So we get up at 430 in the morning to do the thresher shark dive...ughhh, so getting up before sunrise is not my thing, you know you meet these people that get up early to take sunrise pictures, yeah that's not me...but to see thresher sharks I make an exception ( we're actually going to do it for the 4th time tommorrow) still 430 is early, except for Erica, who seems to get up at that time, all the time, WEIRD!! We hop on the boat and get to the dive site just after daybreak, and of course I'm taking sunrise pictures, cause what the hell, who would believe it. In the water and down to about 90ft and bingo just like you ordered it up...thresher sharks. Very cool and well it wakes you up pretty quick. This is me underwater; mutter, mutter, somewhat grumpy mutter, I'm telling you there better be sharks on this dive OR ELSE!! not that I know what else. Then boom 2 sharks about 8 or 10 ft long , just swimming around, they hang out for a couple minutes then leave. Then more swimming and we see a couple more, some get pretty close, maybe 10-15ft away. they seem curious, if screaming about how cool this is wouldn't scare them away, I would be screaming how cool this is!!and by the way you can hear screaming underwater, Carrie yelled at me the other day just as a thresher shark was swimming over my head that I hadn't noticed, and I heard her and saw the shark...probably the only time I liked being yelled at. We've done the shark dive 3 more times and saw sharks everytime, ok so here's the deal... they feed at night, deep, like 300 or 400ft deep and then come up shallow in the morning to get cleaned, so we are seeing them at cleaning stations that they use all the time at this shoal, and they are there every day, amazing.
We did a nitrox course here, which means we are breathing gas that has more o2 and less nitrogen, which means we can stay down longer and be exposed to less nitrogen ( bad thing!!) So we have been doing some nitrox dives and some regular compressed air dives. Hmmm. this is kind of even boring me. We are starting to slow down and get tired, we've been diving 2 or3 times every day since we've been here except !! for the 2 days it poured rain here and we're not talking thunder showers , we're talking rain straight for 2 days. And what do you do in tropical paradise when it rains for 2 days, well we read alot and start drinking at the restaurant around 2 and not alot else, we did a couple of dives but being on a boat in the rain is less than fun and really quite cold , which is something we were trying to avoid by coming to a tropical paradise. Anyways we are just going to do the 2 early dives tommorrow, our last day of diving here, so I will get on again and blog about other stuff, or if your lucky maybe my wonderful wife will give you some of her insights into travel and diving here in malapasqua.
love and warm thoughts from malapasqua
carrie, erica and glen
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Monday, March 26, 2012
malapascua
OK let's see, it's around 8 pm on monday and we're going to do the thresher shark dive tommorrow morning at 530am..this is going to be great!!!! then it's off for a 2 dive day trip ahh I cannot wait. We saw a seamoth today, very cool, sort of looks like a seahorse with too many after market parts, can't really swim properly, just sort of bumps along the bottom.
Travel has been somewhat difficult here, the distances are far and there are not a lot of airports and things have been late. The slow boat from el nido (8 hours ) was 3 hrs late, so again we were looking for a place to stay in coron after dark. OK so the diving in coron was pretty good, lots of wrecks, not sure we're big wreck fans...dive deep for a short amount of time and then come up, looking at pretty much nothing, But we did dive barracuda lake, so... 30ft of fresh water at about 85F, then 30 ft of brackish water at about 105F, and the rest sea water at 82F. Sort of like the grand canyon underwater with shrimp and catfish and really hot water, very beautiful.
We stayed in coron for 4 days and decided to jet to malapascua to see the sharks. So you take a van from town and travel for about 45 minutes to the airport, which is just on the other side of the broken cattle crossing. We had this 5 hr lay over in manila before our flight to cebu ( yes there again ) but it turns out our flight was 4 hrs late , so there was some rushing involved. Overnight in cebu after getting some more money ( they only took cash jn coron) snacks and yes ..vodka. The next morning we got a van for a 3 hr ride to maya, a 1/2 hr boat to malapascua and we're here!!! That's all for travel , we're here till we fly to japan...so a week.
Again for you non divers, this is just blah, blah , blah. The diving hasn't been great, there's alot of divers here, enough that we have come up with a underwater sign for cluster fuck. The visibility has been average, but we have been seeing really cool stuff...we have been seeing pipefish so regularly that it's almost boring, but it's not. We saw a burrowing sea cucumber, well lots of them, a long lure frogfish, ornate ghost pipefish, ornate filefish, seriously stuff from the dive magazines you just never see.
Ok it's 9pm now and I need to go to bed, and well I'm at the bar outside our hotel and it's starting to rain, so way I go. Now that we have a somewhat regular schedule we will blog more.
Love and warm thoughts from Malapasqua
Carrie, Erica and Glen
Travel has been somewhat difficult here, the distances are far and there are not a lot of airports and things have been late. The slow boat from el nido (8 hours ) was 3 hrs late, so again we were looking for a place to stay in coron after dark. OK so the diving in coron was pretty good, lots of wrecks, not sure we're big wreck fans...dive deep for a short amount of time and then come up, looking at pretty much nothing, But we did dive barracuda lake, so... 30ft of fresh water at about 85F, then 30 ft of brackish water at about 105F, and the rest sea water at 82F. Sort of like the grand canyon underwater with shrimp and catfish and really hot water, very beautiful.
We stayed in coron for 4 days and decided to jet to malapascua to see the sharks. So you take a van from town and travel for about 45 minutes to the airport, which is just on the other side of the broken cattle crossing. We had this 5 hr lay over in manila before our flight to cebu ( yes there again ) but it turns out our flight was 4 hrs late , so there was some rushing involved. Overnight in cebu after getting some more money ( they only took cash jn coron) snacks and yes ..vodka. The next morning we got a van for a 3 hr ride to maya, a 1/2 hr boat to malapascua and we're here!!! That's all for travel , we're here till we fly to japan...so a week.
Again for you non divers, this is just blah, blah , blah. The diving hasn't been great, there's alot of divers here, enough that we have come up with a underwater sign for cluster fuck. The visibility has been average, but we have been seeing really cool stuff...we have been seeing pipefish so regularly that it's almost boring, but it's not. We saw a burrowing sea cucumber, well lots of them, a long lure frogfish, ornate ghost pipefish, ornate filefish, seriously stuff from the dive magazines you just never see.
Ok it's 9pm now and I need to go to bed, and well I'm at the bar outside our hotel and it's starting to rain, so way I go. Now that we have a somewhat regular schedule we will blog more.
Love and warm thoughts from Malapasqua
Carrie, Erica and Glen
Friday, March 23, 2012
Cock Fighting
Cock Fighting is big in the Philippines.
You wouldn't think this would have any impact on our travels, as going to a cock-fight is not on our list of things to do. You would be wrong.
It turns out the people over the fence from our current lodgings raise roosters for cock fighting. There are a number of roosters, each with their own little hut on the property. All of them trying to out-crow eachother beginning at about 4:00 am!
You wouldn't think this would have any impact on our travels, as going to a cock-fight is not on our list of things to do. You would be wrong.
It turns out the people over the fence from our current lodgings raise roosters for cock fighting. There are a number of roosters, each with their own little hut on the property. All of them trying to out-crow eachother beginning at about 4:00 am!
Monday, March 19, 2012
Cebu & El Nido
Glen has already posted a bit about our trip so far, so I'll try not to repeat.
We are currently at the port, waiting to board 'The Jessebel' for and eight hour boat ride up the coast to Coron. A short while ago, they announced a delay of boarding time until 9:00, which amounts to a two hour delay, and means we will be searching for a room in the dark again tonight. Bummer. (Not to mention, a nagging worry about what might be mechanically wrong with the Jessebel to cause the delay in the first place.) There are a few boats that ply the waterways between El Nido and Coron, but the Jessebel is the only one that runs on Tuesday. Also, we picked it because it looks like it has a more protected indoor area, so hopefully we will arrive in Coron with dry backpacks. We saw a picture of the Jessebel on a poster, and she looked like a lovely boat. We saw her on the shoreline last night, and she looks much less sea-worthy than in the poster. Guess the poster has been around a while! Guess I'll check to see if there are life jackets when we get onboard!
Back to the beginning:
We spent one day and two nights in Cebu City. (I hate cities in developing countrie.) It was pretty nice as far as cities go, and was amazingly clean and felt safe. However, really NOTHING to do there but go to the mall, Which we did. (Not to shop, but just to pass time.) We ended up eating lunch at a Philippino fast food place. Erica had some delicious Pork on a Stick. Glen and I choose 'sizzling pork', which turned out to be suspicious bits of pork, mostly innard type stuff, which came on a sizzling hot plate. (think fajita's.) I picked out as much as I could handle. Glen ate less. A little while later we were walking through the food court at the mall and saw this fabulous stall that was selling succulent looking pork, right off the whole roasted pig. (I sure wish we had seen that first!) When we went to the airport, there was a 'drive-through' stand selling roast pork as well. I am hoping we run into this again, as I would LOVE to have some!
El Nido,
After our trying arrival, and ridiculously expensive room the first night, we got up in the morning and looked for a cheaper room. Found one right away, and moved our stuff. Erica and I enjoyed a short cool-down in the swimming pool before checking out, so that we could get our money's worth out of that pricey room.
With no plans for the day, we checked out the village. (Wonderful) Booked dives and a boat tour of the Bacuit Archipelago. (In our book of 1000 places to see before you die.) With most of the day still before us, we all went to get a massage. About $12.00 US for a one-hour massage. Since many places were closed in the afternoon heat, we stirred a woman in a small hut from her nap, she sent a little girl to get two more women, and we all enjoyed a massage at the same time. All three of us were in a tiny little room, about 8 x 12 feet in size. But it was a fabulous massage and we all felt great.
On Sunday, we went diving. Saw some cool stuff and had a great time.
Yesterday, we took our boat trip "Tour c" in the Bacuit Archipelago. Despite a few problems with getting the boat started after our stops. It was a great day of snorkeling, swimming, awesome scenery, and a delicious lunch of fresh fish, grilled on the beach, with yummy local papayas and banana's along side. We all managed to keep from getting sunburned, despite a long day in the sun and on the water.
Well, that is about it for now. Despite my doubts about the "Jessebel", I am looking forward to our boat trip up the coast of Palawan to Coron. Will try to blog again soon, so you will all know we made it safely!
We are currently at the port, waiting to board 'The Jessebel' for and eight hour boat ride up the coast to Coron. A short while ago, they announced a delay of boarding time until 9:00, which amounts to a two hour delay, and means we will be searching for a room in the dark again tonight. Bummer. (Not to mention, a nagging worry about what might be mechanically wrong with the Jessebel to cause the delay in the first place.) There are a few boats that ply the waterways between El Nido and Coron, but the Jessebel is the only one that runs on Tuesday. Also, we picked it because it looks like it has a more protected indoor area, so hopefully we will arrive in Coron with dry backpacks. We saw a picture of the Jessebel on a poster, and she looked like a lovely boat. We saw her on the shoreline last night, and she looks much less sea-worthy than in the poster. Guess the poster has been around a while! Guess I'll check to see if there are life jackets when we get onboard!
Back to the beginning:
We spent one day and two nights in Cebu City. (I hate cities in developing countrie.) It was pretty nice as far as cities go, and was amazingly clean and felt safe. However, really NOTHING to do there but go to the mall, Which we did. (Not to shop, but just to pass time.) We ended up eating lunch at a Philippino fast food place. Erica had some delicious Pork on a Stick. Glen and I choose 'sizzling pork', which turned out to be suspicious bits of pork, mostly innard type stuff, which came on a sizzling hot plate. (think fajita's.) I picked out as much as I could handle. Glen ate less. A little while later we were walking through the food court at the mall and saw this fabulous stall that was selling succulent looking pork, right off the whole roasted pig. (I sure wish we had seen that first!) When we went to the airport, there was a 'drive-through' stand selling roast pork as well. I am hoping we run into this again, as I would LOVE to have some!
El Nido,
After our trying arrival, and ridiculously expensive room the first night, we got up in the morning and looked for a cheaper room. Found one right away, and moved our stuff. Erica and I enjoyed a short cool-down in the swimming pool before checking out, so that we could get our money's worth out of that pricey room.
With no plans for the day, we checked out the village. (Wonderful) Booked dives and a boat tour of the Bacuit Archipelago. (In our book of 1000 places to see before you die.) With most of the day still before us, we all went to get a massage. About $12.00 US for a one-hour massage. Since many places were closed in the afternoon heat, we stirred a woman in a small hut from her nap, she sent a little girl to get two more women, and we all enjoyed a massage at the same time. All three of us were in a tiny little room, about 8 x 12 feet in size. But it was a fabulous massage and we all felt great.
On Sunday, we went diving. Saw some cool stuff and had a great time.
Yesterday, we took our boat trip "Tour c" in the Bacuit Archipelago. Despite a few problems with getting the boat started after our stops. It was a great day of snorkeling, swimming, awesome scenery, and a delicious lunch of fresh fish, grilled on the beach, with yummy local papayas and banana's along side. We all managed to keep from getting sunburned, despite a long day in the sun and on the water.
Well, that is about it for now. Despite my doubts about the "Jessebel", I am looking forward to our boat trip up the coast of Palawan to Coron. Will try to blog again soon, so you will all know we made it safely!
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Saying Hi to Phil
I know this just means I'm the most clever dude ever... Ok whatever....so where should I start? Well I'm going to start in the middle some where, because that's what Glen does. So we're on a flight from Cebu to puerto princessa on palawan and the flight attendant says " please may have your attention , it is fun game time on Cebu airlines flight 709 " this is the funniest thing I have heard in years. If you show them your passport and boarding pass first you win a Cebu Pacific fridge magnet or....! If you show your drivers license first you win..... Cebu Pacific designer sunglasses, this is the coolest airline EVER !!!!!!! Ok I had to get that out and ... we're back to the beginning....
Hi everyone, welcome back to our blog, thank you for taking time out of your busy day to read about us and our travels through the world and the world through our eyes...which to be honest is...just our interpretation of the things we experience, good or bad AND hopefully funny.
So let 's start with getting here.....uhhh yeah, let's just say it's long and mind numbing. We flew into Cebu around midnight... did the whole phillipine immigration thing. How long are you here? the rest of my life. Are you bringing any drugs into the phillipines? Yes hundreds of pounds of really bad drugs. Allright , enjoy your stay in the Phillipines.Erica met up with us... we're actually in the seoul, south korea airport and we know Erica is there somewhere...so we're wondering around, and I say , "why don't we just walk around and look for a blonde girl ? , I mean how many can there be?" I don't know, is that bad? Is it racial profiling....whatever, we saw A blonde girl waving and ...well it was Erica.
Ok just some bullet points here...It's ridiculously clean here, streets, floors , people everything. People are wonderful, friendly and helpful and speak english. So we spent a couple of days in Cebu to recover from our flights and then hopped another flight to palawan, where it turned out the tour we planned on going to, the underground river, was booked for the next 6 days...so we hopped on a mini van for El nido. 6 hours and no ass later, ok granted I didnt have a lot of ass to start with, but still. IT"S MY ASS!!!
Hmmm. trying to find accommodations in the dark in a town you've never been to is... STUPID!!!!So after hiking around for over an hour ( yes I used the hiking word ) pause for effect...So.. there is only one hotel here that charges over 100 dollars a night, and well.. after an hour Glen had had enough.
So that's where we are now, we found a place for less than half the price and sort of settled into El Nido. It's beautiful here, right on the ocean, the town is small , but vibrant and exciting and with enough of a rural feel to it , to make it feel out of the way.
OK I know this is what you have been waiting for, all you non diver types, close your eyes. We dove today... and saw , a turtle, an octopus, squid, a crocodilefish ( yeah baby google that!!) scorpionfish, blue ribbon eel and ... TA DAAAHH..A PIPEFISH !! Ok maybe not a big to you but, very cool to us Allright getting tired and well... less funny.
Love and warm thoughts from El nido
carrie, erica and glen
Hi everyone, welcome back to our blog, thank you for taking time out of your busy day to read about us and our travels through the world and the world through our eyes...which to be honest is...just our interpretation of the things we experience, good or bad AND hopefully funny.
So let 's start with getting here.....uhhh yeah, let's just say it's long and mind numbing. We flew into Cebu around midnight... did the whole phillipine immigration thing. How long are you here? the rest of my life. Are you bringing any drugs into the phillipines? Yes hundreds of pounds of really bad drugs. Allright , enjoy your stay in the Phillipines.Erica met up with us... we're actually in the seoul, south korea airport and we know Erica is there somewhere...so we're wondering around, and I say , "why don't we just walk around and look for a blonde girl ? , I mean how many can there be?" I don't know, is that bad? Is it racial profiling....whatever, we saw A blonde girl waving and ...well it was Erica.
Ok just some bullet points here...It's ridiculously clean here, streets, floors , people everything. People are wonderful, friendly and helpful and speak english. So we spent a couple of days in Cebu to recover from our flights and then hopped another flight to palawan, where it turned out the tour we planned on going to, the underground river, was booked for the next 6 days...so we hopped on a mini van for El nido. 6 hours and no ass later, ok granted I didnt have a lot of ass to start with, but still. IT"S MY ASS!!!
Hmmm. trying to find accommodations in the dark in a town you've never been to is... STUPID!!!!So after hiking around for over an hour ( yes I used the hiking word ) pause for effect...So.. there is only one hotel here that charges over 100 dollars a night, and well.. after an hour Glen had had enough.
So that's where we are now, we found a place for less than half the price and sort of settled into El Nido. It's beautiful here, right on the ocean, the town is small , but vibrant and exciting and with enough of a rural feel to it , to make it feel out of the way.
OK I know this is what you have been waiting for, all you non diver types, close your eyes. We dove today... and saw , a turtle, an octopus, squid, a crocodilefish ( yeah baby google that!!) scorpionfish, blue ribbon eel and ... TA DAAAHH..A PIPEFISH !! Ok maybe not a big to you but, very cool to us Allright getting tired and well... less funny.
Love and warm thoughts from El nido
carrie, erica and glen
Monday, April 4, 2011
Stories from the Road
OK , so I'm back a few days later... Going to try and condense a few things, maybe. We've been diving and eating and drinking every day and well.. it takes it's toll on you and you have to nap, so not alot of blog writing has been getting done. So here we go.....
So on the bus to Managua, actually at the border, this small, older asian woman comes up to me and asks me if I speak japanese, in japanese of course. After my brain explosion, cause really how do you survive in a spanish speaking country on only japanese? and cause shifting my brain over to japanese really hurts. Anyways somehow I understood she wanted to know how much the exit tax was and was I paying it too. Huh pretty good for me I thought...and then tried to stay as far away from her as possible, so I wouldn't have to speak any more Japanese.
Surfing lessons on my birthday, sounded pretty good, knew I would probably suck , but hey if you wipe out it's only water right...unless of course your lucky like David and land on a stingray, cleared that up right away ...no stingrays where were going, thought they were lying to me, but went with it anyways. Ok so drive down the worst dirt road in nicaragua, and that's saying alot right there, for an hour, ahh did I mention an hour, finally get to the beach.. it's beautiful. Nice little house with a great little outdoor veranda to relax on with a great view of what looks like GIGANTIC WAVES for us to surf...check with the boy...dude those waves look big...confirmed, not imagining big waves , they are BIG waves. I'm OK , It would be bad for business to kill the nice tourist man, right!? Then again the beach is deserted and we're an hour by bad road away from anything...OK never mind that , what could go wrong? Turns out the 2 guys giving you surf lessons are from Nova Scotia , that could be bad , I'm not really sure, I think they have waves on the east coast, not really sure since I've never been there. Everythings fine, sort of stereotypical, 3 surfer dudes working as little as possible in order be able to surf everyday, by taking tourists out to your favorite surf spot and spending a couple of hours making sure they don't drown or generally kill themselves, then have some lunch , a bunch of beer and then off to surf the rest the afternoon while your charges are free to drown, or generally kill themselves without supervision. All joking aside, I was going to say that a few sentences ago but I just couldn't help myself, they were good guys, the beach was beautiful, we only surfed on the wash after the waves broke, they didn't even try to teach how to surf the GIGANTIC WAVES before they broke AND we all got up on our boards, for varying stretches of time AND we had beer. All in all a good birthday...Have I said this yet??? OH MY GOD LEON IS STINKING HOT. How many more days are we staying here?
Hmm..not very condensed so far. OK what comes to mind when I say VOLCANO BOARDING, nothing right, cause it sounds absolutely stupid , what about if I say BOARDING DOWN AN ACTIVE VOLCANO, THAT JUST ERUPTED 3 YEARS AGO AND STILL HAS TREMORS EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE...even less right, then what about if I say YOU ALSO PAY FOR IT AND YOU HAVE TO HIKE UP IT FIRST. Now you probably say wow great marketing. I have to say this was pretty darn fun, being an active volcano was pretty cool, smoke coming out of the vents was kinda surreal , but going down was just a blast. Looking down, it looks pretty steep and of course your dressed like the stupid tourist that you are, the speed record is just over 50 mph, not sure I got anywhere near that, all though I have to imagine that at 50 mph the piece of plywood that your sliding on is getting ready to burst into flames. Oh and just in case you didn't break anything the first time they LET you hike up and slide down a 2nd time , which of course we did , cause we're suckers for good marketing.
Off to Little Corn Island with thousands of pounds of luggage and oh by the way, on the flight to Big Corn, you can only check 30lbs of luggage and have 1 carry on, how do you say screwed in spanish, so after paying for the overweight , which worked out to a little over a one way ticket we're off to Big Corn, where that night is opening night for the Caribbean World Series. So the plan is to meet Davids friends from the dive shop at the game, watch the game and then take the ferry back in the dark to Little corn, after dumping off our luggage at the ferry, which we hope will get taken somewhere we can find it again when we get back. Off to the game between the Caribbean Allstars and Managua, Managua is getting no love. It seems like the whole island is there, the crowd is loud and raucous, cheering for the allstars, we get some fried chicken from the street vendors outside the stadium, ohh my god best baseball food EVER!!! The allstars go up by 3 runs in the 1st inning and never really let it get close. Its a pretty fun atmosphere, everyone seems really into the game, quite different from a mariners game. Then the game ends and we're off to the ferry for the ride back to little corn , I really wish I could write something funny here but nothing really happened, the water was basically smooth as glass all the way there and it only took about 30 minutes, oh and our luggage was at the hotel waiting for us.
OK I'm going to sign off for now, By the way I have been getting eaten alive since we got to central america by every bug imaginable, I have been and still am covered in bites...just wanted to say that. If I get some time tommorrow I will continue with our adventures here. Love to all and the best to you all.
So on the bus to Managua, actually at the border, this small, older asian woman comes up to me and asks me if I speak japanese, in japanese of course. After my brain explosion, cause really how do you survive in a spanish speaking country on only japanese? and cause shifting my brain over to japanese really hurts. Anyways somehow I understood she wanted to know how much the exit tax was and was I paying it too. Huh pretty good for me I thought...and then tried to stay as far away from her as possible, so I wouldn't have to speak any more Japanese.
Surfing lessons on my birthday, sounded pretty good, knew I would probably suck , but hey if you wipe out it's only water right...unless of course your lucky like David and land on a stingray, cleared that up right away ...no stingrays where were going, thought they were lying to me, but went with it anyways. Ok so drive down the worst dirt road in nicaragua, and that's saying alot right there, for an hour, ahh did I mention an hour, finally get to the beach.. it's beautiful. Nice little house with a great little outdoor veranda to relax on with a great view of what looks like GIGANTIC WAVES for us to surf...check with the boy...dude those waves look big...confirmed, not imagining big waves , they are BIG waves. I'm OK , It would be bad for business to kill the nice tourist man, right!? Then again the beach is deserted and we're an hour by bad road away from anything...OK never mind that , what could go wrong? Turns out the 2 guys giving you surf lessons are from Nova Scotia , that could be bad , I'm not really sure, I think they have waves on the east coast, not really sure since I've never been there. Everythings fine, sort of stereotypical, 3 surfer dudes working as little as possible in order be able to surf everyday, by taking tourists out to your favorite surf spot and spending a couple of hours making sure they don't drown or generally kill themselves, then have some lunch , a bunch of beer and then off to surf the rest the afternoon while your charges are free to drown, or generally kill themselves without supervision. All joking aside, I was going to say that a few sentences ago but I just couldn't help myself, they were good guys, the beach was beautiful, we only surfed on the wash after the waves broke, they didn't even try to teach how to surf the GIGANTIC WAVES before they broke AND we all got up on our boards, for varying stretches of time AND we had beer. All in all a good birthday...Have I said this yet??? OH MY GOD LEON IS STINKING HOT. How many more days are we staying here?
Hmm..not very condensed so far. OK what comes to mind when I say VOLCANO BOARDING, nothing right, cause it sounds absolutely stupid , what about if I say BOARDING DOWN AN ACTIVE VOLCANO, THAT JUST ERUPTED 3 YEARS AGO AND STILL HAS TREMORS EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE...even less right, then what about if I say YOU ALSO PAY FOR IT AND YOU HAVE TO HIKE UP IT FIRST. Now you probably say wow great marketing. I have to say this was pretty darn fun, being an active volcano was pretty cool, smoke coming out of the vents was kinda surreal , but going down was just a blast. Looking down, it looks pretty steep and of course your dressed like the stupid tourist that you are, the speed record is just over 50 mph, not sure I got anywhere near that, all though I have to imagine that at 50 mph the piece of plywood that your sliding on is getting ready to burst into flames. Oh and just in case you didn't break anything the first time they LET you hike up and slide down a 2nd time , which of course we did , cause we're suckers for good marketing.
Off to Little Corn Island with thousands of pounds of luggage and oh by the way, on the flight to Big Corn, you can only check 30lbs of luggage and have 1 carry on, how do you say screwed in spanish, so after paying for the overweight , which worked out to a little over a one way ticket we're off to Big Corn, where that night is opening night for the Caribbean World Series. So the plan is to meet Davids friends from the dive shop at the game, watch the game and then take the ferry back in the dark to Little corn, after dumping off our luggage at the ferry, which we hope will get taken somewhere we can find it again when we get back. Off to the game between the Caribbean Allstars and Managua, Managua is getting no love. It seems like the whole island is there, the crowd is loud and raucous, cheering for the allstars, we get some fried chicken from the street vendors outside the stadium, ohh my god best baseball food EVER!!! The allstars go up by 3 runs in the 1st inning and never really let it get close. Its a pretty fun atmosphere, everyone seems really into the game, quite different from a mariners game. Then the game ends and we're off to the ferry for the ride back to little corn , I really wish I could write something funny here but nothing really happened, the water was basically smooth as glass all the way there and it only took about 30 minutes, oh and our luggage was at the hotel waiting for us.
OK I'm going to sign off for now, By the way I have been getting eaten alive since we got to central america by every bug imaginable, I have been and still am covered in bites...just wanted to say that. If I get some time tommorrow I will continue with our adventures here. Love to all and the best to you all.
Saturday, April 2, 2011
older man
Ahh... so we're in Leon now, sitting in the hostel, drinking cuba libres ( cause they don't have vodka here...why exactly are we staying here?) listening to led zepplin's battle of evermore, on the planet's slowest internet connection, still getting my USA Today delivered to my kindle everyday however, so it works, Carrie's here next to me, reading I think her 5th book on her kindle and David is in the hammock behind me...asleep. I have no idea how he sleeps through all the noise.
So the bus trip from hell to get here wasn't quite that , turns out the bus stops in Leon before it gets to Managua, so saved that back and forth and about 4 hrs....probably could have saved some money too if we knew what we were doing. Piled into a cab with all our luggage , I'm not kidding here, we now have 4 large backpacks , 2 med sized ones and 3 small carry on type day bags...thank you PADI. Ok so this doesn't usually work, The 1st hostel was pretty cheap, had a private bathroom and well looked genarally nice (again just to clarify...they don't have any vodka here!!!) and had a room for the 3 of us. Not really sure how David feels about sleeping with us, but it's cheap.
That night we walked around a bit and pretty much just crashed. We explored the city the next day, I love grid cities by the way, why would you plan a city any other way? cough cough Rick? Leon is much bigger than Granada and there is definitely more to do here, but I think I enjoy Granda's small town feel and quiantness more, both cities are quite similiar though and STINKIN HOT you have to take a shower after you take a shower..it's a wet heat blah blah blah said in a scott pontin voice.
TO BE CONTINUED.......
So the bus trip from hell to get here wasn't quite that , turns out the bus stops in Leon before it gets to Managua, so saved that back and forth and about 4 hrs....probably could have saved some money too if we knew what we were doing. Piled into a cab with all our luggage , I'm not kidding here, we now have 4 large backpacks , 2 med sized ones and 3 small carry on type day bags...thank you PADI. Ok so this doesn't usually work, The 1st hostel was pretty cheap, had a private bathroom and well looked genarally nice (again just to clarify...they don't have any vodka here!!!) and had a room for the 3 of us. Not really sure how David feels about sleeping with us, but it's cheap.
That night we walked around a bit and pretty much just crashed. We explored the city the next day, I love grid cities by the way, why would you plan a city any other way? cough cough Rick? Leon is much bigger than Granada and there is definitely more to do here, but I think I enjoy Granda's small town feel and quiantness more, both cities are quite similiar though and STINKIN HOT you have to take a shower after you take a shower..it's a wet heat blah blah blah said in a scott pontin voice.
TO BE CONTINUED.......
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