Corn Islands and into Cost Rica

Well the trip out to the Corn Islands was a mission and a half:

Up at six for a bus out to Managua (good so far) then on arriving in Managua I found out that I´d just missed the bus to Rama by 5 min and had to wait 4 hours for the next one (sigh....) That bus ended up taking eight hours for a five hour trip (why must we stop for half an hour in every tiny town along the way???) meaning I´d missed the boat out to Bluefields on the coast and have to stay a night in Rama.

Arriving in the frontier port town of Rama at night was not an ideal situation so I jumped on a bicycle taxi to take me to the hotel I´d chosen from the guidebook. Probably not entirely necessary as the hotel was only three houses up from the bus station but it´s always good to feel safe.

Pretty sure the hotel was a brothel (I was asked if I wanted a single or a ¨matrimonial¨) but I actually had a surprisingly peaceful sleep. I awoke at six to the news that I´d just missed the morning fastboat to Bluefields and would have to wait for another 19 people to show up for the next boat to leave, which it eventually did. At two in the afternoon.......

In Bluefields I was informed that the boat across to the islands had left an hour ago and the next one was in two days time so I just gave up and taxied out to the airport and forked out 100 bucks for a return flight. If I had have just done this in Managua it would have only cost 65 dollars more and saved me two and a half days frustration, live and learn.

The next morning was the flight, another taxi and the final boat over to Little Corn Island. As soon as I saw it appear on the horizon I new it had all been worth it. Absolutely beautiful.

The port side

the beach in front of my cabaña

one of the many trails criss-crossing the island

Found a bed sharing a room with three girls I´d met on the boat and then went and sat out under the coconut trees on the pristine white sand beach with a few beers and guitars to watch the light fade over the caribbean......

The next morning I went diving with Eva and Maga, two Icelandic girls from my cabaña out to Grant´s cave (had to go to Grant´s cave!) and some other tunnels nearby. The water was amazingly clear and whilst there was not a whole lot of marine life about squeezing through the narrow, jagged tunnels with shafts of white light piercing the darkness at strange angles was a truly memorable experience.

The girls joking around

That night was a big party with many bottles of rum, a bonfire and swimming under the stars until 5am. The next day was unsurprisingly spent lounging around in a hammock and unfortunately not doing any more diving, although with no ATM on the island money was becoming an issue :S

So after just three days (I could have spent a month there easily) it was sadly back to the main Island and the airport.

Three days of travel later I was at the border of Costa Rica, where I find myself at the moment. Have been travelling around for the last week with Inga, a german friend from my New Zealand hostel days, more soon......

Island Party, Casa Kiwi, into Granada

Kinda waited a bit long before making this post so I have a bit of catching up to do!

So the party..........

The party was awesome!

It was on a tiny little cay (less than 100m long) surrounded by pristine white sand beaches and reefs with a kind of house set up with a big kitchen, a couple of private rooms, a big lounge/sleeping area and a bathroom. Got there at 2pm and were all straight into the water with a drink to soak up the views and catch some rays (sunrays that is, not stingrays)

Drinking in the sea



The house is in there somewhere.....

It was a great evening and night and in what was actually probably a good move I forgot to take any more photos.......... There was a snorkel in there at some point too for the newly qualified divemasters and from memory it involved rum, tabasco sauce, coke and beer, mmmmm tasty.........

A couple of days later I arrived in Trujillo to check out Casa Kiwi, a hostel that I had emailed from Oz regarding getting a job after the trip has finished. Was a really cool place on a lovely stretch of beach and the staff were really friendly, down to earth people so the next three days involved chatting away at the bar at night, sleeping til midday, laying in a hammock all afternoon and going back to the bar for the nightly sunset. On the last night it was my turn for the obligitary yard glass attempt and I can now share some wisdom in regards to this:

1. Leaving the beer out for 15 min beforehand warms it up and lets some of the bubbles out


2. Its ok and actually essential to burp into the glass every now and then


3. take off your shirt before you start

4. If you think your up for another one straight afterwards give it 20 min, you won´t be then

Thanks to Barry for an excellent pour and Chaz for the pics

off to a nervous start

into the neck

halfway through the bowl

almost there.....

Success!

Some pics from around the hostel:

Casa Kiwi

The Beach
Sunset on the beach

Casa Iguana, how many can you spot?

Jesus Lizard, about a foot long and it can run on water (like Jesus but faster)

After Casa Kiwi it was back on a bus to Tegucigalpa (the capital of Honduras) then Managua (the capital of Nicaragua), both pretty ugly second (third?) world cities, and on to Granada, once the rich and magnificent capital of the spanish colony in Central America.

This is where I have been for the last four days, not doing a whole lot really. It´s a pretty nice city, lots of grand old architecture to keep things nice and enough grit and bustle to keep it interesting, but no real reason to spend four days here without leaving town. I´ve been hanging around with Alicia and Dave a nice Irish couple, having a few drinks at night, watching the odd movie, strolling around and generally just hanging about talking shit, not really doing much at all. And have actually had a great time doing it.

A few shots over town from one of the church bell towers:

Cows hanging out by the lake (the impressively huge but filthy lake)

I guess after moving around a lot and being constantly on the go from one place to the next it´s nice to just chill out for a bit and recharge.

Tomorrow morning I´m up at 5 for the bus back to Managua and on to Bluefields on the Caribbean coast for a boat (9hrs in a small panga, ouch) over to the corn islands for some more beaching and diving. Have heard it´s great and after the fun I had on Utila I´m really looking forward to it........

Into Honduras, Diving in Utila

The morning after the Acatenango climb it was up again at four with Betty from the homestay for the bus across the border to Copan Ruinas and on to La ceiba and the bay Islands in Honduras for an open water dive certification course. It was a long and uneventful journey and two days later the ferry was pulling into the port on Utila, a smallish atoll in the Caribbean about 30km offshore. It was pretty late when we got there and with so many dive schools it was impossible to make a decision on the spot so we went for the one with a free first night`s accommodation and crashed.

The next morning after a think and a bit of a look around I decided I really wasn`t that happy with the place we were staying at (the deck opened out onto a stinky polluted lagoon and the rooms were like ovens) so I decided to switch to Captain Morgans, which has accommodation out on a small cay off the main island. It was also a bit cheaper (250 US for four nights accomodation and dive course with two free fun dives). It was a good move.

As I had just missed the boat out to the cay for the day I had to stick around in town for the night and wait until the following morning, which actually turned out really cool because there were some locals guys staying at my hostel with guitars and a big bottle of rum.......


On the way out to the cay the next day I met the others who were doing the open water with me, Kristy, also from Melbourne, Scott and Helen, a cool couple from the UK, and Isabella from France via England.

Having a few beers in town


Pulling into the jetty in front of the hotel I knew straight away I had made the right choice...... stunning place.

Hotel Kayla
the jetty and sunset deck out the front


Sunset from the deck

a nice place to chill....
Looking out my window at the reef

After dumping our bags we were straight into it with our instructor Marta, watching three videos and filling out the questionaires and then into the water for a test dive in shallow water off the jetty. Had a few water up the nose issues at the start but after that was sorted I didn`t have another problem. The fish and coral are absolutely amazing in utila, like swimming around in the coolest aquarium ever.

It`s OK
The open water course went for three days and included two dives a day out on the reef or in the lagoon at the hotel, videos and quizes and an exam at the end. As certified open water divers we can now dive with another certified diver anywhere in the world as long as it is in open water with no overhead obstacles like caves or inside wrecks which requires further courses.

Swimming along
Hovering like a buddha
Once done with the open water course it was pretty hard to say goodbye to this little piece of paradise so we all decided to stay on for the three day advanced course (another 250US) which included a wreck dive, a deep water dive, a night dive, a navigation dive and a peak bouyancy dive to fine tune our bouyancy, probably the most important element in diving. After the course we had two more fun dives on the north side of the island which were the highlight for me, such a pristine reef with so much amazing wildlife, truly beautiful.

Yesterday was the last day of the course, so I`m now a certified advanced diver (after only a week!) and am seriously considering coming back to Utila after the trip to do my Divemaster course which will mean can work on a dive boat guiding other divers, soooo tempting........

Tomorrow night the dive shop is hiring a small island for a sendoff party for one of the instructors so I`m on the main island tonight stocking up on rum (2L for 12 dollars!), cigarettes and meat for the barbecue, it`s going to be a pretty sweet night.........

Birthday and Acatenango climb

My birthday turned out to be great! After dinner I was finishing a beer and thinking of heading out when I was mysteriously told to go outside and was greeted by Jaun Carlos (the father of the Family) grinning mischieviously whilst lighting a big row of fire crackers (they were LOUD!!)


They were thrown in front of the neighbours house!



Next came a cake with candles and then the traditional cake biting ritual with a face smushing as well

Thanks Betty!


And a couple of rounds of Mezcal to finish


Headed out on the town afterwards for some drinks with and to see some live guatemalan music with the guys from school.

Here are some more pics of various things around Antigua:

At school with my teacher Delia

At the reptile park with a cool but really stinky snake

The family (I´m the one up the back with the tiny head)

The day before I left Antigua I went on a hike with Liam and Andrea (two other students from the school) up Acatenango, one of the volcanoes overlooking town.

The one on the right side, Fuego is the one nextdoor with smoke billowing out

We started the drive out there at five in the morning (ouch) stopping for a quick sunrise pic on the way

And began the ascent through farmlandRainforestopen pine forestand finally misty moonscape

With some impressive views on the way up

As you can see the views weren´t great at the very top so after sitting around on the summit freezing our arses off for half an hour we attempted to descend. That is the guide attempted to seem like he knew where he was going. He didn´t. We wandered around in the fog getting more and more lost until eventually we suggested that we turn around, go back to the start and try again. This time our guide decided to leave us on the summit along with all of his gear in the blasting icy wind and try to find the path himself. After half an hour Andrea was starting to shiver uncontrollably and in a thin, wet hoodie at 3800 metres that is not such a good thing. We were just about to head down without the guide when he came trotting back in just his singlet, having taken off his jacket and fleece to mark the path?!?! and then creeping around in the fog until he found us again. For his sake I´m glad he did, this was no place to get around in a singlet!

The descent was fine after that and we actually made great time back to the trailhead, taking 3 1/2 hours to climb and less than two to get back down. Absolutely bucketted down though which was not a problem for me but the others didn´t have raincoats for some reason so they were not exactly having the time of their lives.

Pretty shattered after the tough climb at altitude we were looking forward to a nice meal and a snooze back at town when we were informed that despite being expressly told we would have a shuttle van to pick us up we actually had to wait nearly an hour for the local chicken bus. This turned into a two and a half hour journey of indescribable torture however there was a nice interlude of a lady falling asleep next to me with her breast exposed.

It was a day to remember that´s for sure...........