A New Continent

The little Cessna that took me deep into the jungles of Venezuela. Some of the falls around the hamlet of Cainima. This last falls, along with a few others in the area, had trails that allowed you to walk behind the curtain of water.

Boquete

The lovely town of Boquete set in the moderate temperature coffee growing hills of Panama. From Boquete I was in the sweltering town of David for a few hours (it was 42 degrees and this was at like 5:00 in the evening). The modern metropolis of Panama City. The first country along my travels I have been allowed to flush the toilet paper (something that is definitely worth noting).

Back to Panama

This picture is from a few moments before it started to downpour along the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica (Manzinolo). A typical house along the boat ride to Bocas Del Toro in Panama.
Yummy.. A typical meal of beans, rice and pollo (chicken).

Caracas

I have to say that I have some seriously mixed opinions of South America so far (I doubt I should judge all of S.A. from what I have seen in Venezuela so I will retract that to only Venezuela).  It really has been a very large step from Central America.  The tourism infrastructure is simply not here (possibly because they have few tourists) which is amazing seeing the great diversity and beauty of this country.  I am also starting to realizing the immense size of South America.  It takes a long, long time to go from place to place (10-15 plus hour bus rides look like they will be the norm).  I am extremely excited to start getting into the Andies and hopefully go to the highest point I have ever been (4050 meters) sometime tomorrow.  I still am unable to upload photos, but hopefully in the next couple days I will find a place that I will be able to post a few from.  I should get some food before yet another bus (It's a good thing I don't mind riding buses).  For those who don't know I have a number of friends in traveling in Israel right now, check out some of their picts on their blogs at the right of the page under Noel Bondt and/or Troy Barton.

Angel Falls

I made my way through Panama then caught a flight to Caracas where I had planned on quickly heading toward the Angel Falls area.  After trying to find my way to the bus station unsuccessfully (found out that it was closed) I got a place to stay for the night in the City.  I have to say I felt fairly safe around Caracas.  The mall I went to felt like any mall that would be in the states (all the same stores and same atmosphere).  In the morning I made my way to the bus station after a bit of confusion again then to Cuidad Bolivar.  The next day from Bolivar I caught a flight in a small Cessna to Canaima were I started my journey to Angel Falls by boat.  The boat ride was amazing in itself up a fast flowing river with many rapids for 6 hours with the large Tepuis (large vertical cliffs to a flat top) found.  Then finally we made it to Angel Falls itself were the group I was with camped for the night.  WOW, it was almost unbelievable.  Just simply incredible.  The water falls over 800 meters before it hits the bottom.  I plan on posting more about this but have to go for the now.

Bocas del Toro

Following a short stint in San Jose (about 3 hours) I headed to the Caribbean town of Puerto Viejo.  It was a beautiful bus ride through some more jungle and an unbelievable number of pineapple and banana plantations then finally along miles of palm tree lined Caribbean coast.  This morning I rented a bike and biked along the coast then through some jungle.  I have to say the howler monkeys are crazy.  They make these loud moaning grunting noises that are really strange.  I was biking along when one must have been just on the side of the road and it started making that noise.  I almost fell of my bike.  It is to bad it was pouring out so my glasses were fogged up and I couldn´t see anything, but the monkeys were out in force all over the place.  I was thinking they were going to jump me and steal the coconut I had in the front basket of the bike.  I also saw the grossest thing so far on my trip during that bike ride (A Vulture eating a dead monkey - I will leave the description there, inquire later if you really want to know more details). After crossing the boarder into Panama and a short boat ride I made it to my current local of Bocas del Toro.  Another fun little Caribbean Island town with beaches never far away and surfers by the dozen.

Month One

I honestly did not know what to expect coming into this little trip that I am currently on. One month ago as I was flying from Halifax to LA my stomach was in a knot and I was having a mild panic attack thinking what in the world have I got myself into. Now a month and one day into my travels I have settled into the zone and God truly has made my travels an extremely enjoyable and rewarding experience. I have been able to do and see so many more things than I thought possible at the very quick pace that I have been traveling at. To date I have only felt ill once (5 nights ago) and was able to go right to bed and woke up feeling great. I still don't know what to expect as I will be moving into South America in the next few days, but I know that I am excited. I'm ready for the Andies. I ask and thank you all for your prayers.

Volcan Arenal

Volcan Arenal is another very active volcano that I was able to visit. Every 10-15 minutes while I was hiking some trails around the base it would have what seemed to be mini eruptions. It would make a loud noise (like that of a jet engine taking off) then spew out a lot of gas and some rocks that you could watch fly down the mountain side. For this reason you can't climb up to the top of the volcano, but can get some great views from the trails around the base. I was told that on a clear night I would have been able to see this activity from town (glowing rocks and lava flying about), but unfortunately it became overcast in the evening so all I saw was greyness. La Catarata waterfalls on the other side of the volcano was a great place to cool off at after hiking about 20km throughout the day. In the evening I was able to make it to Tabacon Hot Springs. I thought about not going since the admission was pricey, but I have to say in going it was worth every penny. This place was like a maze of trails and streams with waterfalls throughout leading to pools of hot crystal clear water. It is very developed, but still extremely beautiful. I would have to say of all the places I have visited so far this area (La Fortuna/ Monteverte) would be right at the top of my list to go back to someday for some more great adventures. It is expensive, but of everything I have done so far it has been worth it. There are so many activities to get involved in (Rafting, caving, waterfall repelling, volcano hiking, jungle hiking, zip lining, hot springs, horse riding, ATVing, fishing...... to name a few things I saw that where available). Another bonus is that it is very safe and most places have people that speak English. Today I made my way by bus-boat-bus to Monteverte were I was able to go zip lining (11 long flying foxes). It was really neat to zip back and forth through and over the jungle. The longest zip line was 770 meters long. This activity is definitely not for the faint at heart (if you don't like heights I wouldn't recommend it, otherwise you should try it next time your down here).

The Rich Coast

I have to say the first time I went to a bank machine to withdraw money here in Costa Rica it really feels strange. This is because the exchange rate is like 450 to 1. This means If I want about $250 CDN I have to withdraw about 100,000 colones. Typing that you want 100,000 dollars at the bank machine really feels strange. I had to do the math in my head a few times to make sure I was not taking out like $5 or even worse $5,000. The first town I stopped at in Costa Rica was Playa Tamarindo. I saw a number of people surfing and wanted to try myself, but again for the second day in a row along the coast the waves were so small I really was wondering what the people out there were doing. In the evening the sunset over the beach made up for the lack of surfing. This was a really fun town that is still not too developed, but I have a felling that in a few years that it will be, so take it as advise to visit soon.

Isla de Ometepe

From Granada I made my way down the coast of lago de Nicaragua to San Jorge where I was able to take a ferry to the Volcanic Isla de Ometepe (I am using the term ferry very loosely). On a calm day on the lake the small wooden boat I took may have been acceptable, but it was windy and the waves were big, however is was a buck cheaper and leaving right off so I took it. I will just let you know on the way back I paid the extra dollar to get on the "big" ferry that I knew was not going to fall apart. The Island was interesting, but there was not that much to do there so I moved on quickly (I saw some ancient sculptures). The lovely Pacific town of San Juan del Sur is were I ended up for the day. This town reminded me very much of a miniature Zihuatanejo. A horseshoe bay with cliffs guarding the entrance on both sides. I was hoping to do a bit of surfing (was suppose to be some of the best surfing in Nicaragua), but unfortunately the waves were not that great the day I was there.