May 30-June 2 - Ometepe Island, Nicaragua

Volcan Maderas

Ometepe Island is situated in the middle of Lake Nicaragua in the southern part of the country. It was created by two volcanos, Volcan Concepcion which is still active, and Volcan Maderas. Local folklore says that the island was created by a Romeo and Juliet type story of two lovers from different tribes that were forbidden to be together, so they committed suicide and the women fell back into the lake and her breasts became the two volcanoes. Now everytime I look at a map or pictures of the two volcanoes I see a pair of tits...

Volcan Concepcion

We crossed the Nicaraguan border around noon, caught a cab to the ferry and took a it across the lake to the Island. The ferry ride was about 45 minutes long, it was a beautiful clear day, we had an awesome view of Volcan Concepcion and we were the only people on the top deck. It was such a beautiful boat ride and we were all just taking as many pictures as possible.

Once on the island we found a little hotel that Misha had read about online. We rented a room for the three of us, ditched our bags and went out for some food. It wasn't as cheap as we had heard Nicaragua was suppose to be, but we had figured it wouldn't be because it was an island. We also discovered that the power goes out about twice per day there.

Natural Springs

The next day we hired a driver to take us on a tour around the island. We stopped first at a store for some beers to take with us, which we got some funny looks for. Then we stopped at a nature reserve and did a small hike around to see the different animals and plants. We were able to see a pack of howler monkeys, lots of different birds and a ton of tap poles in the nearby lake. After the hike we went to some natural cold water springs and swam for about an hour.  Then we headed to a nearby beach where we had lunch. On the beach we saw the most malnurished dog I have ever seen in my life. You could see the contours of his pelvis and all of his vertebrae. It was really hard for me to see that and makes me want to come down here if I get through school and help animals here. So I gave him most of my lunch and we headed back to town.

Beach by the restaurant

The next day we rented some bikes to tour around the island with. There was very little traffic on the roads so it was excellent for biking. We hit up a nearby beach and an archaeological museum. While I was in school I had considered doing a field school here on Ometepe Island. I had seen many pictures of the stuff they had dug up in the previous years, and it was the same stuff in the museum. I don't know if it was all of the same artifacts from that field school, but it is always interesting to see the things that you've learned about in school in real life.

Unfortunately Kat became really sick at the museum so we caught a taxi ride back to town with our bikes and headed back to the hotel. She felt better in the evening so we went out for dinner to an awesome argentinian restaurant, had some beers and we back to the hotel to sleep. 

The next morning we caught a 9am ferry and bus back to Costa Rica. Ometepe was gorgeous, it had beautiful water to swim in, it was safe, the locals we friendly and the owners of the hotel were really great. We all had an awesome time (apart from Kat getting sick) and it was worth the almost full day trip to get there.  

May 29-30 - San Jose, Costa Rica

In the morning Mack, Kat, Misha and myself caught the bus to San Jose. The bus ride to San Jose was a long miserable one because we were all pretty hungover. Around 5pm we arrived in San Jose and made plans to meet up with Mack again later for dinner since he was living in a nearby city. We found a nearby hostel that Kat had recommended, showered and went out for dinner.
We met up with Mack downtown and he showed us a nice little cafe/restaurant that he liked. We had an awesome meal and got a little tour of downtown San Jose from the walk. After dinner we had to say goodbye to Mack since we were leaving the next morning to Nicaragua and he had to stay in San Jose to work.
We got back to the hostel late that night after getting soaked by the rain and went to bed. We woke up at 4 the next morning to catch an early bus to the boarder. There were a few delays but we ended up getting on the 6:30 bus to the boarder.

Kat, Misha and Mack in San Jose

May 27-29 - La Fortuna, Costa Rica

Pool at Arenal Backpackers Resort

After taking a shuttle, then a boat across a lake, then another shuttle into town, I finally arrived at my hostel in La Fortuna in the pooring rain. I had found the hostel online and it had a really nice pool so I decided to try it out. It also was suppose to have a great view of Arenal Volcano, which unfortunately has been dormant for the last 2 years. After checking in and getting to my room, I met the others in the room. A bunch of people were going out for food and drinks and kindly invited me to join them. Out of the group of 8, 6 of us were from Canada. This is where I met Mack from Calgary, Kat from Winnipeg and Misha from Vancouver whom I ended spending the next week with.

Arenal Volcano

The next day we headed out for breakfast and planned what we were doing that day. Kat and Misha had signed up for a hike and hotsprings tour that afternoon and it sounded fun so I signed up as well. We hung out in the pool until about 3 when we got picked up for the tour. The first part of the tour was about an hour long guided walk through the rainforest. Our tour guide was really funny, but it was pouring rain and we didn't see many animals. It was still really interesting though.
After the hike we went to a fancy hot springs resort. It had about 25 different pools, all different temperatures. There were also some water slides that were dangerously fast and tons of fun. After seeing a few of the pools and slides, we went to the buffet to get some dinner which was included in the tour. There we met up with Mack. We all had about 5 servings of food because it was so good. And free.

Hot Springs

After dinner we hit up a few more of the pools at the top of the hill. They were all a little different, some with waterfalls, some with swim up bars and some with lounge chairs built into the pools. We hung out for a few more hours and then had to catch the shuttle back to the hostel. We spent the rest of the night hanging out, drinking and meeting some of the other guests from the hostel. We also started discussing heading to Ometepe Island in Nicaragua the next morning because Misha heard it was really awesome and wanted to see it.
The next morning we decided to make our way to Nicaragua, so we all packed our stuff and caught the bus to San Jose. La Fortuna was really pretty and the hot springs were really fun, but it was very developed, touristy and expensive. And the volcano which is one of the highlights is no longer active. I still had fun though and met some really cool people so that made it worth the journey over.

May 26-27 - Monteverde, Costa Rica

view from the hostel

Saturday morning I took a shuttle to Monteverde. It was a really pretty drive but by the end the road became really rough. I was dropped off at my hostel around 2 pm and met the two other people staying in my room. They told me about the zip line that they had done that day, and I decided to book it for the next morning. The rest of the day was spent doing laundry and answering emails.
The next morning I got up early to go do the zipline. The group we were with ended up being really big but they sort of split the group up so it wasn't so bad. There were about 10 or 12 different zipllines. The first couple were kinda just warmup runs and weren't scary or fast at all. The 4th one was over a huge valley and had a pretty amazing view. There was also a tarzan swing before the last three big ziplines which was really scary. The last zipline was 2800 meters long and they hooked us up superman style so we got an awesome view of the jungle/land below.
I returned back to my hostel around noon, had lunch and caught a shuttle off to La Fortuna.