Monkeys, Monkeys, Monkeys!

Tearing ourselves away from Montezuma was hard (like getting out of a hammock), but had to be done. We set off for Manuel Antonio, a nature reserve further south along the Pacific. San Ginobli, as Nick calls it, is famous for its postcard beautiful beaches and wildlife. Ofcourse as we set foot into the park our camera broke! It's a shame, we would've had some our best blog pictures yet. We tiptoed past a 3 and a half foot iguana and the 3 of us sunbathed together atop a lookout over the park and Pacific ocean. We saw many Sloths high in the tree tops and even had the rare experience of watching a 3-toed sloth make its way down the tree to the jungle floor for its weekly bathroom break (#2). The whole thing took a long time. At one point as we were strolling through the lush jungle the trees around us began to russle and one by one, from the canopy and the ground, we were surrounded by White-faced Capuchins. There were monkeys everywhere, leaping over our heads, swinging on branches and vines around us and crossing in front of us on the ground. After many minutes of watching them in awe, we were taken back to see the dominant male and his buddy leap towards us within a few feet, hissing and showing his fangs and looking a lot bigger than we remembered. Needless to say, we ran for our lives!!! But man the pictures would've been great!
After a quick stop in San Jose (to deal with the camera), we headed to the Caribbean coast, our last stop in Costa Rica. Cahuita itself is a funny little town, but is home to a beautiful National park lining miles of white sand beaches. We took most of the day to walk the jungle trail which was scattered with secluded, scenic swimming spots, and ofcourse a healthy dose of monkey watching. The trees were literally filled with Capuchin and Howler monkeys. We don't have many beach shots because our entire memory card is full of monkey shots!

Adios for now, Pura Vida!!! and Happy New Years.

Costa Rican Christmas/Channuka Vacation

First off, to anyone following our blog comments, we're innocent! There was no shoebox full of money only a joker from Vermont with a bad sense of humour.

Our last stop in Nicaragua was a short stay in San Juan del Sur, a little town on the Pacific coast. Our plans to take up surfing were put aside in favor of a free ride to Costa Rica where our knees were not crushed into child sized seats of old American school buses and good music at a bearable volume. We then took a ferry across to the Peninsula de Nicoya where we met up with our friends Becky and Harris in Montezuma. Montezuma is a cute little town with endless stretches of beautiful beaches where the shoreline meets lush jungle. We stayed in a hotel right on the beach and took advantage of the hammocks and other luxuries of our friends fancier hotel. Just a 20 minute walk along a river from our hotel were 3 connected waterfalls. The first was a spectacular 30 meter cascade into a beautiful pool perfect for swimming. It was an adventerous climb to the next 2 falls, but well worth it for the rope swing and many ledges to dive from.

One beautiful sunny day we decided to take a 30 minute walk along the beach to playa grande, the most beautiful and secluded of Montezumas beaches. After a wonderful afternoon of frolicking, swimming, and playing in the waves we began to make our way back. However, somehow Talia stepped on a sea urchin!! Nick went searching for help and found 2 very nice guys that carried Talia into town where we were rushed to the hospital. I have now felt the most excrutiating pain that exists in this world, I have to say thank God for Morphene! After the incident we decided to stick to swimming in the waterfall, poor us. We both agree that Montezuma is one of our favorite places so far.

More Pictures:
http://www.imagestation.com/album/?id=2115416467

Isla de Relaxacione

Have you ever ridden a mechanical bull?
Our boat ride over to Isla de Ometepe made our butts soar and our stomachs moan. We actually were thrown out of our seats many times as we rocked across Lago Nicaragua. The Isle de Ometepe is made up of two volcanoes joined after an eruption created and isthmus of lava connecting the two. Our first stop on the island was on Playa Venecia where we swam in the lake at sunset until the thought of the world's only fresh water sharks swimming with us brought us to the shore. We travelled around the island from beach to beach watching monkeys hanging by their tails feeding in the trees right out the bus window at eye-level. We hiked 1km up the side of the smaller Volcano, Volcan Madera, where we stayed in a farm house on a working coffee plantation (Finca Magdalena). The Finca was surrounded by trails through pastures and gardens leading to petroglyphs from 300AD. Our first day we began an assent up the volcano and came accross a few Howlers passing overhead. We stopped to observe and noticed more were on their way. Nick decided to get a closer look and, like a monkey himself, climbed up a tree. As he looked up the Holwers began to crowd around the very tree that he was in. Several families, including 3 babies (so cute!), were all inspecting this new monkey while he in turn inspected them. All in all, about 15 Howlers and 1 homosapien hung out in one tree for a good hour. Our most incredible monkey encounter yet!

Our final stay on the island was at the family run, Hostel Monkey Island. We relaxed in hammocks, swam in the lake, and made a failed attempt at paddling in the family canoe (actually a small hollowed out log) across to Monkey Island. Instead we played with our new friend Kiko. This little 1 year old White-faced Capuchin was a bundle of fun. It cuddled, pick-pocketed and explored our bodies. A monkey actually picked Nick´s nose and ate it!! We then took the 2 1/2 hour bus ride back around the 30kms of rocky, muddy, potholed roads (more butt pain) back to the dock and headed off the island exhausted from so much relaxing.
Adios!

More Pics:
http://www.imagestation.com/album/?id=2115925591

Monkey Hut

After only a short stay in Honduras, we made our way to Nicaragua. We arrived at our hotel in Granada to find that it was quite luxurious for our normal backpacking standards. There is a beautiful little pool, free internet, movies, tea and coffee and rooms surrounding a plant-filled courtyard with hammocks, all for only $9 each, which is expensive by Central American standards. So, we have been truly enjoying the life for a few days. Yesterday we took a trip to the nearby Laguna de Apoyo. It is an old volcano crater filled with warm water and the surrounding rim is full of lush jungle. We spent the day swimming, innertubing, kayaking, and just relaxing in the tranquility. We woke up with the sun and took a walk down the road in search of Howler monkeys. Nick has perfected his howl and communicated enough with his fellow monkeys so that we could follow their howel to find them. Just off the side of the road was a group of Mantled Howler monkeys (with brown backs). We bushwacked our way towards them and found ourselves just below their tree in time for their morning calls.
As can be seen our time in Nicaraugua has been quite strenuous so far, so we are heading towards Isla de Ometepe on Lago de Nicaragua for a little relaxation.
Adios

Unda Da Sea

We landed on the isle of Utila, Honduras were the island's biggest lie is "I'm leaving tommorow". We said this ourselves about 9 times. Utila has some of the best food we've eaten ever and we became regulars at few backyard BBQs. Mmmmm Dave's BBQued jerk chicken!!!! The main attraction to Utila is it's the least expensive place on earth to explore the underwater world, so Talia confronted her fear of the ocean, and that's exactly what we did. You can now add another credential to our names. We are now officially "Scuba Nick" and "Scuba Talia". We embarked on a 5 day Scuba certification course that took us more than 18 meters deep into the ocean. There's a whole new world under the sea. We explored mountains of coral reef, filled with strange plants and colourful fish. We saw Angelfish, Lobsters, Eels, Discoballfish (unofficial name- black fish covered in blue dots radiating light), and most amazingly Stoplight Parrotfish. If you can imagine the most colourful parrot and add fins and gills you get these vibrant 2 foot long marine beauties that spend all day chomping on coral. One even greeted Talia by staring her in the face, a few feet away, and mouthed the words "Hello Talia". It was an incredible experience-so peaceful, so wonderous and so freeing to breathe underwater and become just another fish. We got off the boat each day with grins on our faces and singing "Unda da Sea". It really is better down where it's wetter!!!