Cabo San Lucas- The Edge of the World, and the end of my travels...

July 17th-July 24th, 2006
Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur
Mexico

At the southernmost tip of the Baja Peninsula, hundreds of miles south, and a bit east of San Diego lies paradise. Cabo San Lucas is what Cancun must have been like many many years ago- gorgeous, pristine, up-and-coming. Nestled between the Sea of Cortes, the Pacific Ocean, and the vast desert that makes up most of the Mexican portion of the Baja Peninsula is a stretch of land which is dotted by golf courses and enormous luxury hotels, but is not by any means crowded.

We arrived at the Riu Palace Resort on Monday afternoon after a direct flight and I knew this was going to be a great week. Two things struck me immediately- the natural beauty of Cabo's location, and the astounding price of everything there (the latter being magnified by the fact that I just spent 8 weeks living out of a backpack in the 3rd world). But once you're there and the wrist band for the all inclusive is secured to your wrist, it's nearly impossible to worry about anything- school, bills... even the bombs constanly falling on the middle east become just a background thought as you drift asleep to the droning of CNN on TV between an afternoon at the swimming pool and an evening at the disco. It's really extraordinary how much power this place has to induce relaxation in everyone. I think it's the harmonic blend of music, sunshine, water, breathtaking views, frozen drinks, and pool volleyball.

The Riu Palace turned out to be pretty palacial- an enormous spread of a hotel with two huge pools, separated by two swim up bars and a buffet spread open most of the day. The sun shone constantly while I was there. The hotel was built down against the beach and from the pool and any southern point of the hotel you can look out literally to the tip of the Baja Peninsula, a stretch of sheer rock faces, one with a beautiful arch, which extend outwards onto the water. The extreme tip has been broken into several pieces of rock jutting out of the water where time has worn away the land mass. The local people call it "fin del mundo," the end of the earth, and the view at Lands End was certainly incredible

We spent most of our week at the resort itself, venturing into town a few times to check out some of the discos (Cabo Wabo being the most famous) and to grab a few really good meals. We also got a chance to go deep sea fishing, although more members of my family caught sea sickness than the number of fish we actually caught (3 versus 2). Myself included... man I felt SO nauseous.

I think the highlights of the trip were having the opportunity to bond with my brothers after spending two months abroad in Central America, getting to truly relax on my vacation, without worrying about my personal safety or keeping close track of my expenses, golfing in the desert, and getting to meet some really good people. I'm going to post some photos of the trip tomorrow and then this week I think I'll find a forum in which I can post the entire set of photos from my trip, since this website isn't the most efficient way to upload all of them.

There's not that much more to say about Cabo. It was a fantastic time and a great way to cap off my travels. I think in the next couple of days while I'm putting together my photos I'll take some time to post some final thoughts about my 9 weeks abroad this summer, and some facts from my trip. I've really enjoyed writing about my trip while I've traveled, and perhaps my only regret is that I wasn't able to post more photos to allow you to truly soak in my experience and my perspective. Until the final post...

Ben

ahhhhhh, Living the good life

Wednesday July 12th- Friday July 14th, 2006
San Jose, Costa Rica
and
Playa del Coco, Costa Rica

I got up Wednesday morning and met my family friends in downtown San Jose and it's hard to communicate the feeling of relief I sensed as I put my belongings in the back of their jeep as we rolled up the hill across western San Jose to the posh neighborhood of Escazu. There I was put up in one of the guest suites of an enormous mansion owned by another American, an expat friend of my friend. His housekeeper took great care of us, making sure I had everything I needed, and keeping us well fed. We spent the day lazily conversing over the politics and people of America and Costa rica, eating really good food, and- when needed- dipping into one of the 10,000 bottles of wine in the wine cellar there. I think it's the first time I ever drank a bottle of wine that's older than I am!

I took what turned out by far to be the best shower of my 8 weeks in Central America. My suite in the house was on the second floor and had a view out of enormous windows onto all of San Jose. My bed was so plush. The balcony view was unreal as the sun set down across the city. Even from the shower the view out the enormous bathroom window was breathtaking. With 2 days left in my trip I used the opportunity to scrape some of the dirt off that I accumulated, but more than anything else I just took the time to relax and truly enjoy myself, my surroundings, and my company. I knew life doesn't get this good that often...

Thursday morning we packed up a microbus we hired and a driver who is a friend of Bill's took the two of us back out west, towards Liberia where I had come from, to Playa del Coco, where Bill's house is. It wasn't a quick trip, about 5 hours, but I enjoyed the ride from the relative luxury of that car compared to every other ride I'd taken. Let's just say I wasn't at all bored. I love watching the countryside.

When we finally arrived we pulled up the driveway of something extraordinary. The house is gorgeous, perched atop of a large hill which overlooks the bay which wraps around first to the east, then the north where Playa Hermosa is, and then back west, where Nicaragua is basically just over a couple of hills. The deep blue water was tranquil, and several very nice boats bobbed up and down, parked out in the harbor. The housestaff greeted us with open arms and helped us with our bags. They instantly got to work on some snacks for us and I changed into my bathing suit because it was HOT!

San Jose is in a bit of elevation located within some hills and mountains, and it actually gets quite cool at night there, even in the summer. The beaches of the Guanacaste region in northwestern costa rica are far different. The humidity and temperature run in the 90s all summer, and the bugs can be a real nusance at times. Nevertheless, the pool out back and hum of the Air Conditioners which were running constantly- one in my room- were comforting enough. I spent my last 24 hours in Central America truly in the lap of luxury... perhaps a preview of my future, as I'm off to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico with my family on Monday for the ol' family vacation.

I hung out with my friends til late, sharing a few drinks, pleasantries, and a ton of laughs. As I got a little tipsy a family of racoons came out onto the patio where we were sitting and I had to shoo them off with a broomstick. Dangerous business on the last day of my trip! I was truly sad when I woke up Friday morning. Friday was the 56th day of my adventure, and marked the last time I would wake up in Central America for a long time. I felt so at home and so happy with my friends at Playa del Coco that I wanted to call Delta Airlines and see if they had a flight I could take out on Sunday instead! After one of the best breakfasts I had eaten in the CA, my hosts had a car come for me and the driver pumped up the Daddy Yankee on the stereo while he took me out to the airport. I paid the $26 exit tax, checked in for my flight, and took some time to reflect as I waited to board.

I left the stickyness of the CA for the stickyness of the ATL, but it was a fair trade. My dad and brothers came to pick me up and I ate a real meal for the first time in awhile. This weekend is a two day layover in reality, because on monday the 17th we are off to Cabo. I'll be sure to write and send some photos from there if I can. I have a lot of photos to put up here but that's going to have to wait til I get back! See you all in a week!

Twin Volcanoes Tower out of a Huge Lake-- Isla de Ometepe

Saturday July 8th- Tuesday July 11th, 2006
Isla de Ometepe, Nicaragua

From Granada on Saturday I took a cab with two really cool people I met at the Bearded Monkey hostel- Blake and Jaquie. The girl was from Canada and the guy actually spent some time growing up in Atlanta and went to Sprayberry High School. They told me of a ferry which goes direct to Ometepe, a long way south of us, nearer to Costa Rica than Honduras (see the previous map of Nicaragua to find the islands in the middle of Lake Nicaragua). We ran into 4 fellow gringo travelers on the boat and the 7 of us hit it off really nicely. We quickly nicknamed the boat the SS Minnow, as we looked out toward the West, as we traveled Southward, and saw rain and storms sweeping across our path. The 15 cents I paid for Dramamine before I got on the boat was BY FAR the greatest cost/benefit ratio of any item I purchased on my trip. A couple of the girls were seasick but managed to keep it in their stomachs.

The volcanic island is extraordinary. Volcan Concepceon to the north shoots upwards, 1610 meters, with a wider base, while it's little sister, Volcan Maderas, extends 1394 meters high, but with a much steeper slope. The kids I was with already had a hostel staked out so we hired a car to take us to Maderas, from Concepcion, on some of the worst roads I've ridden on yet. Hardly a thing is paved on Ometepe, but that's part of the beauty of the place.

The hostel was amazing. Hostel Merida is situated on the west side of Maderas, nestled between the huge volcanoe and the lake. There's a dock, and plenty to do. Buffets are served every day for breakfast and dinner, and the food there is excellent. I met Alvaro the owner and we talked a lot about potential medical projects on the island. He runs a charity medical foundation there in his spare time.

Sunday was devoted entirely to being lazy. We all recovered a bit from our seasickness and eagerly awaited the world cup final between Italy and France. Don't ask me why so many people, especially Americans, wanted the French to win, but I was so happy to see Zidane take himself out of the match by headbutting an Italian man, and elated to see the Italian squad win. I've been following the cup with ferver here in Central America since it began a month ago. The laziness of Sunday was enhanced by the fact that there was a huge island party on Saturday night, and people had come from all over the island to be there. Apparently there is only 1 party a month on Ometepe and it's a big one- DJ, dance floor, and lots of cervezas and rum. The only problem- of the 100 or so people packed into the open air dance and bar space, no more than 10 were women!!! A fight was imminent, but I definitely managed to stay out of trouble and leave a bit before the scuffles began (which they did later).

On Monday I got up in the morning, met my two british friends from the boat, and we hired a guide to take us up Maderas. Not only would it be extremely idiotic to hike into the cone of Maderas without a guide, it would be illegal. The hike, or actually CLIMB, I should say, was both terrific and terrifying at the same time. Maderas is an active volcanoe with steam vents and a crazy volcanic lake inside it's cone. The ascent to 1394 meters takes place up a 7 kilometer trail, and the decent back over the opposite side is another 5 kilometers... plus the time it takes to get into and out of the cone. As you ascend the terrain changes, from Jungle first to Cloud Forest, and the wildlife and especially plant life, is truly amazing. Within a couple of kilometers though, the "hike" turns into- no joke- a serious climb. I mean, I was using my upper body as much as my legs, pulling myself up sheer rock faces. We had to climb through the root networks of 200 year old trees in the cloud forests, under and over roots. We ascended into the clouds and it got cooler, but we generated so much heat from the hike that T shirts were okay. We saw troups of monkeys, several different species, although the howler monkeys were definitely the most memorable. I faced down a couple males, exchanging howls from the ground as they scowled at me from the trees, in defense of their women who had little baby monkeys clinging to their back.

The hike was by far the hardest thing I've done on my trip. We departed at 8:30 in the morning, got to the bottom again at 5:30pm, and I swear we only stopped once for 20 minutes to eat lunch. Because it's the rainy season there was mud and slippery rock everywhere. We slipped and slid up and down, but I do really think down was harder because it was so perilous and so hard to get down without falling. I managed not to fall, along with our expert guide, who first climbed when he was 8. My two british friends bit it several times, and managed to make it down quite muddy and bruised up. Nevertheless the trip was truly amazing. The trees, vistas, and wildlife were incredible. We ate packed sandwiches at the crater lake and chilled with some friends we knew from the hostel. It was a proud moment to make it back to the bottom, joints killing me, muscles sore, but having not fallen down at all I was "relatively" clean.

That was Monday. Tuesday (yesterday) we got up and lazily packed. Myself, the brits, Jaquie, and Blake got on the short ferry direct to the mainland at San Jorge. We took a quick cab to the town of Rivas and split up- Blake and I to Costa Rica, the others headed out to the beach at San Juan del Sur. I decided to get to Costa Rica and then make my decision about what I wanted to do. It was nice to cross the border with a friend, even if he doesn't speak much Spanish. Just to have a companion so I could get a bite or make a phone call and leave my bags was nice. I got in touch with Bill Norman, a good family friend, who is vacationing down here and he invited me to come on down and meet him in San Jose... so here I am. Blake and I didn't get here til 1am, but Blake has spent a lot of time in San Jose and knew just the hostel. We took out dorm beds at this sweet place and we took a cab to ensure our safety. So here I sit, updating you all, and I'm about to close out this post and meet up with Bill at his buddy's house in San Jose. We'll hang out here for the day and head out tomorrow for the Nicoya Peninsula, Playa del Coco, where Bill has a house and has invited me to be a guest. Then on Friday I fly out of Liberia, in Northwest Costa Rica, for Atlanta.

I may have time to post once more before I'm home, or I may just post when I get back on Friday. I'm home around 7pm so call the cell if you wanna find out about my trip! I'll have lots of photos to post later!

Peace and love,

Ben

Granada, Nicaragua

Wednesday, July 6th- Friday July 8th
Granada, Nicaragua

Sorry everyone, I've been on a volcanic island for awhile and I've been a bit lax about posting. I left Leon on Wednesday and headed to Granada. My microbus went to the edge of Managua and dropped me off at another terminal where I quickly grabbed a ride to Granada. I was on the trip 3 hours, easy, and I found my way to the Bearded Monkey Hostel, which had been widely recommended to me for its chilled out atmosphere, which certainly was present. Really Granada was an R+R stop for me more than anything else, but I did manage to do some really nice things there.

Both Leon and Granada are towns built in the colonial Spanish style and both are very beautiful, safe, and fun to walk around. The Nicas, as the people of Nicaragua are called, are amazing- very friendly and beautiful people. In Leon I never ended up making it to the volcanoe to board down, mosly because the owner of the hostel charged 20 bucks for the trip, which after all this time here I truly felt was a rip off, especially considering it cost me 4 dollars a night to stay there. Instead I opted to go to the public library and pull out old newspapers and look for photos of the Revolution. I found all kinds of headlines about Somoza, the former dictator, and his atrocities. I have a few snapshots of the papers and I'll post them soon.

Granada was very cool as well. I went to the Parque Central there, which is absolutely gorgeous and I hung out in a beautiful afternoon sky and watched the kids in front of the church shoot of fireworks, as they do several times a day there. I managed to meet a very poor man from Granada and we got to talking and I decided to ask he and his quiet friend to take me around the city and show me things, knowing that he would appreciate a tip much later on. We shot the breeze and he asked me how much money I thought I'd been spending on food every week. I told him 40 bucks and explained to him how I try to get to grocery stores to buy cheaper food but a lot of times because of my travel I don't really get a chance to and I have to buy food at restaurants or on the street. Nevertheless, I thought a budget of under 6 dollars a day for food was good. He then explained to me that he and his son live on 8 dollars a week, in total, to eat. They eat only rice and beans, Gallo Pinto, the food which is considered the most basic typical Nica food. He wasn't asking for a handout, just introducing me to his world. He took me to to the old Railroad Station, which actually still has a locomotive and presidential car on it's property, although it's now been converted to a park. He also showed me around to a few churches and a building where Somoza used to live before he was assassinated. Overall it was a very cool day and I learned so much about the city and Nicaragua, and I gave him the equivalent of $1.50 as a tip for his kindness.

I went out to a Nicaraguan dance party that night at the edge o Lake Nicaragua, which borders the city on it's eastern edge. It was a blast, but the area around the party was really sketchy and I definitely almost had some issues with a few people there. Just a lot of drinks were passed around to people and some of them couldn't really handle it. The next day was a day to stroll the city, rest, get money, and prepare myself for the road ahead. On Saturday morning, on to Isla Ometepe. I'll have to post a map here because Ometepe is amazing. Two enormous volcanoes sprang out from the middle of Lake Nicaragua, on it's southern end, as twin volcanoes forming one island. Volcan Concepcion is 1610 meters tall, while Volcan Maderas is 1390 meters tall, although it is steeper and harder to climb. On to the next post...

Surf Camp Horizonte- Photos

Here´s some photos from el salvador, while I´m at it. The connection here in Leon is solid!



The Sunrise...


And The Sunset...




Plus the hotel!


If you feed a parrot an almond, in the fruit, he will pick it out and suck on it like a candy.... he will also tell you "hola" repeatedly and love you for the duration of your stay! (the owner had 2 so we gave them both almonds!)

Here´s what the point looks at as the sun rises up over it.

And here´s what benny looks like as he drops into a wave at sunrise! Look mom, no wetsuit... look mom, no air!!!

Monterrico- more photos from the last stop in Guatemala

A few pics, as promised:

Buried in black sand!

Unburied!

¡¡¡¡Me and my harem!!!!

And of course, the dancing king!

July 4th

Today is the 24th July 4th of my life and the first one that I will be spending away from the states. I just want to say from abroad that I am proud to be American, and that has never waivered... despite all the misgivings that we may have with other people of the world.

I can also say now more than ever from my experience here that we are all lucky to be born American, citizens of a great nation. Even the poorest people within our borders are still very rich and fortunate to make a home there, where the traditions of freedom and democracy run deep and are strong. Myself and my friends then, as sons and daughters of fortune, are even more lucky than the poor.

Have fun today, be safe, eat a hot dog and toast a cold one to me.... and dont do anything I wouldnt do (hehehe)

xoxo
Ben

After two crazy days, I´m in Nicaragua

July 1st-July 3rd, 2006
La Union, Usulutan El Salvador
Isla Mianguera, Golfo de Fonseca El Salvador
Leon, Leon Granada

Well it´s been two crazy days since I last updated my blog... made even crazier I think by the madness of midsummer heat that I´ve been battling on the Pacific coasts of El Salvador and Nicaragua. My guidebook (and the other´s I´ve seen) are all really scant on El Salvador, and lack any useful information on getting to Nicaragua. However, looking at the map I saw two options: The Gulf of Fonseca is shared on three sides by El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicarauga to the West, North, and East, respectively. So you can bus the trip through Honduras, crossing two borders... or you can try to get a ferry straight across the gulf, about a 3 hour ride- the reason why I was in La Union, the furthest city east in El Salvador. I dropped this map in here so that you can visualize it. Pay attention to the Gulf of Fonseca in the top left side. You can see La Union, El Salvador, and Potosi, Nicaragua, between which there is "supposed" to be some sort of boat service. My guide says ask the guys at the Immigration Office in La Union...

So I go to immigration and the guy knows nothing. It´s sweltering in La Union so I ask him if I can leave my big backpack there while I find a hotel. No prob he says, and I find a place without AC that´s very basic, yet still pretty expensive by my trip standards. When I ask around town people tell me that there´s no ferry straight to Nicaragua, but they claim it´s an easy trip if I first take a ferry to the island smack in the middle of the gulf, Isla Mianguera. I decide it might be fun, even if it costs me an extra day to get where I´m going, what could be wrong with laying over on a little island in the gulf? So I spend Saturday night in La Union, and I leave Sunday morning at 10am for Mianguera, which I arrive at around noon.

In Mianguera I´m still in El Salvador but I find out that I´m now closer to the Nicaraguan mainland than Salvadorean. Good news. I ask around and find out that there´s only one dude in town who goes to Nica, Sr. Tomás Gonzales. I pay a kid a quarter to take me to him, and Sr. Gonzales tells me that he goes to Nica whenever he has a boatful, and that he´s not planning on going until Friday, a full 5 days wait. He tells me I can go express, but I have to pay him $150 US... totally out of the question. I should be able to buy a house on Mianguera for that kind of money... and that´s not too much of an exaggeration. So now I´m screwed. I take a room for the night, because it´s the only thing I can do, and decide to think a bit about what I want to do.

If it was hot in La Union, you wouldn´t think so once you had been to Mianguera. MAN it was hot... like 95 degrees, 200% humidity... at night! I couldn´t even take the heat in my room, as I tried to catch a nap with the fan blowing furiously on my almost naked body. So I got out, walked around, bought some water and started chatting with the people. I found out there´s an american guy who owns a different hotel on the island... strange because I heard there is only one hotel but I investigated and I found the man and his place. I knew if anyone could help me, he could... so I put on my "poor sorry med student" face and decided to go see if he had a yacht or anything. His hotel isn´t even finished being built yet, but it´s SICK... like the kind of place built right out on the point of the harbor where rich sailboaters come to dock and stock up supplies and chill on land for a bit. A very cool guy, he offered me some advice on another boat captain on the island and some other things to do- fish, beaches, etc... but it didn´t work out and I decided to get up this morning (Monday), head BACK to La Union, and make the trip by land. The most extraordinary and yet frustrating thing about the whole experience was that I could SEE Nicaragua from where I was standing on the island. In fact, I could swim to Honduras, and see both Nica and El Salvador. If you look at the map again Mianguerra is the fat island right in the middle of the gulf. It was so annoying to watch the sun come up over Nicaragua this morning, while I headed in the opposite direction and then all the way around on land!

Today was a harrowing day. I got on the ferry at 5am, having barely slept last night because of the intense heat. I think the heat may have even liquified my insides because seriously, my GI troubles came back the last couple of days. Who knows though if its the ice, or fruit, or strange food, or traveling... there´s so many variables I can´t even hazard a guess. So I took a boat and three busses to get to the honduran border (should have been two but one broke down), then I hired a bike taxi to get me and my bags through immigration and to Honduras. The best call of the day was paying five bucks for a direct microbus (with 13 other people on it) to Nicaragua. Again I hired a bike taxi to get me through immigration and into Nicaragua. I then needed two more busses to get here to Leon. In its entirety the trip took 12 hours. The worst part was Nica because the roads here are truly piss poor and the trip took FOREVER... and I don´t mean forever by American standards, because that´s every bus trip here... I mean forever by central american standards because look on the map, it shouldn´t have taken me 4.5 hours to get from the border to Leon.

But enough of the whining! Leon is great. I decided to take a nicer room here with AC (for the first night), because honestly, I haven´t felt AC in 6.5 weeks now and it´s truly getting to me... I need just one night´s reprieve of a warm shower, sink to shave my face in, and AC, I really do. The city here is beautiful- a lot like Antigua with colonial architecture and amazing churches. I have two daytrips on my agenda here which I think should be really cool. The first is a 4 hour trip to go "volcanoboarding" which is basically like snowboarding, except you do it down the slope of an active volcano. I hear it´s amazing, we´ll see. The second is to go tour the Flor de Caña factory. I can´t remember if I´ve raved yet about FdC, but it´s the best rum I´ve ever drank... hands down... period. It is SO good and they make it about 20km from Leon here in Nicaragua. I hope to pick up a Gallon jug of 21 year aged rum, if it´s not too expensive. I understand you can get it aged up to 100 years. It truly is the pride of Nicaragua.

So the plan is to be here a couple of days before bypassing Managua and headed southeast to Granada. I´m going to snap some photos tomorrow and try to post back here soon.

Much love from Nicaragua,

Ben