Back in Nicaragua

Day: 249

Well, good news and bad news, although the bad news is fairly minor. I lost the USB cable for my camera while walking down a country road here in Nicaragua, and despite going back over the route we took twice combing it with two sets of eyes, we were unable to find it. So, for the time being, the pictures I took will be safely stored on my camera, with no way of getting them on the computer. Until I work out a way to get a new cable, I will be using Tamarah´s but for now, no pics which is a shame because I got some really good shots.

The good news being that we are now in Nicaragua. I was Puerto Viejo´d out and am very excited to be moving again. We are going to be going at a pretty fast pace for the next week and a half, only spending a few days in various spots, then we will be flying out to the Corn Islands where Tamarah has a family friend that owns a resort and is being gracious enough to let us have a $100 dollar a night room for $25 a night. And just for comparisons sake, a $100 dollar a night room in Nicaragua is like staying at the Ritz back home, so I am pretty excited for that after months of either my tent or a bed in a communal sleeping space.

Getting here was a pain though, we left Puerto Viejo at 7 in the morning on 12th, and after 10 hours of traveling got to Liberia, which I would guess as a total distance of maybe 300 miles. It just takes ages to go anywhere in Central America. We spent the night there in a terrible hostel (Hotel Liberia) which was beat up even for a Central American hostel and run by the most obnoxious slob of a man. He really managed to kill what little charm the place had.

The next morning we got up early hoped a bus to the border, struggled through the interminable red tape, hustlers, touts and slow moving bureaucracy of the border crossings here, to get on another bus, to a cab to a boat. That took us another 5 hours to only go about 100 miles! To make the trip even more exciting, I caught a guy trying to steal stuff out of Tamarah´s back pack on the chicken bus we were taking (and true to form, there was a chicken under my seat pecking at my shoes). He had his hand in one of the pouches of her bag and was trying to take stuff out and put it in his own backpack but I had been watching him as he looked really suspicious and when he put his hand in her bag I gave him a whack and yelled at him. He tried to play it off like nothing was happening like a true scum bag, and I had to stop myself from pumeling the guy and let it go as he looked about as poor as they come.

After that, when we were on the boat coming to Ometepe Island (where I climbed the volcano las time I was in Nicaragua) the sea was pretty rough and a kid in front of us, about 3 years old, didn´t take it so well and got sick. The poor little guy tried to make it to the window to throw up but didn´t quite make it and ended up throwing up on Tamarah´s leg. I tried not to laugh because it was gross, but it was petty funny. Mostly I just felt bad for the kid as he looked pretty green under the gills.

We got to the island, which was as beautiful and full of nice people as I remembered it to be, got on another bus that was packed to clown car in a circus limits with people sitting and standing in every available space inside, and with about a dozen guys sitting on the roof, and finally got to Charco Verde, which is a beautiful little beach and lagoon with a hotel on the water. We are staying here for a few days relaxing at the really great and characterful hotel (and only $15 a night!) and after this we plan on exploring some more of the island. I am really enjoying myself here as it is such a great place and last time I was here I was only in one town and didn´t see any other parts of the island.

After this we are going to head up the coast and check out some more spots we both want to see.

I will get pictures up as soon as I can, so until next time, all my love!

Getting ready to head into Nicaragua

Day: 244

I have come to my last few days here in Puerto Viejo, and while it has been a great experience, I am definitely ready to move on. I have one last project to finish up at the volunteer center and then we are heading out. We anticipate leaving on Wednesday.

I am leaving the volunteer project with mixed feelings. I came into it not knowing how I would react and now after having done it for over a month, I have mixed feelings about it. I believe that it takes a certain type of person to be able to stick to a volunteer project long term. I see myself as more of a sprinter when it comes to this type of work. I am great for short projects, but I think I would be pretty lousy in the long run. I just can't get used to busting my butt doing manual labor and not making any money! I guess its just the capitalist background in me, I can't really say, but in the back of my mind despite the fact that I like feeling good about myself for helping others which is absolutely true, its tough for me to justify the expenditure of my time doing work that is not that enjoyable for free. Add to that the fact that you have people who may not know too much about what you are doing trying to tell you how to do the job that you have been given (micro management is a BAD thing!) and I find myself getting annoyed on top of not getting paid. I am the kind of person that takes pride in what I do, and work hard to do a good job. I have confidence in my ability to perform a task well, and if I do need help, I ask for it with no ego getting in the way. I am not the kind of guy who will not ask for directions if I get lost while driving.

So, when someone is trying to tell me how to do something that I know I can do very well on my own, or gives me a job that they expect to be done in an unrealistic time frame I get annoyed. I like to do things efficiently and on my terms, especially when I am not being compensated.

At any rate, I do not intend for this to turn into a negative post, only that it takes a particularly good leader to make a non profit organization run and to keep the members of the team feeling positive about it and working well. The way I see it, if someone is willing to come out and work for free, they are highly motivated anyway and should be left to their own devices, but that is just my opinion.

So, I will leave this feeling that it was a great experience, I am thankful for the opportunity to have helped people who needed a hand and for having had a chance to get to know a very foreign culture on a fairly intimate basis. I have a friend I made, Jeanie, while traveling through this area that will be doing peace corp. work in Morocco, and I plan on visiting her when I pass through that part of the world. I am very curious to see what that entails and I will help out there for a while if I can. Also, one of my best friends back home is going to go to work in the non profit field and I would love to join up with him and do some work if it is feasible and we are close to one another at any point. Plus, it would be great to just spend some time with friends.

Tamarah and I are going to head out and meet up with some friends to explore Nicaragua for a week or two. I am really glad that I have had the chance to meet such a great person. She is a giving, intelligent, fun and a friend for life, without question. Traveling brings you into contact with so many wonderful, adventurous people. It is the best and worst thing about it, as most travelers will tell you, because these fantastic people come into your life but inevitably will leave it again in a short time frame, often to never be seen again. But, the brevity of these relationships also makes them so much more special. When you have a time limit on a friendship of any kind, it forces you to cut through the baloney and just see the other person for who he or she is and accept or reject them based solely on those characteristics.

Lastly, I just wanted to say a few thing about the elections that just took place. I will keep my personal political views to myself as that is not what this blog is for, but suffice it so say that the world is ecstatic about the result. No one here thought Obama had a chance, most of the people I talked to from other countries figured that after what happened with Bush back in 2000, that the conservatives would just take the election through underhanded means. Now, I know most Americans do not believe that will ever happen again, but that is what a lot of the world thinks looking at us form the outside. I have been traveling on my own around various parts of the world off and on since 2002, and the opinion of the world that I have had immediate contact with concerning the USA has been overwhelmingly negative ever since the Bush administration took control. It is perfectly acceptable and commonplace for people from other countries to talk trash about the states. I have seen graffiti in multiple countries with hate messages about our country and especially about President Bush. It drives me insane as I love my country and am proud of who I am and where I come from and what my country was built on and stands for, even when we stumble and make mistakes as we have seen in the past 8 years.

I had gotten so sick of defending my country from people who make constant negative remarks about it offhandedly as if it were OK to slander an entire nation of people. Most of them do not even know what they are talking about, they just have a deep seated animosity towards America. The thing that always drives me nuts, is that people say things in public that if you were to substitute American for any other group of people they would be considered to be a complete jerk and possibly a bigot. But it has been OK to say these types of things about Americans for the past 8 years. So, I feel that my crusade to defend my homeland will be that much easier in the least.

Now, from the point of view of foreign relations with the average Joe from another country, America has gained mountains of respect. I see that as a positive, and it is my greatest hope that now that we have a new President he will live up to the expectations we have for him and help to bring the United States to where I believe it is capable of going. For every citizen back home, if you wanted Obama to win or not, he is our new leader and deserves our support. I am very excited for the possibilities of what this history making event can mean for the country that I love.

Day: 237

Location: Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica

First of all, Happy Halloween to everyone! I hope that the holliday was a lot of fun, we had a blast here even though pretty much no one had a costume. We all got pretty creative and made costumes out of what ever we could find. There were some pretty ingenious get ups, I must say. One of my friends made a Tu Tu out of plastic bags and wore her bkini top and said she was a balarina and it came out looking awesome. Two guys we went out with made some fantastic tribal warrior costumes out of palm fronds, and that is just naming a few. We went out dancing all night and had a great time. We have been here so long now that we know a ton of the locals and the semi permenant travelers that have stayed here like me.

Work at the volunteer center has been enjoyable, well, not the day after Halloween though, that one was a bit rough, but on the whole it has been a great experience. I missed a few days last week as I got sick again with more stomach troubles. There are a lot of parasites around here and I am starting to think I may have some unwanted visitors living in my belly having a good old time at my expense. I have met a man named Gregroy whom the locals call the bush doctor that makes remedies for all kinds of ailments out of locally grown plants. He is a trained pharmacist form the United States who got fed up with life back home and gave everything up to come and live in the jungle with his wife. He is a really interesting guy and has been out here living in basically a hut out in the sticks for the past 17 years, studying the local plants and wildlife and trying to get by living on his wits. There are lots of people like that out here, that had ¨respectable¨ jobs back home making good money that gave it all up to come to the Carribbean and open a salon, or a little restaurant or a surf shop. It makes for a really cool mix of people as the expats come from all around the world.

On the same note, another cool effect of having so many different kinds of people living in the same spot is that the kids here grow up about as multi cultural as can be. You see a little blonde kid running around with a local kid that has dread locks and then they will hang out with a Bri Bri kid and all go to the beach together. It is very positive thing in my opinion.

I have switched hostels and I am so glad that I did. We are now in a hostel called Pagalu, owned by some German brothers. This is honestly the nicest hostel I have ever stayed in. It is very clean and sturdy looking. You can tell that these guys put there heart and soul into building the place and the end result is brilliant. I really like it and it is well worth the few extra bucks.

My time here is drawing to a close. Tamrah and I are thinking about heading up to Nicaragua for a week or two with some friends we have made here. There should be about four or five of us heading up to our northern neighbor to go and have a few adventures. We have all grown a little stir crazy hanging out here for so long plus Nicaragua is a lot less crowded and a lot cheaper. I keep joking that at the rate I am going I will end up back in the USA! Next month I will resume forward progress, but to be honest, it does not matter much to me. I am really enjoying myself and learning new things every day. This trip has changed substantially and that is fine by me. I am taking things as they come and seeking to enjoy this time and to grow as a person, and where ever that path takes me is where I will go.

In Nicaragua we want to go do some hiking in the interior, and to go volcano boarding, a sport in which you strap a board onto your feet like a snowboard, but you ride it down the slope of a volcano. Now, that sounds like something I could get into! Also, we want to hit the Carribbean coast and maybe head out to some of the islands there. Time will Tell.

This is Renualdo, my buddy at the center. This kid is going to take over the world, wait and see! Plus, the girl who´s name I forgot was Carmalita.

This is the finished Chicken coop, not bad for an amatuer!

Me in action, trying to look like I have a clue as to what I am doing!

The new hostel, and SO much nicer. This sure beats my tent!

The very nice kitchen, and as you can see, there are no windows in the place, it is all open to the outside, which is really cool.

The common area for hanging out and meeting new people.

One half of th eplace, it is sperated into two nearly identical buildings.

Halloween night, Tamarah is an island girl, and I was trying to look like a cast away, but I ended up looking like a pirate with a sexual identity crisis.

A nice weekend getaway.

Like a Corona commercial...if Corona were a wine!

The view from the balcony of our Hotel.

Two local kids taking a break from jumping into the sea.

Doing my best soaking up the moment pose.

Hiking through the national park.

More hiking through the park (although it was more walking than hiking really)

Playa Blanca

A local family enjoying some time in the sea. Lots of vacationing Costa Rican families in Cahuita.

Day: 232

Location: Cahuita, Costa Rica

It was great to have a weekend away from Puerto Viejo, and Tamarah and I had a great time. Cahuita is an even smaller and more relaxed place than Puerto Viejo, which I honestly didn't think was possible. It is a tiny little Caribbean beach town with a population of what can not be much over a thousand and only one paved road. On one side of the town is Playa Blanca, or white beach, on the other side is Playa Negra, or black beach. Both are beautiful, long stretches of sand that roll out to aquamraine waters. Its the kind of place you day dream about when you are stuck at work staring at your computer screen for the 7th hour of the day.

The people are very laid back, and it feels like you are in Jamaica more so than Costa Rica. It is begining to be developed so you definitely feel the changes starting to take place, but for the time being it retains most of its authentic feel. You can get a double room there on the beach for 20 dollars a night, with a hammock hanging right outside your door on the porch that is literally a stone's throw from the water.

The food is good, a bit pricey, but tastey and everything moves to a Bob Marley beat. I really really enjoyed the weekend there and would highly recomend it to anyone looking for an escape from the world. It is lively enough that you can step out on a dance floor and dance to some Reggeaton, but slow enough that you do not in the slightest feel rushed to do anything. Nor do the locals for that matter, so do not expect anything to move fast, especially the food you order at the local eateries.

There is a state park there too, with an 11 km trail that makes its way through the jungle right along the sea. We saw all types of birds, insects, lizards, monkeys and even slothes, which are really cool looking animals. They move at a snails pace, but that makes it easier to watch them. They have the coolest looking faces of any animal I have ever seen, and they are pretty nice little guys, reaching out to touch you if you come close. They are so slow and gentle that is amazes me that they survivie at all. They seem like any type of predator would just gobble them up with nearly no effort.

On the whole, it was a great way to get away for a while and recharge the batteries. I have some big projects coming up at the volunteer center, so it was nice to be able to get away and just think about relaxing and enjoying life fora few days (although I am far from stressed in Puerto Viejo!)

Week three in Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica

One of the local eateries, Salsa Brava, named after the famous surf spot here.

Some local kids swimming in the sea.

The beach.

My trusty tent!

Most people here sleep in hammocks.

My favorite spot to sit and read.

This is the symbol of my favorite band, Social Distortion. I couldn´t believe my eyes when I saw a mosaic of them out here in Costa Rica! It was really cool for me.


Another week has breezed by me here in paradise and I have hardly noticed. Time just seems to move so much slower here, one day sort of drifting into the next. I am not complaining at all, its nice, but I am getting a bit antsy for a change of pace, at least for a little while. So, Tamarah, my fellow volunteer and I, have decided to head up to a place called Tortuguero for a weekend. It is a village that sits on a series of canals and is home to a large population of sea turtles. It sounds like a nice little get away and we are both really looking forward to it.

I finished the new chicken coop at the volunteer site and I must say, it came out fairly nice. It has been dubbed Casa Reece, which cracked me up and is home to a family of new little chicks that just hatched. Next up I am going to repair the fence around the center and then possibly varnish the building as well. I like working with my hands but its funny, since I am the only young guy working there I get to do all of the manual labor! Oh well, I don´t mind.

So, life is good, just a bit routine right now. I still get out to body surf every day that I can, as well as running and cycling around. The surf is picking up and if I end up staying here for a while I will have to snag a surf board as November and December it gets pretty big out here.

I have included some pictures of some of the local area and the place that I have been staying, Rocking J´s which is a cool place to hang out and cheap. I can put my tent up for 4 bucks a night, and the place is beautiful, decorated by the people that have stayed there. The only draw back is that the owner is a bit of a sleaze ball, hitting on every young girl that comes through the door, and I have had a few things stolen, like some clothes and food, which really pisses me off. I am going to relocate to something a bit more secure even if it costs a few bucks more a night.

That is it for now, I hope everyone is well and happy.

My first days of work in 7 months!

Well, I have my first few weeks of volunteering under my belt and I can honestly say that it has turned out to be very rewarding. A lot of people probably read that and slap their foreheads and say, duh!, but for me it really was a big question mark as to whether or not I would enjoy myself. Volunteer work has always seemed strange to me. To work and not get paid just seemed like doing things backwards. Intellectually, I could always understand the need for it and the beautiful gesture that it was to give of yourself to those less fortunate than yourself, but in practice a lot of the people I have met that volunteer have seemed to me to act far too morally superior for my taste. It seemed like a lot of people used it as a means to elevate themselves above other people and that always annoyed me. Plus, it always seemed to me that you could work, help people but still be compensated for your time and energy.

One of my best friends back home is really involved with volunteer work and non proffit organizations and he is one of the most down to earth, nice people I have ever met (looking at you Tony!). Being friends with him made me realize that not everyone who volunteered was annoying and that in fact the majority of people that did it were most likely great people that didn´t advertise to the world what they were doing and just went about getting good things done.

At any rate, after jumping in and getting my hands dirty I really felt good about myself and what I was doing. The kids I work with are super cool. They took a while to warm up to me but I love kids and I tend to buddy up to them pretty fast. The more I learn about their culture and lives the more I am blown away by it. The Bri Bri live out in the wild jungle. They have to walk down jumgle trails for hours just to get to what we would consider to be civilization. The kids as young as 4 and 5 years old can navigate through the jungle without even thinking tiwce about it. Tamarah, my fellow voluntter and a great person, went on a four hour hike with a few kids, accompanied by a young boy of 12 and a little girl that was 4! What family back home would let there children that age stomp around through the jungle like that with nothing more than a machette for protection? Its just normal life for them.

They have not changed their lifestyles or belifes much in the last 5,000 years, which is how long they are believed to have lived in the area. The program I work with helps to get kids into school (you will see them wearing their school uniforms in the pictures) and to give the parents small loans to start buisnesses or buy basics like food, etc. This really helps to give them a leg out of poverty and to provide oppertunities for the kids that the parents don´t have. We also provide soup to anyone in need and its fun to see the older Bri Bri women come in to help make the soup and gossip while chopping up the veggies. Also, the teenage Bri Bri girls always want to use the telephone! Hah! Just goes to show, that teenage girls the world around are pretty similar!

On the negative side unfortunately, is the abuse that we have been trying to fight against. It is tough for me to try and get my head around some of the things that go on, but it is culturally acceptable for a Bri Bri father to beat his wife and children, have sex with any of his daughters even having children by them, or to kill any of his children that are born with a handicap.

Its shocking for me as a westerner to hear this, but for them it is perfectly acceptable. When confronted about his behaivor, a Bri Bri father will listen, nod and give a yeah so? look. To them it is not even somethign to bat an eye at.

Needless to say, it is tough hearing these kinds of things and we try to help as much as possible. Not all of the men act this way either, there are plenty of good families out there that have healthy internal relationships, but the bad apples always tend to stick out.

I will report more as it comes, but for now I can say that volunteer work is a great way to help out and to allow yourself to feel like you can make a difference in the world. I plan on doing it again in other parts of the world as it also enables me to meet locals, to really get involved in their culture and it makes me feel good about myself, so in my eyes its a win win.


Me building a new chicken coop for the center. It actually is coming out really well which is a pleasant surprise! Ha, just kidding, I am pretty handy with some tools after all my time doing slave labor for my Mom and Dad (just kidding, I am glad now for all those jobs I did with you guys)! And working with my grandparents on their farm taught me a lot about building and fixing things.

I forgot how gratifying it is to build something with your hands. I was really enjoying myself.

From left to right we have, Willie, Reynaldo (who is the hardest working little kid I have ever met), Alejandro covering his face, and a girl who I am kicking myself because I can´t remember he rname even though I talk to her every day (I´ll add it to the next update, I am so bad with names) and then myself.

The guys helping me out with the job.

They were really interested in helping me out and watching my build the chicken coop which was fun. Working in the heat and humidity, not so fun!

And this is to show all my friends back home that I am still me and having fun! Work hard, play hard, words to grown on!

Pictures, finally!

Ok, I finally got some pictures up. Still have a lot more but it takes ages to get them up on the web here.

These are all pictures from the good times I have been having with my friends so far. I have not wanted to bring a camera to the volunteer program yet as I just got started and I dont want to come in like a stupid tourist and start snapping pictures of kids as if they were animals in a zoo when I am trying to make friends with them. but I promise to get some photos up when time allows.

I have some pretty harrowing tales about the kids in the porgram but I want to get some more time under my belt with them before I post something that may be inaccurate. Suffice it to say for now that they live very hard lives.

I did want to mention one thing however, and that was how I was feeling now that I had some time under my belt being off of the bike. At first I was really sad about it and felt like I was letting myself down, and a big part of me wanted to go home.

However, now that I have been able to get over those feelings and realize how much more I will be able to do, I am actually glad that my illness occured. It was difficult at the time but now I see that I am actually happier traveling this way than I was on the bike. The bike was a great challenge, fun and a unique way to travel, but going by backpack, being around lots of people from all over the world, and having a greater freedom to move around suits my personality better. Already, the things I have seen and done since I have gotten off of the bike and especially the people I have met, would not have come into my life had I not gotten sick. It really has turned out to be a blessing in disguise and I am happy for the change.

So, for now, I am just taking this adventure one day at a time. In moments like these, I get to move slowly, relax, help people in circumstances that are not the best. I get to form relationships with locals, travelers and hold still long enough to really get to know a place. When it is time to move on, I can go climb a mountain, sail a boat, trek through the jungle, what ever I feel like doing. It is great, I have never felt this free in my life. I have no bills to pay, no place to be, no responsibilities to weigh on my mind other than my own well being. I am healthy, happy and loving my life right now. If anyone out there needs to get their mind cleared out and find themself, just leaving everything behind (so long as that is feasible of course) is a great way to get back in touch with what is important to you in your life. The things I used to take for granted as being universally important have just melted away. Life for me here is good company, an engaging book to read, a beautiful day at the beach, a filling meal. I feel like things have been boiled down to their essentials and it is really nice. I feel so much more at ease with myself than I did back in the hustel and bustle of life in Southern California. There are downsides to life here, without a doubt, nothing is perfect, but in small doses a place like this can heal a lot of what ails you.

The gang on the beach: Sam from the states, Maria from Norway, Tamarah (my felow volunteer) from Canada, Myself, Medde from Denmark, Marlain and Jasper from the Netherlands. A wonderful group of people!

Sam, Tamarah, Myself and Jeff from Canada, who is a great guy.

One of our family dinners, such good food!

Maria had an underwater camera, this is us me snorkeling at Punta Uva, a beach here in Puerto Viejo.

This is Buddy, the coolest of a bunch of fun local dogs. He comes with me on my morning runs on the beach and chases birds and crabs around.

I love me a bicycle ride! We all took bikes to explore the beaches around the area.

My new home! Just kidding. And just kidding on the pose too, it was just for laughs from my friends.

This is our favorite beach to hang out on.

This is the path we walk down to go to the beach. Its beautiful and runs through the woods right along the water.