Every year, thousands upon thousands of green, leatherback, hawksbills and loggerhead turtles nest on the beaches of Tortuguero, Costa Rica. This remote location on the northeast Caribbean coast is now a national park and the largest nesting site for green turtles in the western hemisphere. Obviously, timing is crucial when planning a trip here. Luckily, […]
Whitewater rafting was something we both had never tried, and it was definitely one of our “bucket list” items for this trip. Many places we’ve passed through offer this exhilarating activity, but as first-timers we wanted to go with a respected company that would provide all the usual thrills without the usual lax safety standards […]
After Monteverde, we decided to catch a “jeep-boat-jeep” shuttle to another part of the cloudforest, La Fortuna. It’s really difficult and time-consuming to get there on land alone, so this seemed to be the best option. The bumpy ride provided stunning landscapes and finally we arrived at the boat portion of the trip. No dock, […]
After a slightly disappointing time in Nicaragua, we were ready to move on to our fifth country, Costa Rica. Most of the things we had heard about Costa Rica were fantastic, so we had high expectations for this country. It is said to have amazing cloud forests, incredible animal life, beautiful landscapes and fantastic beaches. […]
Entering Nicaragua, the largest country in Central America, we were excited to see some of its many volcanoes, my new favorite obsession. Nicaragua is home to more than a dozen volcanoes that dot its majestic landscape and the largest freshwater body in Central America, Lake Nicaragua. While we spent just under two weeks in the country, […]
Nicaragua was noticeably poorer than neighboring Central American countries we had visited, and we were prepared for travel conditions to be difficult. From our first stop in Leon, we grew accustomed to the crumbling infrastructure, frequent blackouts, water outages, and work horses pulling carts down city streets. Years of political and economic misfortunes have dealt […]
Our next stop in Nicaragua was to its fourth most populated city – the quaint and colonial city of Granada. After seeing this city in an episode of Househunters International, we had high hopes. When we were dropped off at night at Mochilas Hostel, we were less than thrilled. After the swarm of bugs in […]
We arrived in Leon after three nonstop days of bum-numbing travel from the Utila Cays. The journey involved one very scary speedboat, a ferry, three taxis, three buses, a six hour traffic jam, and two overnight stops (La Ceiba and Tegucigalpa). Understandably, we were happy to arrive in Nicaragua – the land of lakes and […]
Entering Honduras, we had no idea what to expect. Nobody we know had ever traveled or lived there, and the only things we’d really heard about the country were the great diving and the recent political coup in 2009. While we only spent time in Copán and Utila, we found Honduras to be full of […]
During our week on the Caribbean island of Utila, we heard of some smaller satellite cays off the far western end. The Cays promised a slower pace of life than party-hardy Utila, along with uninhabited coconut islands with perfect beaches and the best snorkeling in the region. The largest of these tiny islands, Jewel Cay, […]