The end.

I am making this post my final post on this blog. As I have no further traveling planned in the foreseeable future, I see no more point in keeping up the blog.

I have, however, finished uploading my photos from central America on picasa, feel free to have a look through them.

And I intend to leave a last suggestion list of places to see and stay to anyone else who in the future is looking into traveling through central America, from my own experience (my favourites in each country are highlighted). Happy traveling!

Belize

– Caye caulker: go diving the blue hole (the other 2 diving are also A* quality), only hostel is Yuma’s house $12/night. Also do the snorkelling trip – I saw a manatee mating pair!
– Belize zoo: well-worth the little diversion, US$15
– Cockscomb reserve: a great little hike in the rainforest. Stay with the Chun brothers in Tutzil Nah Cottages, lovely people and the guides/rides are worth the extra money (trust me, I’m stingy!!)
– San Ignacio: if you only do one activity, make sure it’s the ATM cave (Actun Tuchnil Muknhal). Pricier of the excursions but by far the best.

Guatemala

– Tikal: do the morning trip (the park only opens at 6.30) and if you do it without a guide you have the extra advantage of being able to rush to the main sights before any other tour groups gets there
– Antigua: Nice, great vibe, but not very big city. The most common excursion, to the volcano, isn’t worth it as there’s no lava there (as a result of a recent eruption)
– Atitlan (lago de): panajachel is not as bad as the travel guides make out, the market in Sololá is worth a look on Fridays. If you want to relax DEFINITELY go to La Iguana perdida in Santa Cruz. The beds ‘outside’ are only US$2 per night, the downside is there’s no communal kitchen. San Pedro has some nice other views of the lake, and has plenty of places to party. Stay at Zoola’s – it beats any of the other places in food & accommodation quality.
– Quetzaltenango (Xela): I really liked this second-biggest city, with a more greek-influenced architecture and less-pompous atmosphere than Antigua. Some GREAT excursions to the surrounding mountains & volcanoes – if you have time consider the 6-day trek with Quetzaltrekkers
- If you're looking for a fun and unique volunteering experience that is not as used to foreigners as some are, and not as ridiculously expensive as most are, I'd highly recommend ASIVESCA. I did a blog post on their activities a while back, and if you're interested, at any time (even years after this post) feel free to contact me.

Honduras

– Copan: a nice little place to visit, though doesn’t take much time. Copan Ruinas is still charming.
– Utila (Bay islands): very young crowd, all about diving (very few people don’t). Most do their certifications because it’s cheap, and also good for a party. There may be better diving to be found in Belize or further south in Nicaragua.
– Lago de yojoa: HIGHLY recommended, often overlooked for its more popular cousin in Guatemala or Nicaragua. Stay at the D&D microbrewery, and from there you can organise tours with Malcolm to go birdwatching in the early hours on the lake – very knowledgeable guide & tranquil scenery. Also impressive waterfalls close by.

Nicaragua

– Somoto canyon: this is a must-see, and it’s not even in the rough guides! A canyon tucked away, and not often visited, you can do fun trips swimming, climbing and jumping through the canyon. 4 hour trip is US$12, look for Henry at the entrance to the canyon by the main road. To get here on the way to/from Honduras, make sure that you go via El Espino and NOT the more common Los Manos.
– Leon: nice city with some worthy architecture. The volcano boarding wasn’t too impressing (so I heard). Hostel lazybones is worth the little extra for luxury (US$8 dorm) but there was a lack of fans. Hostel Sonati is a little cheaper, but may take a hit in cleanliness.
– Corn Islands: did the trek overland, not for the weak-hearted (especially the boat journey). You save a lot of money if you do it return compared to flying, but if you may think the boat journey is too rough, just fly return – overland there and flight back is almost equally expensive. The cabin accommodation on little corn is best on the ‘breezy side’ (the opposite side from where you come in) but it may not be the most luxurious and beware of ants – we stayed at Elsas. No ATMs on the island, and everything is more expensive (water at least 2x the price). The diving there is just as good as Utila, with a chance of spotting hammerheads (& dolphins). Try to organise a trip to blowing rock – far but amazing. Both dive operators seemed equally good, the guys at dolphin dive very friendly.
– Granada: a beautiful city with lots of charm that could allow you to kick back for a while. Stay at the bearded monkey. Eat at the Italian (mona lissa) on the main restaurant street that runs from the square to the lake. The Irish place also has good food. If you haven’t seen volcanoes yet go to mombacho, a lovely hike in rainforest that is growing on the volcano. Laguna de apoyo is also a nice place to forget your woes and relax for a day.
– San Juan del Sur: great for surfing, but not great for just lounging. The vibe is very western, which may be a nice break after a lot of immersed travel. Lots of parties going on. Stay at Casa Oro (free breakfast!).

Costa Rica

– Liberia: pretty little city, not much to do
– Monteverde: LOTS to do here – stay at pension Santa Elena. The guys are extremely knowledgeable and will help you plan so you can do all your desired activities. Ziplining – we did the one over primary rainforest, beautiful scenery but not with most ‘thrill’. Make sure you try the casado local dish.
– Puerto Viejo: very surfing-orientated, but again not the most beautiful beaches. Stay at rockin J’s, it’s an experience in itself.
– San Jose: this city can be very beautiful during the day. If you have some time to spare before flying take 2 hours or so to walk past some of the big sites. Stay at Hostel Pangea. Don’t pay more than US$3-5 for a taxi.

Panama

– Bocas del toro: beautiful beaches! Stay on bastimentos and you can walk to beaches like wizard and red frog beach (free entry, wizard is less developed but more beautiful). Hostal bastimentos good place to stay.

And with that it's adieu, adios, sayonara and farewell from me, and my past 3 years that have led me to experience a journey of fun. It's been wonderful.
I can only advise everyone out there with an urge to travel - follow any small desire until you have lived it to the fullest.

P.S. - I am going on to do a masters in Biological Photography and Imaging at the University of Nottingham this September. Who knows, maybe i'll be able to make it as a photographer? Keep your eyes & ears open!


The world is your oyster (www.billfrymire.com)

Monteverde, Puerto Viejo, Panama, San Jose and home

What a delight - the fresh air and cooler temperatures up in the mountains!! Even though we had quite a lot of rain, I didn't mind in the slightest.   Mikael (the Swedish guy), Augustina and I did a hike in montverde national park, which was beautiful. We didn't see too many animals but the eerie swing-like sound (a white-chested manakin or something like it) and the moss-esque epiphytes hanging off trees everywhere, together with a low-hanging mist often felt in the mornings in the mountains made it a great little hike. Apparently the part of the reserve open to tourists is only less than 1/20th of the entire monteverde protected region!
Just outside the reserve there was a hummingbird garden with feeders and I managed to get some excellent shots of the little hummers - keep an eye out when I put my photos up!

Other than the beautiful nature hikes that you can do there, it's a little bit like the Queenstown (NZ) o costa rica with adventure & thrill activities galore. And the money to pay for them will last about as long as the adrenaline rush - they aren't cheap! However, we did give in to the ziplining as it's a must-do in monteverde. Ziplining is where you're strapped to a cable and you "fly" high off he ground across varying lengths of cable. There are 3 companies that do it in monteverde: one is in and over primitive rainforest, so a great view (selvaturas). Aventuras tries to attract customers by having the biggest Tarzan swing (strapped to a rope like Tarzan and you jump only to end up swinging around fora while) and on the zipline you can also do the superman hang (strapped to your back and crossing arms and spread out as if actually flying) which selvaturas doesn't have, though their ziplines are over farms. Extremos is secondary rainforest too and theyre waiting on a permit to build a bungee to 152m. 

We chose the primary rainforest one, as Agustina was scared anyway to do it. I'm glad we did, because on the last 2 ziplines, which are long and for stability you go in pairs, the views were stunning!! Didn't see any monkeys in the canopy, sadly. 

The next day we did a hike to a 100m waterfall, again beautiful, and rested the rest of the day. The next morning Mikael left us, and our plans being cancelled due to rain, we hung out like lazy sloths all day. When you go to monteverde stay at pension santa elena, the people we so so so helpful!!
I said my goodbyes to Agustina (we'd been traveling together for a month!!) as she was heading west and I went east. 

I took a bus to San Jose and then a bus to Puerto Viejo, at the bottom of the Caribbean coastline. Costa rica has some excellent beaches for surfing but if you're not into that then you're limited to those in the north on the pacific side. 
As I was waiting for the bus to leave in San Jose it hit me - Costa Rica doesnt have to pushy vendors selling every single nicknack on the planet that invade the bus aisles at every stop. It certainly is more peaceful but the liveliness of the sellers also has its charm. 

Puerto Viejo is, as all things are in costa rica it seems, much more touristy than I expected. Quality souvenir stalls lining the one street parallel to the beach and nice, albeit pricey, restaurants. I do think Costa Rica has my favourite comida tipica (local dish) - called casados, which is a plate with a pile of rice, a pile of red beans (frijoles, what else!), some salad, some fried plantain and a type of meat. My favourite are the meats in a tomato sauce, de-lish!

In puerto viejo I stayed at a hostel called rocking J's, which is almost worth coming to puerto viejo for - you can hang up your own hammock/tent, pay for one of their hammocks with an accompanying lockers, pay for a tent (which has a mattress in it) with a locker or go upscale to the dorms and private rooms. It is quite the party hostel, so music until late, but it's setting right in front one of the black sand beaches works in its favour too. 

Rain threatened in the morning but the afternoon saw a breakthrough of sun, which was just wanted I wanted as I was heading back to rainy Belgium soon. I was contemplating a trip up the coast to Tortuguero, which is a protected mangrove forest where tonnes of various turtle species come to lay their eggs every year on the same coastal side but up north, but I decided against it, opting for a short trip to Bocas del Toro in Panama instead. 

Bocas del toro is a group of islands on the Caribbean side, easily reached from Costa Rica, with great surf, beautiful corals and white-sand beaches. Most people stay in bocas town, on isla colon, but I decided to stay on bastimentos island, which has nicer beaches and the famous bastimentos colour morph of the strawberry poison dart frog, with black spots on its red body. Many people mistakenly believe that they're only to be seen on red frog beach (actually found on the whole island) though red frog beach does have sloths. I didnt go to red frog beach, but stayed on wizard beach - more quite and undeveloped, and had 1 day of sun and 1 day of cloudy weather.  Paradise!

I headed back to San Jose a with a full day to spare as I didn't want to risk the bus breaking down and me missing my flight. In San Jose I stayed in hostel Pangea, which reminded me a bit of hostels in Australia - a big institution, clean and made me feel cleaner than I'd felt in a long time!! 

I spent a morning walking around San Jose, which is actually really nice and I'm sure would get a lot more visitors if it ever managed to clean up its act about night crime. The beautiful buildings, civilised (and western) main shopping street (pedestrianised) and big park are lovely. 

And that's when I gave in and said goodbye. I headed to a hostel in Alajuela, much closer to the airport than San Jose, stayed the night and hopped on a free airport shuttle for my 8am flight. 

It's been a great 10 weeks, full of fun, nature and adventure, an I'd highly recommend it to anyone!