After we got back from Chicago we spent a few more days in Mexico City waiting for my new credit card which never arrived (thanks for losing it Australia Post), then we decided to bugger off and explore more of this massive country. Next stop was Guadalajara and Tequila.
Guadalajara isn't much to write home about, but it was on the way to the coast so we figured we might as well stop there. It was also the best place to visit Tequila from. We only spent 4 days in this city, two of which were day trips to other places. Needless to say we didn't see much. Basically we just walked around a bit and saw the usual churches and buildings and whatnot. The best thing about it was the day we chose to walk into town was the day they close off a road for everyone to cycle, skate, walk and run without fear of being run over. We've been to a few cities now that do this and we think it's a brilliant idea. But yeah, as you can see we weren't overly impressed by the city and really had no desire to see or do anything else, so we made a quick escape.
Not before our day trip to the nearby town of Tequila though. And no, it's not a coincidence - this is indeed the birthplace of the drink that people love or hate (or both, depending on what stage of the night you're at). It's only about 1.5 or 2 hours from Guadalajara, so it was a nice easy day trip. When we arrived we walked around the town a bit to get an idea of how many distilleries there were and which ones we wanted to visit. It's only small (about 30,000 people) but it's actually quite a nice little town with some attractive buildings and a good vibe. Maybe that had a bit to do with what people were drinking. We went into the Mundo Cuervo distillery (producers of Jose Cuervo) but the next tour in English wasn't for another couple of hours, so we decided to roam around a bit more and see what other tours we could find. We ended up going on one that lasted for a couple of hours and visited an agave field and two distilleries. The most unique thing about it though was the tour vehicle - not your typical mini van or bus but a massive bloody brewing barrel. No shit. We were actually the only two in it with our tour guide for the first part, when we drove around town past some of the distilleries and stopped at one of the oldest that's still in operation. They had some massive old copper stills that they were replacing with stainless steel ones, but you could tell just how old the whole place was. Then it was time for a tasting or two. I actually can't stand tequila as it makes me want to vomit immediately, but they had something even I could handle - piña colada flavoured tequila. I know, I know, it's not real tequila, but I didn't want to miss out completely! And it was actually quite nice. After a couple of those you even start to get a nice little buzz on. After picking up the rest of the group in the barrel-mobile, we headed out to a blue agave plantation. It was a cool sight, row after row of these spiky blue plants in red soil. The most unexpected thing is that the 'heart' of the plant is actually a pineapple looking thing, and it's the sap from this that is fermented and distilled. See, we did actually learn something - I bet you all thought we only went there to get shitfaced. Our final stop was another distillery, where we actually had a proper tour of the production plant, seeing all the different stages of the distilling process. And of course at the end there were more samples to be had. All in all it was a good day, and we didn't even get hammered.
The other day trip we took was out to Lake Chapala, the drawcard being that it's Mexico's largest freshwater lake. It's a pretty little place, but again, not much to do there apart from look at the lake. It seemed like the kind of place retired Americans would go, so we didn't stay long. We did, however, see a quinceañera celebration, which is a big deal in Mexico marking the transition into womanhood on a girl's 15th birthday. Think My Sweet Sixteen, but old school. The girls wear the works - full on ball gowns, tiaras and are plastered with makeup, and they have elaborate photos taken outside churches and other public areas. They usually have an army of make-up, hair and dress poofing assistants hovering on the periphery, ready to swoop in and fuss away between photos. It's actually quite a strange sight, as it looks like she's ready for a big dance or night out, but it was only about midday. So, after a couple of hours by the lake we were done. In fact, we were done with Guadalajara too, so we were ready to make our way to the coast.
Monday, 15 July 2013
Wednesday, 26 June 2013
A cheeky holiday from our trip - a tale of our time in Chicago
One of the beauties of long term travel is the freedom to be spontaneous and change plans on a whim. Which is exactly what we did for New Years. A few days before Christmas Kurt said, out of the blue, why don't we go to Chicago for New Years? Why not indeed? That sounded like a genius plan to me, so we checked out flights, asked Derek and Kelly if they wouldn't mind a couple of house guests for 10 days or so, then before we knew it, it was all sorted. The only potential hitch was, we still hadn't received Kurt's new passport. We contacted the helpful lady at the embassy and she assured us it would be ready to collect the day before our flight at the latest. So we just had to cross fingers and hope for the best. And of course it all worked out in time to sort our visas online the day before so we were good to go. About time we had some good karma!
We arrived in cold, wintry Chicago all bundled up in warm clothes for the first time in over a year. Derek and Kelly picked us up from the airport and we drove out to Derek's parent's house in the burbs for a late family Christmas and present exchange for them. We felt a bit awkward crashing this family event, but we needn't have worried as they were all so friendly and welcoming so we felt right at home, especially with a drink in our hand within the first 5 minutes. It was one of those times when you have to pinch yourself - a few hours ago we were in hot, sunny Mexico City, and now we were in the snow covered Christmas winter wonderland of suburban America, which is something I've only ever seen in movies or on TV. Talk about surreal. It was a great way to start the holiday, and after a few hours of drinking, eating and talking (Derek and Kelly also sneakily spoiled us with unexpected presents, the cheeky fuckers) we stopped in at their friends' place for more drinks. It's always good to finally meet people you've heard about - we just hope they all felt the same about meeting us!
Derek and Kelly love Chicago, so we were really looking forward to seeing what their city had to offer. And there's nothing better than having locals show you around and recommend places to go and things to see/do. Chicago really is a beautiful city, and despite being freezing cold, we still managed to get out and about and see a lot of it. One of the most surprising things we noticed while walking around was how clean it is, especially for such a large city. We've gotten so used to seeing rubbish and shit everywhere we go in Latin America, so to see such a well cared for and pristine city was a nice surprise.
There's some beautiful buildings around and the skyline is one of the most impressive we've seen. The four of us went up to the top of the Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower) which is the second tallest building in the US at 442m. Not surprisingly, the observation deck on the 103rd floor has an unsurpassed view out over the city and beyond, with spectacular 360 degree views. We went up at sunset to catch the fading daylight, then had the stunning view of the city all lit up at night. And of course we lined up to take our turn standing in one of the all-glass boxes which extend out from the side of the building, giving a stomach churning view of the street 412m below.
New Years Eve was soon upon us and Derek and Kelly were having a few friends over to their apartment, so we went out and stocked up on supplies for the night. I was excited to be able to drink cider again after so long, and Kurt even found some Coopers for the occasion. We threw in a few more bottles of goodness and then it was back to chill them outside on the balcony. One of the added benefits of freezing winter temperatures. Kelly had very kindly given me a voucher for a mani/pedi (my first ever believe it or not), so we went off for an hour or so of girly pampering which was absolute bliss. Then it was time to finish getting ready and start the celebrations. We had a great night drinking and talking shit, and I have no idea what time we fell into bed but I was suitably hungover the next day.
Derek and Kelly had bought tickets for us all to go to an improv comedy night at The Second City, which is where a lot of now famous comedians (Bill Murray, Mike Myers, Steve Carell) got started. It was a hilarious night, although there were a few tense moments when we'd all try and hide behind each other/people in front to avoid getting singled out by the performers. It was one of those nights when you think, why don't we do this more often?
The rest of the time we had in Chicago was spent buying replacement stuff for everything that was stolen, walking around the city or being driven around by Derek and Kelly when they weren't working, seeing the major sights and buildings, and of course, eating. We had a rather extensive list of things we wanted to eat, either things we hadn't had for a long time like Chinese, or new things we'd only heard of like Twinkies and Chicago deep dish pizza. Unfortunately for us Twinkies were no longer in existence, but Derek determinedly drove around trying to find us one, to no avail. Thanks anyway Derek! But we still managed to eat ourselves silly with some awesome food. Even walking around the supermarket was exciting for us, checking out all sorts of new things. We were particularly entranced by the variety of Ben and Jerry's flavours, and given enough time we would have worked our way through them all. Thankfully for our stomachs we were only there for 10 days!
All too soon our time was up and we had to say goodbye to Derek and Kelly and return to Mexico. We weren't sorry to be leaving the frigid winter of Chicago, but we'd had an amazing time catching up with great friends and seeing a new part of the world. Massive thanks to Derek and Kelly for being the perfect hosts and letting us crash their New Years! Until next time America.
We arrived in cold, wintry Chicago all bundled up in warm clothes for the first time in over a year. Derek and Kelly picked us up from the airport and we drove out to Derek's parent's house in the burbs for a late family Christmas and present exchange for them. We felt a bit awkward crashing this family event, but we needn't have worried as they were all so friendly and welcoming so we felt right at home, especially with a drink in our hand within the first 5 minutes. It was one of those times when you have to pinch yourself - a few hours ago we were in hot, sunny Mexico City, and now we were in the snow covered Christmas winter wonderland of suburban America, which is something I've only ever seen in movies or on TV. Talk about surreal. It was a great way to start the holiday, and after a few hours of drinking, eating and talking (Derek and Kelly also sneakily spoiled us with unexpected presents, the cheeky fuckers) we stopped in at their friends' place for more drinks. It's always good to finally meet people you've heard about - we just hope they all felt the same about meeting us!
Derek and Kelly love Chicago, so we were really looking forward to seeing what their city had to offer. And there's nothing better than having locals show you around and recommend places to go and things to see/do. Chicago really is a beautiful city, and despite being freezing cold, we still managed to get out and about and see a lot of it. One of the most surprising things we noticed while walking around was how clean it is, especially for such a large city. We've gotten so used to seeing rubbish and shit everywhere we go in Latin America, so to see such a well cared for and pristine city was a nice surprise.
There's some beautiful buildings around and the skyline is one of the most impressive we've seen. The four of us went up to the top of the Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower) which is the second tallest building in the US at 442m. Not surprisingly, the observation deck on the 103rd floor has an unsurpassed view out over the city and beyond, with spectacular 360 degree views. We went up at sunset to catch the fading daylight, then had the stunning view of the city all lit up at night. And of course we lined up to take our turn standing in one of the all-glass boxes which extend out from the side of the building, giving a stomach churning view of the street 412m below.
New Years Eve was soon upon us and Derek and Kelly were having a few friends over to their apartment, so we went out and stocked up on supplies for the night. I was excited to be able to drink cider again after so long, and Kurt even found some Coopers for the occasion. We threw in a few more bottles of goodness and then it was back to chill them outside on the balcony. One of the added benefits of freezing winter temperatures. Kelly had very kindly given me a voucher for a mani/pedi (my first ever believe it or not), so we went off for an hour or so of girly pampering which was absolute bliss. Then it was time to finish getting ready and start the celebrations. We had a great night drinking and talking shit, and I have no idea what time we fell into bed but I was suitably hungover the next day.
Derek and Kelly had bought tickets for us all to go to an improv comedy night at The Second City, which is where a lot of now famous comedians (Bill Murray, Mike Myers, Steve Carell) got started. It was a hilarious night, although there were a few tense moments when we'd all try and hide behind each other/people in front to avoid getting singled out by the performers. It was one of those nights when you think, why don't we do this more often?
The rest of the time we had in Chicago was spent buying replacement stuff for everything that was stolen, walking around the city or being driven around by Derek and Kelly when they weren't working, seeing the major sights and buildings, and of course, eating. We had a rather extensive list of things we wanted to eat, either things we hadn't had for a long time like Chinese, or new things we'd only heard of like Twinkies and Chicago deep dish pizza. Unfortunately for us Twinkies were no longer in existence, but Derek determinedly drove around trying to find us one, to no avail. Thanks anyway Derek! But we still managed to eat ourselves silly with some awesome food. Even walking around the supermarket was exciting for us, checking out all sorts of new things. We were particularly entranced by the variety of Ben and Jerry's flavours, and given enough time we would have worked our way through them all. Thankfully for our stomachs we were only there for 10 days!
All too soon our time was up and we had to say goodbye to Derek and Kelly and return to Mexico. We weren't sorry to be leaving the frigid winter of Chicago, but we'd had an amazing time catching up with great friends and seeing a new part of the world. Massive thanks to Derek and Kelly for being the perfect hosts and letting us crash their New Years! Until next time America.
Sunday, 26 May 2013
Surviving the end of the world in Mexico City
Mexico City, otherwise known as D.F. (Distrito Federal which means Federal District) is a beast of a city with a population of about 20 million. Needless to say, it's pretty hectic. Our first few days were spent organising everything for a new passport for Kurt, and getting all the paperwork together for the insurance claim. If you've ever made an insurance claim for a lost or stolen item you'll know all the bullshit you have to go through. Now imagine claiming for about 8 different items as well as accommodation and travel, and translating a police report from Spanish to English using Google translate. Bullshit multiplied by a thousand. But we got it all done and then we just had to wait for Kurt's new passport.
We spent almost a month in Mexico City in total and there's no shortage of things to do and see. Aside from just wandering around and exploring different parts of the city, we did some of the major touristy things like visiting the Teotihuacan Pyramids just outside the city. It's an archaeological site thought to have been established around 100BC, and was one of the largest cities in the world at that time. It's a pretty impressive site, with a couple of massive pyramids you can climb up for a great view of the entire site and the surrounding landscape.
Chapultepec Castle was also recommended as a place to check out. It's located on the top of Chapultepec Hill in the middle of Chapultepec Park (at least there's consistency in the naming of things) and we spent an hour or two wandering through the multitude of rooms with the usual displays of art and artifacts. The Park it's located in was huge and is a nice place to walk around as well, with loads of stalls selling toys and brightly coloured food, museums, a zoo and a couple of lakes. It's a perfect place to escape the city for some peace and clean air.
We're not big museum people, but we made an exception for the Soumaya Museum as it's an awesome looking building, all shiny and silver. Owned by Carlos Slim, the richest man in the world, and named after his late wife, the museum was built to showcase his extensive art collection, including the world's largest private collection of sculptures by Rodin. With over $700 million worth of art, entry to the museum is free so everyone can enjoy it. And lucky for us, the man himself was there on the day we visited doing a press conference of some sort, so we got to see him with our own eyes. Not many people can say they've been in the same room as the richest man in the world.
It would be remiss of me not to mention food at this point. After a year of fairly bland South American food which typically consists of rice, beans and some sort of fried meat/fish, we were hanging out for the variety of flavours and spice of Mexican food. And we weren't disappointed. Finally, some decent (and ridiculously cheap) street food! Tacos (5 for just over $1) with all manner of meat fillings (including head, tail, tongue etc which Kurt rather enjoyed) and flavourful toppings like coriander, onion and spicy sauces; quesadillas filled with beans, meat and oozing oaxacan cheese; gorditas and sopas, tostadas and tortas...the delicious list goes on. Our taste buds were in heaven. One of our regular and filling favourites were tortas. We were confused at first as in South America torta means cake, but in Mexico it's a sandwich. A totally awesome sandwich filled with all kinds of meat, cheese, lettuce, tomato, avocado, mayo and chipotle sauce, and lightly toasted. And for only $2.50. Fuck yeah.
The reason we had to get to Mexico City in December is because we were going to spend Christmas with Sara and Luke (friends from Sydney that Kurt worked with) and Sara's family. Of course we managed to get in a couple of nights of coronas and tequila and mariachi's before then, just to catch up first. Then a few days before Christmas we loaded up a taxi and made the drive to Actopan, a city about 4 hours from Mexico City. We stayed at Sara's aunt's house and over the next 5 days we met other aunts, uncles and cousins and were made to feel like part of the family - the retarded members who barely speak Spanish. As with any normal Christmas at home, we ate way too much, drank a bit and talked shit. But the added bonus of a Christmas in Mexico meant we got to set off fireworks and bash the shit out of piñatas. Who said they were just for kids? It was an awesome way to experience a real Mexican style Christmas - huge thanks to Sara and Luke and Sara's family for letting us spend it with them.
We spent almost a month in Mexico City in total and there's no shortage of things to do and see. Aside from just wandering around and exploring different parts of the city, we did some of the major touristy things like visiting the Teotihuacan Pyramids just outside the city. It's an archaeological site thought to have been established around 100BC, and was one of the largest cities in the world at that time. It's a pretty impressive site, with a couple of massive pyramids you can climb up for a great view of the entire site and the surrounding landscape.
Chapultepec Castle was also recommended as a place to check out. It's located on the top of Chapultepec Hill in the middle of Chapultepec Park (at least there's consistency in the naming of things) and we spent an hour or two wandering through the multitude of rooms with the usual displays of art and artifacts. The Park it's located in was huge and is a nice place to walk around as well, with loads of stalls selling toys and brightly coloured food, museums, a zoo and a couple of lakes. It's a perfect place to escape the city for some peace and clean air.
We're not big museum people, but we made an exception for the Soumaya Museum as it's an awesome looking building, all shiny and silver. Owned by Carlos Slim, the richest man in the world, and named after his late wife, the museum was built to showcase his extensive art collection, including the world's largest private collection of sculptures by Rodin. With over $700 million worth of art, entry to the museum is free so everyone can enjoy it. And lucky for us, the man himself was there on the day we visited doing a press conference of some sort, so we got to see him with our own eyes. Not many people can say they've been in the same room as the richest man in the world.
It would be remiss of me not to mention food at this point. After a year of fairly bland South American food which typically consists of rice, beans and some sort of fried meat/fish, we were hanging out for the variety of flavours and spice of Mexican food. And we weren't disappointed. Finally, some decent (and ridiculously cheap) street food! Tacos (5 for just over $1) with all manner of meat fillings (including head, tail, tongue etc which Kurt rather enjoyed) and flavourful toppings like coriander, onion and spicy sauces; quesadillas filled with beans, meat and oozing oaxacan cheese; gorditas and sopas, tostadas and tortas...the delicious list goes on. Our taste buds were in heaven. One of our regular and filling favourites were tortas. We were confused at first as in South America torta means cake, but in Mexico it's a sandwich. A totally awesome sandwich filled with all kinds of meat, cheese, lettuce, tomato, avocado, mayo and chipotle sauce, and lightly toasted. And for only $2.50. Fuck yeah.
The reason we had to get to Mexico City in December is because we were going to spend Christmas with Sara and Luke (friends from Sydney that Kurt worked with) and Sara's family. Of course we managed to get in a couple of nights of coronas and tequila and mariachi's before then, just to catch up first. Then a few days before Christmas we loaded up a taxi and made the drive to Actopan, a city about 4 hours from Mexico City. We stayed at Sara's aunt's house and over the next 5 days we met other aunts, uncles and cousins and were made to feel like part of the family - the retarded members who barely speak Spanish. As with any normal Christmas at home, we ate way too much, drank a bit and talked shit. But the added bonus of a Christmas in Mexico meant we got to set off fireworks and bash the shit out of piñatas. Who said they were just for kids? It was an awesome way to experience a real Mexican style Christmas - huge thanks to Sara and Luke and Sara's family for letting us spend it with them.
Sunday, 12 May 2013
Counting the cost of Costa Rica
From Panama City we originally planned on getting a bus all the way up to the south of Mexico. However, being so close to Christmas the only company that did that particular route was completely booked up until the new year. So we figured we'd just do the journey in smaller legs, getting buses as far as we could each time. That meant we had to find a bus to take us to the border of Costa Rica and then once we crossed over jump on a bus to take us to San Jose, the capital city. This was pretty easy, except it had to be the worst border crossing we've done so far. It took about 3-4 hours to get our passports stamped out of Panama, then we had to walk about 1km to the Costa Rican border which was thankfully a piece of piss. Then we only had to wait 20mins or so to get on a bus.
We arrived in San Jose late arvo/early evening and went straight to the office of a bus company in the vain hope we could get straight on another bus that night. Unfortunately we were shit out of luck so we found a hostel for the night. Even after only a couple of hours, we got the feeling that Costa Rica was very expensive and not a particularly welcoming place, so we decided to spend just one night and get up at stupid o'clock to try and get tickets on a 4am bus across the border. Again, it was fully booked so we went to another bus terminal where we lined up for about an hour and finally secured tickets to the Nicaraguan border. That wasn't a mission at all. So at about 5:30am we were on our way, expected to arrive at the border about 5 hours later. However, due to an accident along the way we were stopped in traffic for an hour or two waiting for the road to be cleared. We got moving again, and at some point there were quite a few people standing in the aisle of the bus, and one guy standing next to Kurt's seat fumbled and dropped his wallet which fell under our feet. We searched around to pick it up and Kurt had to get up so we could find it. At that point a woman pushed passed Kurt, turning him around, and soon afterwards a group of people got off at a stop. A couple of minutes later Kurt reached up to check on his small backpack which was in the overhead compartment, but it wasn't there anymore. FUCK!!! After a lot of swearing and yelling Kurt got the driver to pull over and we got off, unloaded our big bags and waved down a cop car. It was at this point that several other passengers on the bus decided to be helpful and proceeded to give the cops a complete description of the group of people that had stolen Kurt's backpack. So they'd obviously seen it happen and chose to do nothing about it. We later figured that the group regularly targeted this bus and the locals were probably too scared to speak out against them. We jumped in the cop car and raced back to the bus stop to see if any of them had hung around. Which of course they hadn't. So we drove to the nearest police station (about 30mins away) to make a report of everything that had been stolen. Which was quite a lot - bet those assholes were happy fucking campers. Kurt's nice new backpack contained: a laptop, 2 cameras, a hard drive, a new Samsung Galaxy S3, Kurt's passport, my credit card and two others for an account we thankfully no longer use, and a few other small electrical items/cords. And by the time I called to cancel my credit card, they'd managed to spend about $500 in less than an hour. Guess they could've racked up a lot more, but still, it was quick work. Oh yeah, and we discovered they'd also taken our other laptop out of my backpack which I'd left on the seat for 5mins while I got off for fresh air when we were stopped in traffic due to the accident. Strangely they didn't take anything else (there was a lot more they could've stolen), so maybe they were just testing the waters. If only I'd opened my bag to get something out because I would've realised straight away and we would've known it was someone who was still on the bus. And there's no way Kurt would've let the bus go anywhere until we found out who it was and had got it back. Good old hindsight ay? Anyway, after making our report and getting a copy for insurance purposes (thank god for travel insurance), we then had to get a bus all the way back to San Jose, as without Kurt's passport we couldn't cross the border.
As there is no Australian embassy in Costa Rica, we had to go to the Canadian embassy as they look after Australian citizens (the Poms look after us Kiwis). It was a Friday afternoon and we got to the embassy at about 1pm, thanking our lucky stars we'd started out ridiculously early that morning and had made it back in time. So we rock up to the counter only to be told that the embassy is closed for their Christmas party. Excuse me? You have got to be fucking kidding! But no, they didn't even leave a poor lackie behind to man the office. A guy who worked in the building walked past and heard our plight, so he tried to help us contact someone. But of course nothing worked so we were fucked until Monday. Obviously our only course of action was to find a hostel and proceed to drink ourselves into oblivion to forget the shittiest day on record. Which we achieved quite successfully.
Being fairly confident we would get the necessary document on the Monday to allow us to leave this shitty country (maybe our opinion was unfairly biased, but then again, maybe not), we went ahead and booked cheap flights to Mexico City on the Tuesday, which is where the nearest Australian embassy was. Convenient, as that was our final destination anyway. So on Monday we got all the required shit together (passport photos, police report etc) and were at the embassy nice and early to get this thing done. But as usual, bureaucratic processes are never quick and straightforward, so we had to wait hours for the Australian embassy in Mexico to approve the emergency travel document for Kurt. We made ourselves comfortable and Kurt even got in a quick nap on the couches. Finally, the woman called us up and handed over the prized document which turned out to be just a sheet of paper with Kurt's details on it. Who cares, as long as it gets us on the plane and out of there. Which it did, although check in and customs officials in both Costa Rica and Mexico had to check with bosses that it was legit.
So as you can imagine, we don't have fond memories or a huge desire to go back and spend much time in Costa Rica. Not that we blame what happened on the country - it could've happened anywhere. And according to all the Costa Ricans who heard what happened, the thieves were clearly Nicaraguan. Obviously. Anyway, we're lucky that that's the only really bad thing that has happened to us in over 12 months of travelling. Touch wood. Things can only get better from hereon in!
We arrived in San Jose late arvo/early evening and went straight to the office of a bus company in the vain hope we could get straight on another bus that night. Unfortunately we were shit out of luck so we found a hostel for the night. Even after only a couple of hours, we got the feeling that Costa Rica was very expensive and not a particularly welcoming place, so we decided to spend just one night and get up at stupid o'clock to try and get tickets on a 4am bus across the border. Again, it was fully booked so we went to another bus terminal where we lined up for about an hour and finally secured tickets to the Nicaraguan border. That wasn't a mission at all. So at about 5:30am we were on our way, expected to arrive at the border about 5 hours later. However, due to an accident along the way we were stopped in traffic for an hour or two waiting for the road to be cleared. We got moving again, and at some point there were quite a few people standing in the aisle of the bus, and one guy standing next to Kurt's seat fumbled and dropped his wallet which fell under our feet. We searched around to pick it up and Kurt had to get up so we could find it. At that point a woman pushed passed Kurt, turning him around, and soon afterwards a group of people got off at a stop. A couple of minutes later Kurt reached up to check on his small backpack which was in the overhead compartment, but it wasn't there anymore. FUCK!!! After a lot of swearing and yelling Kurt got the driver to pull over and we got off, unloaded our big bags and waved down a cop car. It was at this point that several other passengers on the bus decided to be helpful and proceeded to give the cops a complete description of the group of people that had stolen Kurt's backpack. So they'd obviously seen it happen and chose to do nothing about it. We later figured that the group regularly targeted this bus and the locals were probably too scared to speak out against them. We jumped in the cop car and raced back to the bus stop to see if any of them had hung around. Which of course they hadn't. So we drove to the nearest police station (about 30mins away) to make a report of everything that had been stolen. Which was quite a lot - bet those assholes were happy fucking campers. Kurt's nice new backpack contained: a laptop, 2 cameras, a hard drive, a new Samsung Galaxy S3, Kurt's passport, my credit card and two others for an account we thankfully no longer use, and a few other small electrical items/cords. And by the time I called to cancel my credit card, they'd managed to spend about $500 in less than an hour. Guess they could've racked up a lot more, but still, it was quick work. Oh yeah, and we discovered they'd also taken our other laptop out of my backpack which I'd left on the seat for 5mins while I got off for fresh air when we were stopped in traffic due to the accident. Strangely they didn't take anything else (there was a lot more they could've stolen), so maybe they were just testing the waters. If only I'd opened my bag to get something out because I would've realised straight away and we would've known it was someone who was still on the bus. And there's no way Kurt would've let the bus go anywhere until we found out who it was and had got it back. Good old hindsight ay? Anyway, after making our report and getting a copy for insurance purposes (thank god for travel insurance), we then had to get a bus all the way back to San Jose, as without Kurt's passport we couldn't cross the border.
As there is no Australian embassy in Costa Rica, we had to go to the Canadian embassy as they look after Australian citizens (the Poms look after us Kiwis). It was a Friday afternoon and we got to the embassy at about 1pm, thanking our lucky stars we'd started out ridiculously early that morning and had made it back in time. So we rock up to the counter only to be told that the embassy is closed for their Christmas party. Excuse me? You have got to be fucking kidding! But no, they didn't even leave a poor lackie behind to man the office. A guy who worked in the building walked past and heard our plight, so he tried to help us contact someone. But of course nothing worked so we were fucked until Monday. Obviously our only course of action was to find a hostel and proceed to drink ourselves into oblivion to forget the shittiest day on record. Which we achieved quite successfully.
Being fairly confident we would get the necessary document on the Monday to allow us to leave this shitty country (maybe our opinion was unfairly biased, but then again, maybe not), we went ahead and booked cheap flights to Mexico City on the Tuesday, which is where the nearest Australian embassy was. Convenient, as that was our final destination anyway. So on Monday we got all the required shit together (passport photos, police report etc) and were at the embassy nice and early to get this thing done. But as usual, bureaucratic processes are never quick and straightforward, so we had to wait hours for the Australian embassy in Mexico to approve the emergency travel document for Kurt. We made ourselves comfortable and Kurt even got in a quick nap on the couches. Finally, the woman called us up and handed over the prized document which turned out to be just a sheet of paper with Kurt's details on it. Who cares, as long as it gets us on the plane and out of there. Which it did, although check in and customs officials in both Costa Rica and Mexico had to check with bosses that it was legit.
So as you can imagine, we don't have fond memories or a huge desire to go back and spend much time in Costa Rica. Not that we blame what happened on the country - it could've happened anywhere. And according to all the Costa Ricans who heard what happened, the thieves were clearly Nicaraguan. Obviously. Anyway, we're lucky that that's the only really bad thing that has happened to us in over 12 months of travelling. Touch wood. Things can only get better from hereon in!
Thursday, 2 May 2013
Back on land in Panama
When we arrived in Panama we anchored at a place called Isla Grande. In a small town about 30mins away we were supposed to get our passports stamped coming into Panama, but of course the customs office was closed. Frank then had to come with us to Panama City, about 2 hours away by bus, and make the round trip back to Portobelo the next day to get our passports stamped. A few of us weren't comfortable entrusting our passports to someone we didn't really know, so we discussed one of us going along with Frank to make sure he didn't disappear with them. But in the end Frank ended up going alone and we all breathed a sigh of relief when he returned later that evening, with all the passports safely in his possession and stamped into Panama.
We only spent 5 days in Panama City, mainly just chilling out and getting used to being back on land - it was a very weird feeling and it took a few days for the swaying sensation to fully disappear. As luck would have it, we were able to meet up with Sam again, an American girl we'd met on the W trek in Patagonia. She was living in a small village a few hours out of Panama City but was in town for a couple of days, so we walked around for a while catching up on everything then went to the seafood market to have some fresh prawn ceviche.
Of course, the most touristy thing to do in Panama City is to visit the famous canal. It's been around for a while - construction started way back in 1881 and was finally finished in 1914, and while we were there they were expanding it to build a third set of locks. Even if you're not particularly interested in mechanical feats of engineering like this, it's still fascinating to watch the ships come through the locks and see how it all happens right in front of you. While we were there a couple came through, and it's quite surprising how fast it all happens considering they're such huge vessels being moved through massive amounts of water. And it all happens so quietly and seamlessly. It's not exactly cheap for ships to pass through the canal however - the average toll is $54,000 but the most expensive toll charged to date was for a cruise ship which paid $375,600 in 2010. And I bet that was all covered by the stupidly expensive cruise fees the passengers willingly paid.
After a few days we had to start the big trek up to Mexico by bus, so we said goodbye to the others and went our separate ways.
We only spent 5 days in Panama City, mainly just chilling out and getting used to being back on land - it was a very weird feeling and it took a few days for the swaying sensation to fully disappear. As luck would have it, we were able to meet up with Sam again, an American girl we'd met on the W trek in Patagonia. She was living in a small village a few hours out of Panama City but was in town for a couple of days, so we walked around for a while catching up on everything then went to the seafood market to have some fresh prawn ceviche.
Of course, the most touristy thing to do in Panama City is to visit the famous canal. It's been around for a while - construction started way back in 1881 and was finally finished in 1914, and while we were there they were expanding it to build a third set of locks. Even if you're not particularly interested in mechanical feats of engineering like this, it's still fascinating to watch the ships come through the locks and see how it all happens right in front of you. While we were there a couple came through, and it's quite surprising how fast it all happens considering they're such huge vessels being moved through massive amounts of water. And it all happens so quietly and seamlessly. It's not exactly cheap for ships to pass through the canal however - the average toll is $54,000 but the most expensive toll charged to date was for a cruise ship which paid $375,600 in 2010. And I bet that was all covered by the stupidly expensive cruise fees the passengers willingly paid.
After a few days we had to start the big trek up to Mexico by bus, so we said goodbye to the others and went our separate ways.
Sunday, 28 April 2013
Pirates of the Caribbean
One of the things we'd both
been looking forward to for the whole trip was sailing from Colombia to Panama.
It would have been easier and quicker to fly, but where's the fun in that?
Neither of us had ever done anything even remotely like it before so we had no
idea what to expect, but therein lies the fun. We'd read a lot about how
important it is to find the right boat, and more importantly the right captain,
as things can potentially go disastrously wrong. For us though, the other
people on the boat were what could make or break the trip, but unfortunately we
had no control over this. We had the name of one boat recommended by Paul, an
Aussie we met in Ecuador, who'd made the trip a couple of months earlier.
However, as luck would have it, things turned out much better for us.
Gronn and his mates had
found a boat and there were a couple of spaces left, so they were happy to have
us join them for the ride. We all met up again in Cartagena, and a couple of
days before we were due to leave we met Loic, one of the French captains, and
talked to him about the boat and all the details. A few of the guys also went
and checked out the boat - a 15m Atoll 6 called the Velero Amande, with 6 double cabins and 4 bathrooms - and gave it the all clear, so we were all set. We just
had to buy a few supplies in the form of about 4 cases of beer, 4 litres of
rum, 2 litres of aguardiente, 1.5 litres of vodka (all of this was just for the 2 of us of
course) and a few snacks, then we were good to go.
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The two Irish brothers in
the group, Martin and Shane, arrived in Cartagena the day before we sailed so Loic wasn't able to get our passports stamped at customs before we left. He
also hadn't been able to get the harbourmaster's permission for his boat to
leave, so we were going to have to try and sneak out at night and get our
passports stamped the next day at another place. We arrived at the port in
small groups about 20mins apart, so as not to arouse the suspicion of the
officials, and all made it safely onboard under the cover of night. We had a
celebratory drink then stealthily set off to leave the harbour. Most sailing
trips last about 5 days, but our captains, Loic and Frank, said they were
relaxed about how long it took us and we could do whatever we wanted. Off to a
great start then. The optimism soon started to wane though and nausea quickly
set in, with Steph being the first to succumb. It became fairly obvious that
not all of us had our sea legs. Not even close. That first night was pretty
rough for a few of us, and Kurt and I and Steph and Alex chose to sleep in the
sheltered sitting area as it had more fresh air than the cabins below deck. Loic and Frank were awesome, emptying our buckets and dishing out tissues and
water all night long. We must have been a sorry sight.
 |
| The crew |
 |
| Chess and cards are a serious business |
The next week was spent
sailing a bit each day or night, anchoring at beautiful spots to swim in the
crystal clear waters and snorkel over some amazing reefs, even a shipwreck off
one of the San Blas islands. Loic and Frank also outdid themselves with the
cooking, producing some awesome food for us, sometimes while sailing over
pretty rough waters. We even had some fresh barracuda ceviche and beautifully
cooked fillets, caught as we were sailing along one afternoon. And of course we
were all hanging out for fresh lobster, which we bought off some of the locals
from their canoe stocked with fish, lobster and the biggest crab I've ever
seen. Steph and I still felt sick throughout most of the week, but I got to
know that the minute we started sailing my safe place was lying down in the
cabin. I think out of 9 of us, 4 made it the whole way without spewing. Not
bad.
In total, we sailed about 550kms across the
Caribbean Sea, and after an entire week we finally made it to Panama. Now we
just had to get used to being back on land...
Thursday, 4 April 2013
Time Out in Taganga and Tayrona
After a brief stay in Santa Marta which is about 4 hours north of Cartagena, I shared a taxi with Kat and Cam to Taganga, which is a small fishing village about 15 minutes away over the hill. Charlie and Renee had recommended a place to stay called Casa de Felipe, so I got dropped off there. It was a great hostel with plenty of shady outdoor areas and hammocks, so this became my home away from home for a couple of weeks. Unless you do your diving course there's not really anything to do in Taganga, so I spent my days catching up on sleep, swimming at the fairly average beach and chilling in a hammock. I went around to another beach called Playa Grande, but honestly it wasn't worth it at all - it was a tiny little beach packed with people and beach chairs and the water had all sorts of debris in it. I lasted for a couple of hours but was more than ready to go by the time the boat came back.
About an hour and a half away on a local bus is Tayrona National Park and it's a hot spot for tourists. But first, I went about 15mins further on to another beach called Costeño, which is a popular surf camp and often fills up. It was about a 30min walk from the road so when I arrived I was happy to see they had my name on the board for my reserved hammock. There were about 7 or 8 hammocks all strung up under a straw roof, and mine was the end one with a nice view of the beach about 20 metres away. However, it didn't turn out to be quite the prime location I initially thought when it started raining that night. It wasn't nearly as bad as the first night on Playa Blanca, but luckily I was able to move into the middle the next night for some shelter. I only spent 2 days here just lying on the beach, but for half of the second day it pissed down. I took this as my cue to head back to Tayrona the next day, and randomly I met Helen, another kiwi girl who was doing the same thing so we decided to go together.
Tayrona National Park was home to a local tribe back in the day and it covers a pretty big area (150 square km of land and 30 square km of the Caribbean Sea), but tourists tend to just visit a small section for hiking/camping. It costs about $20 to get into the Park, but you can stay as long as you like. From the entry it's about a 5km walk along a sometimes rough and muddy road, or you can take a van for about $1. We took the van. Then it's about a 3 hour hike that takes you up and down through the jungle then out onto the beach. Helen and I both wanted to stay at Cabo San Juan de la Guía which is the most popular place and for a pretty good reason. There's plenty of space for camping and heaps of hammocks crammed in under a shelter, but the prime spot is one of 13 or so hammocks in a rotunda perched up high on a rocky outcrop with an amazing view out over the sea and back over the two small curving bays on either side. We arrived at about 2 or 3pm and managed to get the last two hammocks up there, so quickly claimed our spot then it was straight into the beautifully refreshing water. Much needed relief after the hours of sweaty hiking. Unless you're keen enough to take a little gas stove and cooking gear, there's one restaurant that everyone eats at. There's enough variety to keep most people happy and some of the meals looked huge. By about 8:30pm I was knackered and ready for bed, and surprisingly by about 9pm everyone else was in their hammocks too. We were both only staying one night, so after swimming and lazing around the next morning we decided to hike back out to make sure we got a bus back to town.
After about 6 weeks Kurt finally caught up to me in Taganga, so we spent a few more days there (still at Casa de Felipe). I'd had the best meal of the entire trip at a restaurant that consistently gets rave reviews online, so of course I had to take Kurt back there. For about $15 you get a 3 course meal (you can choose each course from a selection) which is so beautifully presented and is the most amazingly delicious food. If you ever find yourself in this out of the way spot, the restaurant is called Babaganoush and is well worth the splurge ($15 is expensive in this part of the world). Just don't go on Mondays as they're closed.
Kurt also wanted to go to Tayrona so I was happy to go back again. It was perfect weather but it had obviously pissed down the day/night before, as one section of the walk was about ankle deep in water. Luckily it wasn't in the muddy jungle section though or I'm sure we would've been on our asses. Unfortunately when we arrived at Cabo San Juan all of the prime hammocks were taken, so we were down in the main camp area. It's a lot more sheltered though, which was probably a good thing as it rained again one night. On the first afternoon we saw a familiar face for the 3rd time - the permanently bare-footed Gronn, an Aussie we'd first met in Bogotá and then run into a few days earlier in Taganga. He was back travelling with his group of mates, so we spent the evening playing cards and talking shit with them. They were all going to sail from Cartagena to Panama too, so we figured we'd cross paths again and who knows, maybe even be on the same boat.
My 90 days in Colombia were close to being up, so we had to get back to Cartagena with enough time to find a boat that left before the end of the month (November). I also had to find a doctor, as I'd had a nasty cough for a few weeks and had lost my voice (turned out to be laryngitis). I'm not sure if it was a blessing or a curse for Kurt that I couldn't talk for 4 or 5 days...
 |
| Lazy days in hammocks at Casa de Felipe |
 |
| Playa Grande - not impressed |
 |
| View of Taganga coming over the hill from Santa Marta |
About an hour and a half away on a local bus is Tayrona National Park and it's a hot spot for tourists. But first, I went about 15mins further on to another beach called Costeño, which is a popular surf camp and often fills up. It was about a 30min walk from the road so when I arrived I was happy to see they had my name on the board for my reserved hammock. There were about 7 or 8 hammocks all strung up under a straw roof, and mine was the end one with a nice view of the beach about 20 metres away. However, it didn't turn out to be quite the prime location I initially thought when it started raining that night. It wasn't nearly as bad as the first night on Playa Blanca, but luckily I was able to move into the middle the next night for some shelter. I only spent 2 days here just lying on the beach, but for half of the second day it pissed down. I took this as my cue to head back to Tayrona the next day, and randomly I met Helen, another kiwi girl who was doing the same thing so we decided to go together.
 |
| Costeño Beach |
Tayrona National Park was home to a local tribe back in the day and it covers a pretty big area (150 square km of land and 30 square km of the Caribbean Sea), but tourists tend to just visit a small section for hiking/camping. It costs about $20 to get into the Park, but you can stay as long as you like. From the entry it's about a 5km walk along a sometimes rough and muddy road, or you can take a van for about $1. We took the van. Then it's about a 3 hour hike that takes you up and down through the jungle then out onto the beach. Helen and I both wanted to stay at Cabo San Juan de la Guía which is the most popular place and for a pretty good reason. There's plenty of space for camping and heaps of hammocks crammed in under a shelter, but the prime spot is one of 13 or so hammocks in a rotunda perched up high on a rocky outcrop with an amazing view out over the sea and back over the two small curving bays on either side. We arrived at about 2 or 3pm and managed to get the last two hammocks up there, so quickly claimed our spot then it was straight into the beautifully refreshing water. Much needed relief after the hours of sweaty hiking. Unless you're keen enough to take a little gas stove and cooking gear, there's one restaurant that everyone eats at. There's enough variety to keep most people happy and some of the meals looked huge. By about 8:30pm I was knackered and ready for bed, and surprisingly by about 9pm everyone else was in their hammocks too. We were both only staying one night, so after swimming and lazing around the next morning we decided to hike back out to make sure we got a bus back to town.
 |
| The hammock rotunda |
 |
| View back down over the bay from the rotunda |
After about 6 weeks Kurt finally caught up to me in Taganga, so we spent a few more days there (still at Casa de Felipe). I'd had the best meal of the entire trip at a restaurant that consistently gets rave reviews online, so of course I had to take Kurt back there. For about $15 you get a 3 course meal (you can choose each course from a selection) which is so beautifully presented and is the most amazingly delicious food. If you ever find yourself in this out of the way spot, the restaurant is called Babaganoush and is well worth the splurge ($15 is expensive in this part of the world). Just don't go on Mondays as they're closed.
Kurt also wanted to go to Tayrona so I was happy to go back again. It was perfect weather but it had obviously pissed down the day/night before, as one section of the walk was about ankle deep in water. Luckily it wasn't in the muddy jungle section though or I'm sure we would've been on our asses. Unfortunately when we arrived at Cabo San Juan all of the prime hammocks were taken, so we were down in the main camp area. It's a lot more sheltered though, which was probably a good thing as it rained again one night. On the first afternoon we saw a familiar face for the 3rd time - the permanently bare-footed Gronn, an Aussie we'd first met in Bogotá and then run into a few days earlier in Taganga. He was back travelling with his group of mates, so we spent the evening playing cards and talking shit with them. They were all going to sail from Cartagena to Panama too, so we figured we'd cross paths again and who knows, maybe even be on the same boat.
My 90 days in Colombia were close to being up, so we had to get back to Cartagena with enough time to find a boat that left before the end of the month (November). I also had to find a doctor, as I'd had a nasty cough for a few weeks and had lost my voice (turned out to be laryngitis). I'm not sure if it was a blessing or a curse for Kurt that I couldn't talk for 4 or 5 days...
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