Lima

After a very long journey (left apartment to blue line at 11pm, airport at 12;30, 2 am flight, 3 airports and 7 hours of layer over time) We arrived in Lima Peru!!   Our hotel owner meet us at the airport and drove us to the hotel.  We put down our backpacks and ventured out the door looking for a pisco sour!!!  Found them around the corner at a Mexican Resturant we sat outside on the patio eating fresh gauc and sipping our drinks. 

Today we slept in went to the beach watched the surfers and then returned up to the cliffs to watch the paragliders.  There were soo many of them the sky was covered with colorful sails!! It is about 70 outside.  We got a little lost and ended up eating lunch at some fancy meet place.  My minimal Spainish is working well and we have had two meals and booked our accomidations for New Years Eve.  Kinda proud of myself (thanks gina for all those lessons this summer)  was even able to tell the lady at the grocery store that I didn´t want a bag!!  Tomorrow we are off to Arequipa to see a volcano and the world´s deepest canyon.

Still in Costa

So we left monteverde and traveled to San Jose for one night!!!  Then we went to the national park of La Tortugero (Turtles)  This place is you can only get to by plane or boat.  It was so so so beautiful miles and miles of black sand beaches!!  The town is a perfect union of tourists and locals.  it is the first place on this trip that you could truly see the way people live!!

we set out on a turtle watch at 8 pm. we waited at a shelter with our guide till a ranger from the park radioed us then we went down to the beach to see the turtle lay eggs.  The ranger said that once the turtle digs the nest she is in the zone and does not notice people watching her.  you can not have any lights or cameras because the turtle uses the moon to guide their laying.  She laid about 100 eggs and then buried them and went back to sea.  it was amazing.  i have never seen anything like this it was so intimate and surreal.

the next day Laura and i rented a two person kayak and went through the national forest.  it was so remote it was just us and the river and jungle for as far as the eye can see!!!

So yesterday we tried to head to bocas in panama but our bus got a flat tire so we missed our connector.  we ended up in Chauita for two more nights.  hopefully tomorrow we will be in panama!!!

Wildlife up Close and Personal

Hey guys so we are in San Jose for the night.  The past few days have been crazy busy.  We first went to Arenal there we booked a tour with a guide named Mr. lava lava he organized a evening at the hot springs and lava sightings.  We went to the hot spring and it was crazy!  the only thing natural about this place was the water everything else was like hot spring gone vegas.  Swanky pools and swim up bars.  There were 20 hot springs in all ranging from 70 degrees to 150.  There was even some crazy water slides!!  At 5 Mr. lava lava picked us up to take us to the volcano we stood in the rain and got eaten by lots o skeeters.  (he did provide rain coats)  there was no lava to be seen.  he took us back to the hot springs for dinner and more soaking.  Then at 10 he picked us up and took us back to the volcano and there before our eyes lava was exploding and flowing down the volcano the power of nature was amazing.

The next day we went to Monteverde via a boat the ride alone was so green hilly and beautiful.  In monteverde jen and i went on a night hike.  We saw a tarantula, sloths (with babies)  leaf hoppers, walking sticks, caddy dids, a Pygmy tree frog and so much more.  So So cool.

Tonight we are in San Jose and tomorrow off to the remote area of Totugerro to see sea turtles lay eggs.  There is no cell service or internet so see you all in three days.

Cahuita, Costa Rica AKA Heaven on Earth

Well we made it over the border and to the beach town of Cahuita.  This two road town is where a bunch of Rasta folk got sick of the island and made their own place on the mainland of Costa Rica.  It´s a chill town with a few places to eat one bar to drink and two beaches one with white sand and the other with black!

We´re staying at a wooden guest house run by a girl from Minnesota and her rasta boo.  It looks a lot like my room at camp but the porch has two hammocks and I´m not going to lie I could spend the rest of my trip here!!!

Yesterday we took a hike on the white sand beach that is part of a national park there was a trail along the beach for about 8 km.  While hiking we saw raccoons, lizards, crabs, monkeys, and these monkeys make such a loud noise we thought they were wild pigs!!!  The trail ends at an Italian guy´s house with a pool, cabana and a mean pasta dinner, now that´s a sweet way to end a hike!!  Instead of hiking back we got a ride in a back of a pickup truck from a Tica family who lives in Cahuita and was just hanging out at their friend´s pool.  The perfect combo beaches that rival a corona commercial, cold beer and pool and food right from Tuscany!! 

Tomorrow we are off to watch a volcano erupt!

It's cold in Bouqete!

Gabrielle tried to leave us on the first but the airports were all closed due to the swearing in of the new president.  intresting beings that the air panama website sold her a ticket for that day!!  After her airport debacle the 8 of us took off for Bouqete Panama which is a mountian town that is famous for extreme sports and coffee (my kind of place)!  when we arrived in the late afternoon we decided to journey to a natural hot spring about 15 km outside of town.  the taxi dropped us off at the end of the road, the lonely planet guide book neglected to mention it would be a 45 min hike from there through a cow field and a major hydro electric construction sight.  after we finally made it we paid the woman whos land it was on and enjoyed a great hot soak.  it was so beautiful and refreshing (said that anyone who soaks there enjoys great health benifits)  not going to lie i feel great though not sure if it is due to the spring or the joy of  not working!!

the next morning we went zip lining through the rain forest.  the ride up there was as ms ortiz described it like the oregon trail but the view was amazing.  i met a couple that had just finished producing the show i´m a celebrity get me out of here.  they were cool to talk to!!  we zipped throught the forest on 12 different platforms.  more of a thrill than an actual eco site!!!

the next day i tried to hike this famous trail.  we asked taxi cab driver to take us to the trail head which according to the lp was only 3 km from the trail.  when he dropped us off we proceded to walk uphill in the hot sun.  about an hour in I bailed and jen anita and i walked back down hill.  we had a picnic lunch next to a river and then hiked on the remote rode for the way back to town.  on the way back we were stopped by a couple who was inspecting their bridge.  they owned a coffee planatation.  we chatted to them about coffee farming.  they were awesome they were 80 and let me tell you if i look that good when i´m 80 i´ll be in business!!

at night here in the mountians it gets very cold and rainy. today the sun has not come out at all and it is about 65!!

tomorrow we head out to the beaches of costa rica

Back to the Technological World

So after leaving panama city on friday we made the journey to Sanata Catalina panama.  by way of two buses we made it to a small town of 200 people.  this is a surf town the way people dream of them.  there are no banks, no cell signal, no internet.  there is one street and about 20 gringos.  our hotel was a the very top of a hill and called sol y mar.  the view from our blaconey was spectacular.  nothing but tops of trees and the ocean.

there we stayed for four nights doing nothing but laying on a super secluded beach with only the crabs and thecoconut trees as our company.  The main mode of transportation was horseback for the locals, although the breakfast place owner was from morton grove!!!

for ms phillip's birthday the chef of sol y mar cooked up some food better than any place i've eaten the chef also serves as a manny to the owner of the hotel's daughter. 

our departure out of santa catalina was very fitting we rode on a bus with about 20 school children and were stuck in a cow jam for a couple of minutes. 

santa catalina is a slice of heaven and i am telling way too many people about it in this email.

Today we arrived in David and tomorrow were off to Bouqutte for some tree top adventures.  We did meet up with laura today at the hostel in david  we are now 8 for one night

it is raining way more cats and dogs

Teachers take Panama

ey guys left chicago on June 23rd and flew to Panama City, Panama.  There are seven women with me.  All who teach at uplift except Gabrielle who once worked there and mel who is a pt.

we arrived in panama at 7 at night in the pitch black there is not as much light pollution as chi so we were not used to the darkness.  all the stores were closed in the area where our hostel was so we set out down the street to find food.  we ended up at the euro cafe that was the only place open in our neighborhood.  then back to our hostel which looked really shabby compared to the fancy euro diner!!! but it has air so that is sweet in fact it was cooler here than in the chi.

on wed we journeyed to the old town square where they declared independence from Columbia and we saw a church that had a massive gold alter that the priest painted black to prevent captin morgan from stealing it.  the priest then convinced cap tin Morgan that he owed him money from his pirates stealing the alter.  the priest swindled captin morgan, does that make him a sinner? 

we also visited a cafe but it turned out to be a student center it was as if a bunch of foreign chicks rolled up into the holmes student center!! 

today we saw the ruins from the town that captin morgan burned down.    our hostel is full of characters one dude who was on his third Guinness when i got up for breakfast at 8!!

well tomorrow we journey on a super colorful school bus for 5 hours to the beach town of santa catalina