 12:30 bus to San Jose and should arrive 7-8 hours after that.   We should have plenty of opportunity for internet in San Jose so be looking for more posts once we get there.  Sorry there won’t be any new pictures as all of them are no gone : (  Love to all we are thinking about you guys!!!!!

Megan

Travel surprises

Hola from Honduras!  That´s right, we are in Tegucigalpa Honduras.  After we got off the bus yesterday and went inside to buy our tickets for the next day to continue on to Managua Nicaragua we learned that the bus was full until Tuesday.  On top of that Lindsay got into it with the taxi driver that was charging us over double for a taxi ride to our hotel.  We are getting sick of being taken advantage of!  Anyway, avoiding a stress out situation we are making the best of our surprise stay in Honduras.  This trip was all about not making plans and going with the flow so here we are: ) We have actually really enjoyed our resting day without a bus.  We have done some retail therapy after living narrow lives confined in a bus for 2 days!  It has been fun walking around and being suprised by what Tegucigalpa has to offer. 

Tegucigalpa is surrounded by gorgeous green Honduras mountains.  The city is suprisingly really small for a capital.  It is hundreds of times better than the dirty, bustling, huge, Guatemala City.  All three of us are pleasantly surprised by this city.  We are glad we got to stop and actually walk around one of the cities we are driving through.  We are going to be posting pictures once we get to San Jose so be looking for those.  We will try and be in touch but can´t make any promises about when we will find internet.  Love to all!!!!

Megan

I have arrived.

Hello family and friends!

So I´m finally here, here as in with Lindsay and Megan.  The rest of the group of interns left around 4:30 this morning to head back to the States and I met Lindsay and  Megan at the bus station to head to El Salvador.  Even though it´s a foreign country it feels a bit like home seeing familiar faces for the first time in a month.  We have arrived safely in El Salvador and are staying at a hostel that is described as ¨showing a little wear and tear¨ in the guidebook but the showers are hot so I´m not complaining.  San Salvador is about as exciting as the Dallas suburbs so there´s not much to tell about.  I think they don´t get many visitors – our cab driver automatically assumed we were just passing through and offered to pick us up tomorrow morning to go back to the bus station, which is precisely what we´re doing.  Our bus doesn´t actually pull out until noon so we won´t be in Tegucigalpa until nine-ish tomorrow evening.  I hope you´re all well!  It´s good to be on the viaje at last! 

Best,

Marion

Five Days – Five Countries

Alright guys, so here’s the plan for the next week or so of our little trip:

Sat. 28 – Bus from Xela to Guatemala City to San Salvador, El Salvador. We’ll stay overnight there. We get to pick up Marion FINALLY!!! (So excited!)

Sun. 29 – Bus from San Salvador to Tegucigalpa, Honduras. We’ll stay overnight there.

Mon. 30 – Bus from Tegucigalpa to Managua, Nicaragua. We’ll stay overnight there as well.

Tue. 1- Bus from Managua to San Jose, Costa Rica. This, obviously, is our final destination, but we may stay two nights in one of these places if we really love it or really need a break from the buses.

Wed. 2 – Andrei arrives in San Jose!!!

Fri. 4 – Padres de Megan arrive!

So from there we’ll collect our various and sundry people and then move along through Costa Rica on a route yet to be determined. We’ll try to keep this updated as much as possible during the next several days because we know that everybody’s dying to know how much we love bus travel, but we may not be able to post every single day. We’ll be on the buses for roughly 8-10 hours daily. Anyhow, that’s the plan. Any questions? Like I said, we’ll keep you guys as updated as wel can, and we also have a new picture link under the first one. Love and miss you all!

*Lindsay

Xela (Pronounced Shayla, if you were wondering): Week One

     DRUMROLL PLEASE… Lizzie posted new pictures, so check out the photo link again!

     Buenos dias from Guate! So we`ve been in Xela for a bit over a week now, with one week to go, and we`ve been in Guatemala for a solid three, and I still haven`t mastered the art of using a Latin American computer keyboard… It`s a gorgeous, sunny day here right now, and we just sat in the park people-watching and eating ice cream cones. So the past week has been fairly busy and moderately eventful. We climbed another volcano yesterday – no big deal. So this one took FOREVER to climb, after a rather adventurous drive up with Victor, one of our neighbors. The locals told us that the road was bad from all the rain, but little did we know… We finally got to the point where the truck couldn´t climb the ruts in the road, so we had to park at a local house. We then proceeded to hike up about two miles of virtually vertical clay road. So anyhow, we finally made it to the top, despite being convinced we were going to suffocate on the way up, and we were met with fog so dense that you couldn´t see the person ten feet away from you. We climbed down 573 steps into the volcano`s crater, which has a little lake in the middle. The fog finally cleared up a bit, and lo and behold, there was actually a lake underneath! It was beautiful. I found a little dog, which I promptly fell in love with and named Emma. She followed us all the way around the lake and then refused to follow me up the stairs, which promptly ended our relationship. We hiked back up the crater, down the volcano, down the mountain to the car and headed home. If you´ve never climbed a steep mountain or volcano, then you may not realize that the way down is almost as lethal as the way up – especially when it´s wet from a brief but torrential downpour. Needless to say, we were exhausted.

     We went grocery shopping when we got home and ran into Bob at the supermarket, which was a nice surprise. We´re hoping to meet up with him sometime this week. We´ve been hanging out with a few Guatemaltecos that we met our first couple days here. We have been sampling all the local cuisine and not cooking so much, despite the kitchen we were so excited about. The weather here has been beautiful every morning, and then it pours every night. We only have about five more days here before we move on toward Costa Rica. Megan is working on getting a few more pictures up, so hopefully we will have a bit up soon. We started looking into bus tickets today, and we think that it will take us about five days to get to Costa Rica, with about eight hours a day on buses all but one of the days. All in all, it´s better than we had anticipated.

     We have been volunteering at Gente Joven every day and went to a human rights workshop Wednesday through Thursday of last week with them. It was definitely interesting – just a bunch of games that are supposed to bring groups together and help people to interact. It was a great experience, and we met a lot of really fun people from various places in Guatemala. We have also been translating documents for Entremundos, where we live. That has been an interesting endeavor, to say the least. That´s a fantastic way to discover how good (or bad) your Spanish vocabuly truly is! Anyhow, we´ll keep you updated on the comings and goings of our last week here, but it promises to be uneventful, save for lots of food and maybe some dancing. We love and miss you all, and everybody keep in touch!!!

*Lindsay

Xela: Home Away from Home

     Hello hello! So we are, as previously stated, in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala, herein known simply as Xela. We saw Lizzie off yesterday afternoon after a hike up to the other side of town to get licuados, which are basically fruit and milk smoothies, and more importantly are absolutely delicious. Lizzie, miss you already!!! Anyhow, to back up a little, Megan and I went off yesterday morning in search of semi long-term housing. Our first attempt was a miss, but we ended up at Entremundos, a volunteer placement organization. The women who camed to the door said that they were looking for a more long-term tenant, but apparently we looked just pitiful enough to get in the door. The door opened into a big courtyard with a transparent roof (ideal given the ridiculous amounts of rain here), and after walking down a hallway, we were in a second, open-air courtyard. The fantastic kitchen opens off the courtyard and is fully-stocked. We have a bathroom with incredibly hot showers, and our own room, which, though small, is perfect simply because we can actually unpack.

     So last night we went to mass at the cathedral in town and then walked over to the plaza to check out the local cuisine. The local vendors were making all kinds of interesting concoctions, which we just had to try. We had corn on the cob on a stick, and Megan went all in, getting hers absolutely coated with mayonnaise, ketchup, mustard, and salt. Needless to say, she was not a fan. We tried papusas and arroz con leche, a hot rice and milk drink. Everything was delicious. We went to restaurant/bar after the impromptu dinner. Some Guatemalteco asked Megan to dance right off the bat, and then another one came up and grabbed me. I do believe that he was a full foot and a half shorter than me, and he was quite the wormy little fellow, so I ducked out for the bathroom first chance I got. Anyhow, I ended up dancing with somebody light years less sketchy. We danced salsa for almost three hours and had an absolute blast! I’m an absolutle tragedy on a dance floor, but it was a great time. I think we’re going to have to take some salsa lessons now! 

     I woke up early this morning and sat out in the courtyard studying for the GRE but was quickly intercepted by an amigo of one of the neighbors inside our little compound. He’s from Guatemala City, and we talked for awhile about the trip and all sorts of things before being joined by the neighbor and another friend. Megan joined us, and then we had a great Guatemalan breakfast cooked by another friend of the neighbor. We ended up with quite the crowd, and the guys kept leaving and coming back with random grocery items: first a pineapple, then some orange juice, then piping-hot black corn tortillas. It was a funny little procession. We’re going for coffee this evening with a couple people we met at the salsa club, and we’re hoping to start volunteering around town tomorrow. We miss you all, and keep in touch!!!

*Lindsay