Dueling Backpacks

Day 37 (August 4, 2018) – Liberia, Costa Rica After spending the week at the beach in Tamarindo, we took a bus back to Liberia for the weekend to visit Rinc ó n de la Vieja National Park. This was after much indecision on our part… did we really want to give up a relaxing beach day to go exhaust ourselves hiking around a volcano? We made a wise choice to skip the beach and it was well worth the extra effort.

Day 35 (August 2, 2018) – Tamarindo, Costa Rica My alarm went off at three in the morning. On purpose. The beginning of a long travel day, we started off catching the 4:20 AM bus from Monteverde to La Irma, which is basically just a gas station, where we caught the next bus to Liberia, where we caught the bus after that to Tamarindo. The last bus was my least favorite, being a local bus that pulled off the main highway to stop in every one of the little towns between Liberia and Tamarindo, but we made it into Tamarindo at around 10 AM. The whole trip was downhill from the mountains and to the ocean where it was dramatically hotter and more humid than where we had come from.

Fifty dollars a day. That’s what our research told us a trip around the world should cost. Many people have done it for less and, of course, it’s not hard to spend more. Over a year that comes to roughly $18,000. That’s less than I spent on my car and is supposed to cover the entirety of one’s travel and living expenses for a year. I feel a bit strange talking about our finances knowing that others are reading this, but I know we’ll be curious in the future to look back and see what this trip cost us, so we’ve been keeping track of all our expenses. Tacos for two in Antigua.

Day 30 (July 28, 2018) – Santa Elena, Costa Rica What a difference from Guatemala. After a long day of flying on Avianca from Flores to Guatemala City, Guatemala City to San Salvador, and San Salvador to San Jose, I felt like we arrived in a very different place from where we started the day. Costa Rica feels very modern and affluent compared to Guatemala. The streets are well paved, the cars look to be in better shape, and the houses look like they’ve all just been painted. Even waiting to pick up our bags at the airport, there are families and kids running around everywhere, almost like we were in Orlando.  The ATMs will even give you US dollars if you want them.  It immediately felt more touristy and also more familiar, more similar to home, than Guatemala. 

Days 25 (July 23, 2018) - Tikal, Guatemala Temple I at Tikal Tikal is one of the largest sites of Mayan ruins in Central America. Tikal reached its peak somewhere around 200-900 AD, and within a few hundred years afterwards it was completely abandoned. Archaeologists are not sure why, but it was likely a combination of drought and wars. The Tikal site is huge, and only a fraction of the structures have been excavated. Left for only a short time, the jungle/forest takes over the structures. In fact, when we were walking around Tikal, we walked right past some structures without even noticing them (until a subsequent walk through), since they had been overgrown with trees and plants and covered with dirt. They looked just like hills.

Day 20 (July 18, 2018) – Panajachel, Lago Atitlan, Guatemala Panajachel (locally just called Pana) was the nice lakeside town that we had been hoping for. On the opposite side of Lake Atitlan from San Pedro, the views are just as stunning, if not more, since you have a clear view of two volcanoes directly across the lake. The main part of town is located slightly inland from the lake but there are plenty of lakeside restaurants that get great views. Panajachel is a fairly busy town since it’s the main entry point to Lake Atitlan from Guatemala City or Antigua.  Lake Atitlan with volcanoes along the lake shore.

Day 18 (July 16, 2018) – San Pedro, Lago Atitlan, Guatemala San Pedro La Laguna is located on the beautiful Lake Atitlan, a high-altitude lake surrounded by three very large volcanoes. The surrounding mountains alone are spectacular, but the fact that they all sit on a deep blue lake is incredible. We took a shuttle bus from Antigua to Panajachel, the main entry point to the lake, and then a boat across the lake. There are very few roads that connect the various villages around the lake so travel by boat is by far the quickest way.  From the San Pedro dock on Lake Atitlan.

Day 15 (July 13, 2018) – Antigua, Guatemala We’ve been traveling around Guatemala quite a bit this past week and we haven’t had much time for blogging, so the next few posts are updates on the things we've done these last two weeks. On the Friday afternoon of our last Spanish class, July 13, we took a tour of Finca Filadelfia where they grow coffee and, for a portion of what they produce, roast and sell it under their brand name of R. Dalton . We travelled there with Noreen, our fellow home stayer and new friend. The plantation is surprisingly close to the city center of Antigua, only a 10-minute ride away, up on one of the hillsides. The grounds of the plantation are quite stunning, in a somewhat stark contrast to the surrounding villages. Nonetheless, it was a very nice place to walk around and enjoy the view from the hillside.  Small coffee plants. Takes them 3 years to reach a couple feet tall.

Day 17 (July 15, 2018) - Antigua, Guatemala We finished our second week of Spanish classes! After my last lesson with Lhena.

Day 10 (July 8, 2018) - Antigua, Guatemala ¡Hola, amigos! ¿Cómo están ustedes? We finally made it to Guatemala last week. It still doesn’t seem real that we’re on this huge trip. I think it will still be a few weeks until it does seem real. It may seem crazy, but we haven’t really had any time to relax. There was a lot of stress and anxiety associated with selling a house, selling a car, quitting a job you really like, and moving away from home. We spent some time with family in Orlando and Denver, but I think we spent most of the time sorting out a million pre-trip details. Everything from buying health insurance, sorting out debit and credit cards, and buying last minute clothes and supplies. Leaving Denver International Airport

Day 10 (July 8, 2018) - Antigua, Guatemala Yesterday we hiked up Volcano Pacaya. Although this volcano is only about 15 miles away from us in Antigua, little did we know that there was an eruption there 3 days ago. Apparently this eruption was not significant in any way, but it did create some new lava flows (not really dangerous, unless you fall in I guess). We booked a tour and were told there would be 10 people total. They ended up combining us with another group and we had at least 20 people with us. No problemo, but it did make the hiking a bit slow going. Mark in front of Volcano Pacaya.

Day 9 (July 7, 2018) - Antigua, Guatemala It's been a whole week since we posted. Why? We've been busy taking Spanish lessons in the mornings, followed by self-study in the afternoons. It's actually quite the draining activity. We're attending the Don Pedro Spanish School, and each day this week (Mon to Fri) we had four hours of intense study with a Spanish tutor (one-on-one). I can't speak for Mark, but it is very slow going for me. Although Mark took Spanish in high school (and he's picking things up faster), I took German. I think my (slim) knowledge of the German language and their odd sentence structure is screwing up my ability to make proper sentences in Spanish. Then there's the whole memorizing all new words and verb conjugations. But, I'm having fun and learning new things, so I can't complain. Here's the most useful thing I've learned this week: "Yo tango que ir el baño," which means "I have to go to the bathroom...

Day 2 (June 30, 2018) - Antigua, Guatemala Today we spent most of the day just walking around town. We started our morning off by taking a short hike up Cerro de la Cruz (literally "hill of the cross"). The hill overlooks Antigua and there's a nice path that winds through forest on the way up. Apparently the hike used to be somewhat dangerous, as many tourists were robbed in the forest walk. However, there is now a police presence that deters any would-be robbers. There were many tourists on the walk and we felt safe the whole time. View from Cerro de la Cruz. Volano Agua is on the left and Volcano Fuego is on the right