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Through a landscape of volcanos
I left Bocas del Toro and Panama early morning after a last great night out.
Crossing the border to Costa Rica went smoothly and before I knew it, I had arrived in Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica, checked in at Hostel Sal y Sucre and placed myself in a hammock for a nap. I was woken up by Line walking in, I was hugging her and not understanding it had been 6 months since last hug in Copenhagen airport, and we talked as we had just seen each other yesterday.
Line had been learning Spanish for two weeks in Puerto Viejo and now it was time for taking me around the area. We visited the different beaches, went snorkelling just of the coast, kayaking on the river looking at monkeys, birds, turtles and of course the famous sloths of Costa Rica. Those lazy animals is really a big attraction and yes, they are quite cool to watch with there slow motion movements or "Matrix" style.
We visited a chocolate farm with a small factory making very delicious and pure chocolate. We did a lot of tasting - best part of the tour - blending chocolate, spices, herbs and more, to see how different it can be and how many amazing combinations exists. Very yummy!
We left Puerto Viejo after as much party combined with sightseeing as our bodies would allow. We spend one night in the capital San José, which was enough to catch a cold for Line, before we went to Manuel Antonio on the Pacific coast. Here we spend our time in beautiful surroundings, and when visiting the national park, the guide stopped every 5 meters because he discovered a new animal, reptile or insect. He had a telescope with him and we took great pictures through it with our cellphones - smart thinking!
I went diving, while Line went whale watching and luckily she saw humpback whales and proudly admitted that she cried with the sight of them. It is indeed a beautiful sight.
My two dives were not the best due to very poor visibility and a Dive Master in training, who broke his air source and we all had to go up as an emergency, but no one got hurt. Still an experience!
I found Costa Rica's nature very beautiful, green and nice, but tired of being in an expensive country again after Panama, Line and I went to Nicaragua - enjoying the short distances in Central America compared to South. Right after crossing the border there was cows walking on the road and a chaotic scene at very bus stop with tourists, opposite Costa Rica, but I prefer it like that.
We started our Nica-adventures at Ometepe island, which consists of two volcanos and is located in a big lake.
We stayed at this huge, old, beautiful coffee farm in green surroundings with a lot of flowers, fruit trees and a spectacular view to the biggest volcano.
As I was standing in the coffee farm garden, taking pictures of the farm I realised I had seen this before! Searching through Facebook I found that my ex boyfriend Nikolaj was here, staying at the exact same farm, taking the same picture as me just 6 years earlier. Small world!
Sightseeing at Ometepe was done on scooters and we drove everywhere possible, on a lot of dirt roads and had a lot of fun, only with very few scratches on Lines scooter afterwards.
Next stop: León, which was a more local and authentic town to me, where we arrived in time to see the Saint Someone celebration beside visiting many old churches, local markets and practicing salsa dancing. From León we climbed a semi-active volcano with a great view and several other volcanoes in sight, just to put on gear and board/slide downwards with a lot of speed and black dust everywhere. A different experience that I'm glad I tried.
We went to small Las Peñitas at the coast for two nights before going to charming Granada. Here we got reunited with our friend Jeff who we met in Puerto Viejo. Line took the 3 of us sightseeing in Granada as our guide, where we visited squares, churches, the lake and a museum known for their many, not so pretty figures of paper. Walking around town, I almost lost a flip flop after stepping directly in a lot of new, wet concrete on the road, which gave us all a good laugh.
Not done with volcanoes, we first went at night to visit an active volcano where you could see the lava running, boiling and jumping really close. So cool to see real life for me and yes - looks just like in movies. Next, we went to an old volcano crater which now is a beautiful lake, with pure water for swimming and fishing.
We had a good time at our hostel in Granada with cooking and Jeff taught us how to make patacones ("not sweet banana" pressed flat and deep fried), and another night learning to do Argentinian empanadas from On y Va, who also played their lovely music at night in the hostel.
Last stop in Nicaragua was San Juan del Sur, known for surf and its crazy parties on Sunday's - "Sunday Funday"! We chose just to focus on the surf and Line got her first surf lesson and was surfing in no time. At this surf spot Jeff was so unlucky to step on a stingray, who in defence stung him in the foot. This gives great pain, and the locals helped a lot by heating a stone to put on the foot, give him rum shots and pain killers. Because you're not suppose to cool it, but keep it warm.
He had earlier been talking about getting a snake tattooed on his neck and after this experience he decided to make it a stingray. As I'm writing this blog he already got it!
Since I started my travel 7 months ago I have been traveling north, and at this point I reached the point of turning south. Heading back to countries I had already visited with the great opportunity to see some of things I missed or didn't found time for on first visit. I was already missing Colombia and thinking there was for me to see and experience there, so it wasn't sad at all to head south and still in good company of Line.
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