Thursday, 19 September 2013

Chapter 24: Costa Rica - Nicaragua - Honduras

So where did we stop again? Ah yeah, Bocas... We really loved that place!

After a month of Caribbean treat we moved on to Costa Rica, where life is so expensive that we stayed only one weekend... But what a weekend! Our friend Pedro from Panama gave us the contact of one of his friend living in San José, Costa Rica, a guy totally into psytrance. And Pedro promised us there was party every weekend... Well, we were not disappointed! We ended up in a private psytrance party held in a beautiful house with huge garden. Enough to recharge batteries before the next step of our trip =)

We then moved to Nicaragua: just a night in Managua, which didn't seem very appealing, and straight to the revolutionary city of Leon, where the most important of Nicaragua's freedom & independence took place, with Sandino at its lead. We had the chance to visit the revolution museum, guided by survivors of the war! Finally the whole mystery about US treachery became clear to us...



Nicaragua is quite poor (quite a shock after the luxury of Panama, Bocas and Costa Rica; it was like being back to Peru), but even though the underdeveloped context, Leon is a great city, full of history and impressive buildings (the city counts something like 15 churches and numerous museums). We were honored to discover 2 local artists: José de la Cruz Mena, a leper classic music composer (give a try), and Ruben Dario, a famous poet.



After a week relaxing in Leon we headed to Honduras; Bus n1 + taxi + bus n2 + 15 min walk with huge bags + bus n3 + bus n4 + another taxi ... and finally we reached Tegucigalpa (say Tegu if you wanna look cool!). Like Managua the city didn't seem very attractive so we just stayed 1 night at the hostel and in the morning left straight to Copán, where the first Mayan site on our road is.
Here are some photos from the internet, but nothing in comparison of the feeling we had once there. The place is so full of energy, it's indescribable!







Now we're ready to to move on to the next spot: Tikal in Guatemala!!! Speak soon =D

Maggie & Tom

PS: I went for a walk with our friend Lucas, here are soon more photos. Thanx Lucas =)


Coffee drying houses










Thursday, 5 September 2013

Chapter 23: Bocas del Toro

So after a 10h night bus and a quick boat we landed in Isla Colon, in a district of Panama called Bocas del Toro (Bull's mouth). It was as we heard it, another Caribbean paradise:


Looking for a safe place to set our tent, we were blessed to be directed to Elisabet's house. She is a middle-age local woman, the Caribbean "mama", as sweet as my mum's apple pies! Everyone knows her in the village for her kindness apparently... She warmly offered us to put the tent in her garden, saving us from having to set and unset it everyday.

2nd day we rented bikes and rid to playa Bluff, where the waves were ridiculously huge! No need to precise Tom spent less than a minute into the water haha! But it was actually impossible to swim, the waves were able to kill you, not joking! Afterwards we discovered that it was indeed not really a beach for swimming, but very famous for surfers, and that there is what they call the killer waves that can swallow you in the ocean in less than 5min!!! And it's quasi every day of the year... Look:


After a couple of days Tom had to find strategies to make oney because Bocas del Toro is a district very expensive of Panama, probably more expensive than Europe in general. So he went into restaurants and good luck, a place called Lemongrass offered him 3 gigs a week! Plus every monday at Aqualounge to lead the open mic, plus a gig at Bocart, fancy restaurant... Well, that wasn't so hard in the end =) And as an extra bonus, we got to eat lobster and other fancy specialities for free in most of these places! Mmmmm lobster....

Afetr a week, Elisabet asked us to move, and magically the same night at Aqualounge we met Chuck, martial art teacher  retired from the US, who offered us a private room unused in his flat... We were again so lucky that it was hardly believable! The flat was in Casa del Sapo on Isla Carenero, just a few yards from Isla Colon. So $1 of taxi boat and we arrived in what would be revealed to us as Casa del Muerto since a girl was assassinated in the same room we were staying in, a year ago. It even reached the UK newspaper, maybe you heard of the story? But no panick, everything was perfectly fine in that house, apart from Chuck's more than ridiculous music hahaha



And so went life for a month, Tom playing almost every night, learning martial arts from Chuck, eating coconut from the tree outside every morning, swimming in the Caribbean every day in the beach some 10m away from the house... What else???
We met lots of lovely people, including Lady Gaga's double and her friend Laureen, both from Arizona. They both became super quickly part of my Bridget team (only Bridgets can understand) and I was so blessed to have them around when Tom was too busy with music. Love you Bridgets =D

One day Brom, the Dutch manager of Lemongrass, who has always been so good to us, offered us a lift in his private boat to Isla Bastimentos so we could enjoy the famous Red Frog Beach, where he's building a new restaurant. We even got to see one of the red frogs:


One night on my way back from Aqualounge to the house, happened a scary/funny thing: a young local tried to rob me by snatching my tobacco purse attached to my dress, ripping the dress, and ran away. But before he was to far I had shouted several time that there was no money in the purse (I had actually no penny with me, what I didn't say is that Chuck's keys were in the purse, to my horror). And to my surprise the thief stopped and walked back in my direction. Reaching him, I ask for my purse but the only thing he was interested in was money, obviously, so I told him about the keys in my purse and show him the house 10m away and swear I'll give him money if he follows me to the house... And pffffff, he believed me haha! So we walk to the house, I make him wait outside (what was he thinking then, no clue! I could have come back with a knife or a gun...), and discretely wake up Chuck, telling him the situation. Here I saw stars lightning in Chuck's eyes, totally exited to have an opportunity to use his martial art skills... I can't describe the face of my thief when he saw massive Chuck coming outside the house instead of some money hahaha... In the end he was too fast to be caught, but we had a great laugh with Chuck at least!

Well enough for today my friends, more adventures to come very soon! Oh and by the way, Tom finally bought his return ticket, he'll fly on the 24th of November from Cancun to Madrid! So now time is limited for us, it's getting more exciting =D