To the San Blas Islands in Panama

Week 2: To Panama and back

Just outside of Leon we decided to do a day hike up a small volcano . After a short drive we came to the ranger's station where they had started a small reserve for the local reptiles, such as snakes and iguanas. For us the hike really was not that bad but we think it may have nearly killed Wallace. Kindra also managed to make it through the whole hike without dirtying her sandals until arriving back at the truck where she apparently scooped a bit of poo up with the tip of her Teva sandal. After the hike we headed out toward the beach to find a cheap or free place to camp. We drove not more than 45 minutes outside of town and just before dark found a stretch of beach near a little restaurant where we asked if we could set up camp for the night. The bar manager said we could camp there (for free no less) and so we set up just as the sun was setting.

(still sweating on the way down!) (group shot ont thevolcano)


(poop on my foot :() (Hippy is so happy!!!)

(Free camping...on the beach!)

The next morning we headed back towards town (Leon) for a few supplies and on the way picked up a couple of backpackers who needed a ride into Leon, on our way towards the Costa Rican border. We chowed down on some local yucca in a bag and some warm market cheese. We spent the next night in a small beach town in the south of Nicaragua called San Juan del Sur. In San Juan we began to see a significant change in the country and people. Some of you may already know but Costa Rica is heavily set up for tourism and San Juan is the border town where many people living in Costa Rica come to renew their visas (like Kindra used to do when she lived in Costa Rica). There are a lot of tourists in this town and more “white” people than any of had seen in months in one place. On top of this there were a ton of touristy type gift, souvenir, surf and clothing stores. (Kind of reminded us of Southern California or even Florida) Beautiful, nonetheless, but noticeably different. We found a place in town for the night that allowed dogs, unloaded our things out of the truck and went out for pizza, a walk on the beach, and ice cream. Kindra took full advantage of the internet and called her dad via Skype and they watched the Steelers (American football just in case you don't follow football) game together from afar.

(Hitch hiking ladies) (local cheese) (yucca wrapped in banana leave and served fresh in a plastic bag!)

(In front of our hostel in San Juan del Sur)

We saw some cool 'wind power' towers on the way to the Costa Rican border and arrived in the little town where Kindra lived (for 7 months) just after dark, called Playa Grande. Luckily she had still been in contact with one of her friends from when she lived there, Felix who was working at a local hotel/bar. Felix set us up with a nice couple who let us camp in there back yard that was more like a resort than a back yard. The next day we took the boat across the small river mouth to the little town of Tamarindo to do some sandal/cigar/sunglass shopping. Wow what a difference from any of the places we had seen totally set up for tourists, and even more like California, than California!!! Tons of gringos and gringas, surf boards, $$$$$$, you get the idea. Anywhoo, nice nonetheless. We all got some sun and enjoyed the beach. That evening we treated ourselves to dinner at a local restaurant, where we saw the largest insect I think any of us had ever seen. It looked like a grasshopper, but I think it may have been some kind of mutant locust or something of that nature. After dinner we drove into Tamarindo for some live music, from another acquaintance of Kindra's. He played some really great music, he is from Brazil so it had the ‘bossa nova’ style to it.

(smoking thier stogies on the beach) (mangrove trees) (Playa Grande at sunset, many memories for Kindra)

(crazy grasshoper bug) (mangroves) (bye bye sun)

(Kindra's friend Felix whom she hadn't seen for over 3 yrs)

The next day our plan was to head towards the city of San Jose to stay for the night, but when we got there the rooms were much more than we had planed on spending, so we decided to go towards the mountains. As night was falling we approached the location and made our way down a steep and treacherous road. To all of our disappointment, the front tire of the truck sustained a fatal puncture to the sidewall of the tire. An irreparable flat….damn! John knew he was going to have to change it, and just as he got out of the truck the rain began to fall. Long story short we were unable to do the tire change that evening because of a missing essential tool needed to remove the tire. Soooooo... all 5 bodies: Kindra, John, Josh, Wallace, and Hippy got as comfortable as they could in the cab of the truck and hunkered down for the night on the side of the mountain. The next morning Josh and John went out on a hunt for a 'good samaritan' that could help with the removal of the tire. After a little asking around and a breakfast of fresh mountain 'moras' (blackberries), coffee and toast we found what we needed and were off towards Panama.

(some locals helping fix the tire) (road we slept on because we had a flat) (hippie just waking up after being squished all night in the cab)

We had been encountering substantial amounts of rain in the afternoon and evenings the further south we would go and have been keeping the backpacks, with all of our clothing and such, in the back wrapped in big black trash bags. It’s a daily ritual to rewrap the bags in their respective plastic and then all of them in a tarp. After crossing into Panama in the evening, without much issues except a small bribe to one of the quarantine office officials, we found a place to stay in the small city of David around 30 minutes away form the border. This place was really a bit creepy no pictures but just imagine the hotel from the movie 'The Shining' and you will have a good idea what it was like.

We spent most of the next day driving, which if you haven’t the faintest idea of how we are traveling, I will describe for you. John always drives. Kindra and Josh switch off every other day between sitting in the front and the cab. If it is your day in the cab you know that by the end of the day your butt will be asleep and hurting. Basically we have brought with us a futon mattress that we have folded up and put in the cab for us to sit on. We stick our tents, camelbacks, etc in and around it and then try and get comfortable. Wallace normally rides at the feet of the person on the front and Hippy in the back with the unlucky rider of the day. It has been really hot and humid lately so cruising down the highway with the windows down is a nice refresher. When we get to the borders and have to sit in the car for a few hours.... well lets just say I am glad we only have a handful more to go! There have been quite a few checks along the highways where police will either wave you through or pull you over. Guess which we always get. Normally we just pull out our passports and car papers and they are typically happy with that. A least twice we will stop for bathroom breaks and the guys always have it much easier cause there definitely were a few times that Kindra mooned some passerbyers on accident (sorry no pics for this one!)

(John getting the border paperwork) (border crossings)

(John and Josh getting water from a gas station) (j & j covering up the bags from the rain)

We only have 4 weeks to get to Panama and back to Xela so we hit the road again heading south and then before dark looking for a place to camp. After asking around we met a nice man who said we could stay on his property for the evening, not far from a river. We set up our little rain shelter over the tents just in case it rained, but we were lucky and had a nice clear night. We had ourselves a nice fire and got some really cool photos with Josh’s camera.

The next morning we took a little walk to a small waterfall just on the other side of the ridge, from where we had camped, then headed out toward the Panama canal and the southern most point of our journey the San Blas Islands. The one lookout we stopped at to see the 'canal locks' in action was a little expensive so we opted to just hang out and enjoy the view of the observatory building. We are lame, yes we know, but understand that we want to have enough money to make it home without having to call our families for gas money!! On our way to the Islands it began to get dark and we again made the journey down the treacherous back country road in the evening. Half way down the road though we actually were able to see both oceans on either side of us, which was quite amazing. Our most frightening sight was the road to the beach; ending at what seemed to be an impassable and rather large deep jungle river. Now, John has only driven through one river before not more than 4 inches deep in Belize. At first we could not see the road on the other side, but after some inspection and spot light use (thanks for the spot light Charlie/dad!!) we saw the road on the other side. We had seen other smaller vehicles than the truck returning from the beach on this same road so we knew it could be done, but nevertheless it seemed really deep. Well, we went for it.... after a half hour or so debating on whether or not we were up for hand winching the truck out if it did not make it. The water was well above the wheels and a good bit over the bumper of the truck, which meant the river was at least 3 feet deep. No problem though we made it across with little more than some wet feet from the water coming in the bottoms of the doors (seriously)! Ok, as if this was not enough excitement for one evening upon arriving at the rangers’ station, we were greeted by armed guards who told us the park was closed after 4pm and a bit baffled as to how we had made it past an earlier check point that was inconvieniently unattended. They basically told us we could not camp on the beach where we were heading and would have to go somewhere else. They were nice enough to let us camp at their station until morning, where a guide would meet us and arrange to have a small boat take us out to one of the small islands. We originally had planned on camping on one of the islands but due to rain, and again the COST, we decided to just go out for the day. The San Blas islands are speckled all along the Atlantic coast of the south of Panama and a large population of indigenous live here. It was really amazing to see the small islands and the specific way of life these people have been living for thousands of years, probably the same, except for a few differences, like gas motors and the appearance of tourism. Yeppers, it was a rainy semi-miserable day on one of the most beautiful amazing places in the world. When we arrived at the island, which was smaller than a movie star’s piece of Beverly Hills property, the skies cleared long enough to do a 10 minute loop around the "if you were stranded on a deserted island..." island. We made the most of it and returned back to the truck later that afternoon. A bit of an anticlimactic, furthest point south of the journey kind of day, but hey we made it and we are safe.

(deserted on an island!)

(local woman raking the seashells on the beach)


(The ranger's station we camped in front of)

And the trip is not over yet! We are all in good spirits and the dogs are doing well. Sorry for the quick recap of these destinations, but it will leave something for us to tell stories about when we get home, can’t give it all away in the blog, the juicy little details are always the best! Love you all, keep an eye out for more to come…. John, Kindra, Josh, Wallace and Hippy

On the Road Again: Heading South

November week 1, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua (heading south)

Well hello again everyone. Starting up our portion of the trip in blogger style, we are on our way down to Panama from Xela. We hope to arrive in Panama in a week or so and hang for a while then head back to Guatemala. We figured it would be easier and safer to leave the camper in Xela and only bring the things we truly needed for the trip. We decided to do the trip tent and hostel/hotel style so no need for the bulky camper (better gas mileage too). Also our friend and roommate Josh and his dog “hippy” are traveling with us. It’s nice to have another person along for the trip and Josh speaks practically fluent Spanish so has been a great deal of help at the borders and in a few sticky situations. After packing all our things and making all the necessary arrangements for the trip, buying a few snacks and food for the road and Kindra almost getting her toe cut of by a careless machete carrying woman, we left Xela. Not to worry though… it was only a scratch.

On Sunday morning we headed to a small town a few hours away called Sumpango for the annual kite festival or “Day of the Dead celebration. People from this and other villages construct massive “kites” out of brightly colored tissue paper and bamboo that takes them months to complete. All the kites are truly works of art. Some are religious, some cultural, some environmental, but all beautiful and amazing. The larger 20 to 30 ft tall pieces are too big to actually fly, but there are some that are equally impressive in design (smaller of course) that with the assistance of 10 to 30 men actually get off the ground. The process is quite amazing, similar to a small kite, a long piece of rope is attached to the bottom of the kite and a long line of men (some women) run pulling the rope until it comes off the ground. Then depending on the skill of the “flyers”, weight and amount of wind that day the kite either remains in the air or crashes to the ground. We saw one of the larger pieces (about 10 to 15 ft tall) stay in the air for around 10 or 15 minutes!! After checking out all the kites and having lunch we headed out towards Guatemala City to stay the night at the parents of Josh’s friends place.

Josh’s good friend Byron’s parents were kind enough to let us stay on their beautiful property for the night and feed us two meals. It was a real treat to have such tranquil, clean….FREE place to stay, thanks so much for your hospitality Byron and Eva Marie!! In the morning we headed into Guatemala City to pick up the rest of our paper work for the truck, so as to be able to exit the country without issues. As with most things in Guatemala the process was slow and we had to wait a few hours before obtaining the paper work from the SAT office. After around 5pm we had everything, but it was dark and we decided to find a hostel in the city and leave early the next morning for the El Salvadorian border. The hostel we found was nice, cheap and allowed pets. The next morning we headed towards the border.

(Byron's parent's house) (byron and Eva


(Some cool graffiti in Guate City)

Now began the fun’nt (Leslie, Gaga, Tana, James and Jim will get this). Upon arriving at the border (and it’s the same at all of them) the truck is usually surrounded by a hoard of men with official looking badges that say you will need a guia, or guide, to successfully make it through the process because it’s sooooo confusing and difficult (for a small fee of course). Kindra and John learned early on this was not necessary and a scam for inexperienced travelers. Unless you speak absolutely no Spanish and don’t know how to make copies these guides are practically useless, aside from annoying the daylights out of you. Everything went well exiting Guatemala until the final step where they check our passports. Josh’s stamp and info were fine, but when the man went to input Kindra and John’s info into the computer something was not right. Apparently when we went to the city to have our visas renewed over a month before they gave us our stamps, but did not put the renewal info into the computer and it was showing we were almost 3 month late on our visas!! Not our fault at all, but a problem nonetheless and potentially a really big fine (which we could not afford) or going all the way back to the capital and having to spend a few days rectifying the problem or who knows what! Josh tried talking with the man to find out what our options were and he basically told Josh to see how much we would be willing to pay. We were livid! In no way was the mistake they made our fault. After talking more with him and explaining we couldn’t pay he eventually stamped our passports and let us move on.

So we’re out of Guatemala and on to the entry of El Salvador. Everything went smoothly here except for taking almost 4 hours to complete. Josh and Kindra had to wait for almost an hour for someone to get back from a dinner break before being able to pay a pet transport fee. This evening we drove another hour and a half toward the coast of El Salvador and found a place on the beach to stay. It was very nice, clean and beautiful with access to the beach. This part of the coast of El Salvador is beautiful with cliffs stretching along the coastline.

(1st day in El Salvador)

Wednesday, we headed out to our next destination, another spot on the coast, before leaving El Salvador and crossing into Honduras. The beach town we stayed in was called Cuco and the places we had to choose from were either really nice and really expensive or really crappy and not quite as expensive. So we chose the later. And let me tell ya, the only word to describe this place is GE-TOE. Bare bones, two “beds” if you could call them that, non flushing toilets, headless “shower” (pipe coming out of the wall with a spicket that barely let out a dribble of water)! Not complaining though it was a safe place to park the truck and they allowed dogs.

\(ghetto-fabulous-style)

Thursday, we drove towards the border of Honduras. We arrived in the mid afternoon and again spent the next four hours waiting patiently as we exited El Salvador and entered Honduras. After a long arduous process of making copies, getting passports stamped and having the dogs inspected we thought we were free. As we approached what seemed to be last check point of the border a uniformed dressed “official looking” man flagged us down and motioned us to pull over. After stopping the man asked for John’s driver’s license and pointed to his and Josh’s lack of seat belt use. He then proceeded to tell us we would have to pay a $50 US fine 33k away and then return with the receipt to get John’s drivers license back. We had been duped like this before and knew it was a scam. Luckily Josh was able to call “the crooked traffic official’s” bluff and expose him for what he was and was trying to do… extort tourist! The officer wanted to take the bribe on the sly because obviously he didn’t want to get caught extorting us, but instead Josh , along with a few other locals driving by, called him out. They were yelling out of their trucks “crooked cops” and “don’t let him bribe you!” He obviously felt he pressure the bunk official gave back the license and we didn’t have to pay a cent!!!! Hopefully this will be a lesson to some of the corrupt officials in Honduras, knowing they can’t get money from all the travelers passing through.

A bit about the landscape and what we have been seeing on the drive going south. El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua all have a very similar feel, beautiful jungle greenery, volcanoes rising up out of the earth 1,500 to 2,000ft, small villages, horse drawn carriages, fruit and vegetable stands on the sides of the road, fresh dairy farms that sell cheese and soft serve ice cream. Also since we left Xela everyday around 3pm or so there have been incredible tropical rains, harder than we have seen anywhere else, as of yet, on the trip. The people are very friendly if you are friendly to them and all the road side check points military and police are astonished when we present Wallace as a distraction. The little boy is a great conversation piece and immediately lightens the mood and break the ice of the stone face police and military officials.

We finished off Thursday afternoon by driving into a small town in Honduras, where we found again a nice, cheap, clean hotel room with a fan that allowed dogs and had a parqueo for the truck. We went out that evening… found a bit of street food then went back to the room and watched Year One on Johns laptop, funny movie by the way. We got up the next day and walked the dogs around the local market area, bought some fresh fruit and headed towards the boarder of Nicaragua. After making it through without much trouble and a lot of time, we made it to Leon, Nicaragua, a nice little town a lot like what Xela would be like with warm weather and nice paved streets. The Hostel we are now staying in is super chill and close to the market, we had a rainy day in today and just chilled out, walked around the market had lunch at a comedor, and wrote the blog, basically took it easy after the 3 days or so of border madness.