Settled in Altos De Maria

We have settled down for the moment at my friend Kerry's place in Alto De Maria.  It is a big 3 bedroom house on the side of a mountain with all the conveniences of home plus a swimming pool.  It is about 45 minutes from Coronado even though it is only 20 km away.  The road is very twisty and up and down a lot.  The house is in a gated community (24 hour security guards who question everyone in and out) and is smack dab in the middle of the jungle.  Karen and the kids saw a monkey earlier today (I missed it).

We have all seen lots of big ants, spiders of all kinds (including the freak you out big kind), birds and really colourful butterflies.  On the way in Karen saw a tarantula crossing the road.  She screamed into our communication head sets for quite a while and only calmed down a few clicks up the road (not over it, just no longer screaming).  Brandon saw what we think is a travelling spider, which is also very big, and he is just a freaked out as Karen!

The house has not been lived in for quite a few months, so there were lots of spiders and ants all throughout the house.  The worst part was the 100 or so large ants living between the master bed mattress and box springs.  Karen saw a big one go in between the mattress and box spring, so I lifted up the mattress to see and everyone freaked out and bolted.  I got the shop vac and vacuumed up all the bugs I could see. Later the power went out and we really freaked out because we knew that bugs come out in the dark and we had no flashlights except our phones.  The power did come back on eventually, but with only motorbikes to head back to town on wild roads in the dark and without cell phones that worked, we had some pretty tense minutes to say the least!

Later that night as Karen and Brandon went to sleep on the couches (would not go near the bedrooms) and Jada and I braved the jungles (our bedrooms) and headed to very fitful sleeps for all of us.  The morning was bright and sunny and we all felt better, so after a home cooked breakfast, Karen and I headed into Coronado to get our cell phones working and to get groceries and find out about getting the kids' books shipped down here.  It rained pretty hard on us the whole way down and back, but oh well, it is the rainy season.

Karen was going to sleep in the master bedroom last night, but as we were getting ready for bed, A really big spider appeared over our window.  That was it, she was back to the couch! So that takes us to this morning, when we woke up to sunlight and birds chirping (and maybe monkeys howling, not sure).  We made coffee, some breakfast and then had a nice leisurely bath. We decided to brave our fears of going out under the trees (cause spiders can fall on you from above) and take the garbage to the  garbage area at the gate.  It was a 50 minute walk almost straight up the mountain and we were all exhausted when we got there.  Because we were not sure of the bugs, we all wore jeans so we were all sweating profusely all the way up.  We walked back down and were joined by a very nice dog who reminded us of our Petey back home with Karen Hudson.  The dog has been sticking with us and Karen really really really wants to take him in with us.

Supper tonight started as tacos, rice and beans, but because I misread the taco seasoning for taco sauce, it turned into spaghetti, rice and beans.  Still better than going out for supper.  We are now kicking back with some wine and Abuelo rum (really good and really cheap).  Here are some pictures of the area.

TTFN,
Stew.

A nice line of ants climbing a wall at the house. 

 One of the street signs in Altos De Maria showing the sleeping cat mountain in the background.

 The garbage walk

 A happy Karen even after 2 couch nights.

 a termite mound

 Just a cool tree

 A sweaty couple during our walk

 Some flat ground (rare in this community)

A nice pond near the house 

 A place to meet with friends and family

 The view from Altos De Maria

 Some nice stairs in the community

 The sleeping cat mountain 

 This is a small (only 3-4 inches) spider alone our walk

The dog who is so nice and wants to come inside our house.  I don't blame it, I wouldn't want to sleep outside either, but we don't have permission to let him in and are not sure we should.  He has a collar, but no tags.

Off to Coronada

So, We have had no luck finding a good home by the beach near David.  We are off to Coronado to look for something.  It is a much bigger beach market and close to our friend Kerry's place.

We tried a couple real estate agents here for rentals but they had nothing for us to look at.  The market works differently down here.  There is no MLS or pool of property listings, so you have to go to multiple agents to find something.  There is a site for listings called encuentra24.com that has lots of properties, but it is all in Spanish, so it is forcing me to expand my vocabulary again.  There is not much for beach front near David but lots by Coronado.  We have Panama phones now, so we can call about the places and take a look when we get there.

So far Panama has great roads, proper signs, good water (can drink the tap water here) and toilets that you can throw toilet paper in (most Central American countries you have to wipe and put the paper in the garbage - yuck!).  Panama is more expensive than the other countries, but is much closer to Canada's standards.

No pictures from David (we have only hung around downtown), but here is a good picture of Jada from Jaco Costa Rica.  We stopped by the Best Western but they wanted $350 for one night, so we passed by and went to a hotel/villa place called Tangeri and got an ocean front room with pool and free breakfast for $100.  Much better, but still expensive compared to Nicaragua, Honduras, El salvador and Guatemala.

We will post again once we are more settled.
Stew.

Panama at last!!!

We finally made it to Panama!!!!

We were up early this morning in Jaco, Costa Rica and decided to head South and see how the day went.  The roads in Costa Rica were ok for the most part, but started getting pretty bad the last 50 km to the border.  We got to the border around noon and it took another three hours to get through the border.  Thank goodness we have no more borders to cross.

After the border we got on the Panamerican highway, which is a proper 4 lane highway in very good shape.  We headed in to David and called it a day at a hotel downtown. The staff is really great here and have helped us contact a realtor to look at places to rent tomorrow.   We are going to check it out here and then head closer to Panama City (but still well outside the city itself).  We want to know what options are out there for us.  Highlights of David include drinkable tap water (have not chanced it anywhere South of San Diego). And streets that feel safe.  There is a beach nearby and it is close to the mountains where they grow most of the fruits and vegetables.

Our Spanish is improving, but still needs lots of practice.  We all ordered in Spanish and actually got what we wanted!  The real test will be tomorrow when looking at properties.

If you wondered what your hands would look like if you wore shorty gloves for 1 month straight every day, then look at Karen's hands below.  The half moon spots are the holes in the gloves that let them breathe.  We didn't think our fingers were tanning, but the picture shows otherwise.

Oh, and just because it is too cool to pass up.  Below is an ATM receipt we got in Costa Rica. That is right, we keep a few million bucks in our account just in case.  I won't tell you the exchange rate and whether it is Canadian dollars or Costa Rican colonies either.

Liberia Costa Rica

We got up early this morning to hit the border between Nicaragua and Costa Rica before it got busy.  Lots of people said this would be an easy crossing.  Lots of people were wrong.  3 hours later we finally headed into Costa Rica!  The place does not have good signage and the amount of running around we had to do was crazy.  The entrance was mud and very bumpy, which made it really stressful on motorbikes.  Once we got stamped out of Nicaragua, cancelled our motorcycle permits and got stamped into Costa Rica we were only 1/2 hour into the ordeal and thinking things are going pretty well.

We go to customs, who tell us to drive to insurance, ok drove out to where they told us to go, drove past the entrance and had to go around.  Waited for insurance which took quite a bit of time and had to go back because they messed up on one of the bike VIN numbers.  Got it and went to get photocopies.  No problem, until it was time to pay for the copies.  Won't take big bills and we don't have small bills.  So heading back to the money changers and ran into a couple fellows from Seattle we met at the Honduras border.  Borrowed the $1.00 from them.  They said they just walked from customs.  So we drove back to customs with the insurance and copies.  Had to make a big circle to get back to where we were before.  The guys who walked beat us back to customs.  Had to fill out 2 sets of forms that were fairly long and then get in line again for approval.  Got the forms stamped and were told to go back to insurance for final approval.  Drove back to insurance (it was on the way out) and got in line.  Wrong line.  Go around the corner to another area.  Ok got approval and are on our way.  Stopped by the police at the end for a complete recheck of everything including where we were going and how long we would be there.  Finally freedom to get the wind going to cool us down.

Filled up with gas at a little town and went in for lunch.  Here was where our lack of Spanish really showed up.  Tried to order chicken sandwiches.  No chicken.  tried to order ham sandwiches.  No ham.  Tried to order hamburgers. No hamburgers.  Waitress trying to tell me something that I am not quite getting.  Finally understand that they are out of bread.  Ahh, Ok 3 plates of fries and some chicken rice for me.  Not the greatest food in the world that is for sure, but the coffee was excellent!

Back on the road and the rain starts coming so we pull into a McDonalds in Liberia for more food and to check the maps on the internets for hotels later that day.  Talked with a man who grew up in Texas but lives in Liberia full time now.  It rains from 3:00 on everyday in October (rainy season) and it is about 2:00, so we decide to find a hotel here tonight.  He recommends the Best Western down the street.  We pull in, negotiate a good rate and then get an upgrade to a bigger room.  Excellent!  Good pool, amazing atmosphere and big clean room.

We will head down the coast tomorrow toward the border with Panama.  With any luck at all we will be in David Panama by the end of Tuesday.

Here are some pics from Liberia.
Stew.

We made it to Nicaragua

Border crossing.......can be such a scam!!!!  We found out the hard way that some people really do want to take advantage of you.  As soon as we got to the Honduras Border to leave into Nicaragua, men flocked to us saying they could help us.   After the last two crossings we were determined to do it ourselves.  We did research the night before.  One guy stayed right with us and wouldn't leave us alone.   Stewart flat out told him we didn't want his help, don't need it and we will not pay you.   Long story short, it took about half an hour to leave the Honduras border.......in that time we found out that the last guy who took advantage of us, phoned this guy to help us out and scam us out of more money.   Those assholes have connections and make sure to use scare tactics on you.    I am really proud of Stew for standing his ground and putting this guy in his place and getting us through the Nicaragua border stress free.    I mean, getting through the Border of Nicaragua has been great.....never again will we be suckered.

enough of that.............

I love this country!  It is clean, friendly, and absolutely amazing!  The views are something else......I could actually look around at the views when driving instead of concentrating on the road in case theres huge pot holes, or broken pavement or worse big speed bumps, that make you scrape the bottom of your frame.   There are some poor looking areas, but at least they take pride in their homes and yards, very well kept and neat, with no garbage in sight.   They have side walks or walk ways for people instead of them having to walk on the road with traffic.  Another Hazard I didn't have to worry about.

Stew's Plan was to just take our time today and enjoy the ride.  Funny thing happened......Stew passed a semi, Jada and I had to hurry up and pass too.......so we passed in a no passing zone going about 110 km to catch up to Stewart.   The police happened to have a speed trap set up.......they pulled all three of us over.  We all got speeding tickets...........we didn't really take our time I guess. (oh, the speed limit was 80 km....isn't that dangerous driving in Canada)
I was a little freaked thinking frick, this is all we need in our file, Jada was totally panicking, this is her very first speeding ticket, in another country to boot, and her drivers licence is a GDL, (graduated drivers Licence), you really don't want points.   The policemen didn't speak any english, and our spanish is exactly fluent......they looked at our drivers licence, told us we pay twenty bucks each we can go.   What a relief......I think we would have gotten our licence taken away plus $180.00 fine each if we were back home.      We really took our time after that......I think we stayed on 80 km the rest of the last hour.

We drove as far as Granada Today.  We got a hotel downtown in the Historic area, very Beautiful.  We got in around 5 and was close to getting dark......Stew and the kids had to go swimming, I just wanted a hot shower!  Last 3 hotels didn't have hot water........

Went to a great little restaurant that I think I could fall in love with.  It was called the Garden Cafe.......had hammocks set up, and tables around a beautiful garden.  Could see myself spending hours in their during the day with a few cups of coffee.  Took a couple of pictures, but because it was so dark out side i don't think it turned out that great.   I plan on taking more pictures of the square tomorrow and will post the pictures later.

With that I will call it a night, our plans are to leave earlier so we can quit earlier........I think we are going to spend another day here before leaving for Costa Rica.

night,
Karen

 Part of the Gardens at the Restaurant we ate at last night.  Great relaxing Atmosphere.

 Great Little pool at our hotel.  our own little oasis.

 Jada and Brandon killing time on there electronics before we made them pack up to leave.

The town Square behind us, as well as a huge church.  I am ready for some country life.

Honduras for 2 days

We tried to head out this morning for Nicaragua, but Karen's bike had a flat tire.  Yeesh!!  I headed into town to a tire shop and got the mechanic to come inflate the tire to get it to his shop, where he had to pull the tire off, the tube out and fix a rather large hole in the tube.  The tube from our last tire change was a bit too big and had a fold in it that eventually became a tear.  He was able to fix it and get us going again, but it took until after lunch to get it done, so we decided to stay here one more night before making the border crossing.  So tomorrow we head to Nicaragua early to beat the heat.

Let me back up a bit, since it has been a while since we have had internet.

We finally left Tapachula Mexico a few days back and have had the same kind of day over and over (Kind of like Groundhog Day - the movie).  We get up and drive to a border which is disorganized, expensive and takes a lot of time while waiting.  Initially it was the crossing into Guatemala where it took 2 hours to get through.  Then it was crossing from Guatemala into Honduras which took 3-1/2 hours including a really wild rain storm.  Here is how each crossing goes down.  First, to Immigration to get stamped out of the country.  Second, go to Customs to cancel our temporary vehicle permit.  Third, head to the new country (typically 500 meters away) and check in with immigration for passport stamp.  Fourth, head to customs for vehicle permits.  Fifth, pay the strange fees each country has that are different (ie road tax, entrance permits, etc). Sixth, Go through fumigation (bikes normally don't have to go through this step).  Seventh, final checks by the police to make sure all the fees have been paid and the paper work is in order.  Eighth, Head into the new country.

The vehicle registration process is what takes the time.  Each Country wants to make sure you are not importing vehicles without paying the tax.  Of course at each crossing there are locals who will "help" you through the process, for a fee of course.  We did get the help of locals the last 2 crossings and will never do it again.  They are either crooked or incompetent and make mistakes that only they can fix, which of course costs more money and time.  They hope for gringos like us who just want to get through quickly and don't really know how to do it.  We are nubies no more and will go it alone tomorrow.  If it takes longer than the 3-1/2 hours it took yesterday to get through then we will reconsider next time.  Border crossings have been the most frustrating experiences of the trip so far (and by a long shot). Wish us luck!

Back to Guatemala.  When we first crossed into Guatemala it was a little later than we wanted and the rain was starting to come down and it was getting dark, so we pulled into an "Auto Hotel", which is a hotel where you park your vehicle in a garage, with a door you close and then there normally are sleeping quarters above the garage.  This particular one was in a pretty dodgy area of a little town and was really grungy, but beggars can't be choosers.  The normal room had 2 very small beds, so we parked our bikes in one garage and slept in a room better described as a party flop house.  It had 4 beds, a small bathroom with a captain morgans banner as a shower curtain and no air conditioning.  There was mould on the ceiling and ants in the sink.  Welcome home Adams family!  First off, we had a wonderful thunder storm (which happens down here each night at this time of year).  Secondly, we heard gun shots nearby in the middle of the night.  Brandon was especially freaked out about the bugs and Karen and I were very worried because of the sketchy area we were in.  With the no air conditioning taken into account, nobody had a good night sleep.

The roads in Guatemala are really beautiful, with lush forest/jungle and different crops like pine apples, bananas, cactus (for tequila) and lots of corn.  There are lots of pot holes, topes (speed bumps) and people drive differently here (passing on solid lines - in town - with on coming traffic - past police cars, you get the picture), all adds a high degree of difficulty when driving.  But we are becoming accustomed to it and were complaining yesterday when a semi truck wouldn't move a bit over to the right so we could pass.

Great Canopy over the road 

 Town stalls selling food

Another great canopy over the road 

Just some huts by the road selling something like fresh pineapple 

Banana plantation.  The blue bags are around the bananas, and have holes in them (not sure why)

Waiting at the Guatemala border

More appetizing road side stands.  The little 3 wheeled bikes are everywhere here and sell all sorts of things.

This tunnel scared the blood from my veins.  So dark and so long.

Lots of horses on the sides of the roads.  We even saw a man and horse plowing the old way, one furrow at a time.

I did not know that oxen were still used around the world, but there are plenty down here eating along the side of the road and pulling carts.

Ah! back to the Pacific Ocean for a while.

We see the buzzards doing this lots.  Either to cool down or warm up.

Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras are very poor countries, but they are sure beautiful.

We got through the border in El Salvador and followed the coast most of the day.  We came out of some really nice twisty road (top ten motorbiking road we'd ever been on for sure) and stopped to enjoy the view. While we were stopped another biker stopped with us.  Mathew is from Alabama and was down to Panama and was heading home, but Guatemala wouldn't let him back in with his bike (limitations after you cancel a permit of 90 days), so he was heading back to Costa Rica for a while.  We travelled together for a few miles and then stopped in at La Libertad for something cool to drink and nice to eat.  We really liked the area and decided to stay the night.  The restaurant waiter suggested a hotel close by that over looked the sea.  We said we were interested, so he walked us down to the hotel for a look.  It had a great view, pool, hammocks, air conditioning and 3 beds in each room for $35, so we stayed.  We relaxed in the pool with some cervezas and rum.  We sure wish Mathew all the best on the rest of his trip.  Thanks for hanging out with us!

Honduras was supposed to be very poor and not have any nice hotels where we were going, but we left the border late, it was dark and it started to rain very hard, so we pulled into a gas station and filled up and had some supper.  We were going to wait out the rain and continue, but asked if any hotels were close by.  They said that there was one 100 meters down the road and one man joked that it was 5 star. We headed to the hotel expecting something like the auto hotel in Guatemala, but instead found a very nice, clean, beautiful hotel with large rooms, air conditioning, a pool and a nice restaurant.  It was pretty expensive for here at $65/night, but was sure a welcome surprise!  Thank goodness we lucked into it, because we were all freaked out driving in the dark and the rain.....rules we promised ourselves not to break!!!!!! do not drive at night.........we won't the rest of the trip, I will make sure we stop at decent times from now on.

San Miguel El Salvador for lunch

Sorry we haven't posted in a while. No internet. We are at McDonalds and have free internet. No time to post much. We will update more when we stop for the night at a hotel with internet. 

Stew.