Return From The 3rd World

Well we all made it out of Jalapa alive yesterday after our days of service. Between medical surveys, educating the locals on oral and vaginal health (haha... I'm too immature to not laugh at that combo), and construction work, we definitely stayed busy and gave back to the poor community of Jalapa in northern Nicaragua. Rather than write a ton about the service work and week I'll just post a bunch of pictures so you can get a better idea of some of the things we did.

Yesterday we woke up and traveled by bus from Jalapa to Matagalpa to a coffee plantation/resort called Selva Negra. Coffee is one of Nicaragua's main exports and the valley definitely smelled of it as we drove in. Selva Negra is apparently a honeymoon destination for Nicaraguans, but when we arrived we were told that all the males that didn't have wives on the trip with them would be staying in a bungalo, aka "The Man Shack". There is quite the variety in terms of age on this trip. About 1/4 are students like us, while a majority of the rest are over the age of 60. We soon found ourselves in the loft of the bungalo with 6 other roommates of various ages. Don't get me wrong, each and every one of them is awesome, but the group dynamics have been very interesting. Playing drinking games with people older than your parents is always a great time.

After a night of drinking games with way too much Flor de Caña, the three of us woke up early and went to breakfast. After assessing our options for the day we came to the realization that our best bet would be to go back to sleep for 2.5 more hours until lunch. Besides, it was cold and rainy out and none of us were in the mood for a tour of the coffee farm on horseback. After the hugest lunch I've ever had in my life, we loaded up the bus and drove back to Managua.

We are now back at Las Mercedes hotel, and for the first time in about 10 days we worked out. Prez, Luke and I did an aqua jogging workout with Gina Collings in the hotel pool followed by some abs on the pool deck. Felt great to get the heart rate up and work out. I think we're all feelking like blobs right about now. Tomorrow we're back on our own again though so I think we'll all be eating a lot less (frequency and volume) since we're back on our own budget. We're going to try to catch a bus to San Juan del Sur which is a beach town on the Pacific in southern Nicaragua.

That's all for now...

See you soon!

-chris

6 Days Without a Shower

We apologize for the lack of pictures that this post will (not) contain. The three of us are currently in Jalapa, Nicaragua in an internet cafe owned by one of our interpreters, Lester. It is quite small, but is larger than all the other places in town which only have one computer. I guess its probably what you should expect from a town where the owners of the hotel shut off the water for over three straight days to save money. Not exactly the best way to please your guest but thats poverty at its finest. Needless to say we made it six days without a real shower. Maybe that doesn´t sound very impressive but given the hot weather and hard work that we´ve been doing, its a hell of an accomplishment that we didn´t die from our own stench or some disease growing on us. Prez got a really bad ear infection which had progressivly gotten worse since being in Tamarindo. The doctor on our trip gave him drugs (Vicodin) and antibiotics. I think he is finally feeling better.
The first two days here we spent out in rural communites doing medical surveys for the University of Minnesota. On average the homes were no bigger than our dorm rooms at school, housing anywhere from 8 to 14 people. Most had little or no access to food, much less a bathroom/outhouse because the soil is too sandy. More stories to come about the surveys later. In addition to going house to house and asking questions, we also put on a teaching clinic. Chris talked about dental hygiene while Prez and I demonstrated the proper brushing techniques with a large model of teeth. The three girls with us from Olaf had to talk about Cervical cancer. A topic we nearly escaped...I´ve had just about enough talk about PAP smears this week (one of the main reasons the medical team with us is here). Side note: one of the doctors with us surgically re-implanted a womans uterus yesterday. Apparently it was hanging down between her legs. Looser than a wizards sleeve.

Yesterday and today we were able to be manly and bang shit on the construction site with Don. In short we were able to put the roof on a 20 x 90 foot school. 24 rafters.. its more impressive to see than write about so I´ll save that for later. Don almost died four times yesterday by falling off the roof.

For those of you who can´t quite grasp the full picture of Jalapa, let me paint you a quick picture and the photos we put up later can help reiterate them:

-The hospital disposes of all their waste in a pile in the courtyard behind the hotel. This includes used open needles, bloodly gauze pads, and any body parts/fluids removed during surgical procedures. To top it all off they burn the pile daily so animals won´t eat it. Biohazardous wastes don´t sound particularily appetizing to me.
-Most people don´t have cars here so many get around on horse back or move their stuff with the help of two oxen and a cart. One has a hard time of stepping around the massive piles of poop all over the street.
-People have few appliances in their homes and therefore cook with open, wood fired stoves. The air is polluted and smoggy beyond belief.
-To buy liquor tonight Chris rode on a motorcycle to a builiding with a window. There he had to ask for the booze and the lady in the window gave it to him. Talk about not being able to window shop!


Thats all for now..
Gotta do the Jalupe Hustle

Adio,
Luke

When you take a whiff that big for $11, you know you got a good deal

Our journey in Tamarindo ended on a slow note. After passing up partying on Friday, we then also missed out on free drinks at the Discoteque Aqua on Saturday. Our livers will thank us later. On the other hand, we made enough rice to feed a family of 10 for dinner last night. The taquitos we cooked were awful- I suppose that´s what you get for buying your food from a store that smells like rotting, dead bodies. Before going to bed we downloaded an application for Truth or Dare on my Ipod. Best dare of the night, pour cold water into the belly button of the person to your right. We didn´t do it. Kissing was also brought up which lead to an app which taught us how to kiss appropriately. I think its safe to say we all learned a few new pointers (Chris didn´t learn anything). Watch out ladies.

After getting up at a quarter to five we left our hostel about 5:15 in search of a bus to bring us from Tamarindo to meet up with our 8:00 connection with Tica Bus in Liberia. All our sources, including another bum, insisted that it would take about two hours and that we should take the 3:30am bus if we wanted to be sure to arrive on time. Apparently this bus (the Tica Bus) is often on-time or even early- hard to believe. We decided to neglect that and try our luck with the 5:45 bus. We walked down the street to where we were instructed to find our ride. Wouldn't you know it a bus was there and already loading up passengers! But wait, this bus was not headed to Liberia but instead to San Jose. First bummer of the day. We asked the driver if there was even a bus that existed to Liberia at that hour. He pointed and rattled of something incomprehensible and off we went; hot on the trail off...something. A drunk driver rolled past sipping an Imperial. Must have been a hell of a night to be up at that hour. Another drunk greeted us on the next corner explaining that he was a student like us (what do students look like?). Extremely intoxicated, he became irritated that we wouldn't believe that there was no bus coming for us. His friend was a cabbie- he'd take us for $15 each. Clearly a better option but at second thought since the cab driver was barracho too. Choice #1 of the morning, would you rather: ride with a drunk driver for 73km or wait longer for the bus which still has yet to materialize (bearing in mind the two hour ride would now put us in only 5 minutes earlier than our designated pick up)? We opted for the bus-duh! Sure enough it came, only 20 minutes late. Our only hope to make the connection was that the driver would haul. Luckily for every conceivable abuela (for all you non Spanish speakers that means grandma) on board he stopped in every po-dunk town between Tamarindo and our destination. By 7:20 we has made it just slightly less than half way. We had to do something- our largest purchase of the trip this far, a $21 bus ticket was in jeopardy of going to waste. So, naturally we ran off the bus and got into a taxi. We had 10 miles to go in...7 minutes!? Oh no. Not sure I've cursed that much in a long time. 8:02 and the lottery ticket salesman shakes his head, "mas tarde". The bus hadn't been to our stop. Booya.

Not only was it not there but we were forced to sweat out 30 minutes more of waiting- time enough for Chris to eat some McDonalds. We should have known, Tico time= nothing is ever on time. We boarded the bus to find our reserved seats taken. No Lady Gaga party for now. We reached the boarder crossing and to our horror quickly realized a large quantity of our lives was about to be painstakingly removed. All passengers were instructed to form a line and wait. A half dozen or more people rushed us in hopes that they could exchange our money from Colones to Cordaba. They flaunted stacks of dough thicker than Prez's skull. Nearly two hours of standing provided us with a view of the door where we were supposed to get to. During this time we had moved all of about 3 bus lengths- more profanity. As I had forgotten from my last trip here, forming lines is not a part of pre-school teaching like it is elsewhere. Really what I'm saying is that any attempt for multiple people to achieve the same goal ultimately and inevitably ends in a clusterfuck- always. Success; a stamped passport and we now had permission to leave Costs Rica. But now we still had to enter Nicaragua. 45 minutes stationary in international waters (see The Book for similar procedures regarding bullshit or ask us because we´re well versed in its rules and regulations). The bus driver took all of our passports, plus $8 as an entrance fee for crossing/visiting Nicaruagua. Once again we were forced off the bus and told to take our bags from the undercarriage. Clusterfuck. Our bags, being the last ones to be loaded, should have been the first to get off but that makes way too much sense. Instead we found ourselves balls deep in Nicas, leaving the crowd with backpacks above our heads- elbows flying everywhere. We proceeded to have our bags searched by customs. This consisted of the guy looking at us, collecting our entry papers and telling us to go back on the bus. We didn´t even have to open our bags. I guess we could have smuggled drugs across (if we were into that sort of thing).


While eyeing some of the freshly prepared food one of the vendors started seizing and fell to the ground. Everyone looked at her and stood perplexed. What to do? Well, if you know Nica- you do nothing. Time to get back on the bus. In order to do so this time we had to stand and wait for the agent to call our name and get back our passport. Mistakenly I thought I heard my name called second. Turns out no. I got laughed at. Low and behold we were the last three. Stupid Americans. We had the privilege of watching our second bootlegged version of Ice Age. You could hear the audience laughing in the background- beautiful quality for Latin 'Merica. Following that they played some awful movie. Maybe it was intended to be romantic because the woman next to me groped my butt multiple times. I blame it on her overweight status, but I was quite uncomfortable by the whole ordeal (ironic that we learned how to kiss correctly the night before i think not). The lady next to Prez might have been worse. She kept propping her legs toward him and doused him with her perfume. Yummy burned nostrils.

The ride was quite pleasant and we got to see some cool wind farms and volcanoes. Finally we pulled into the Tica Bus station at 4:30 instead of the 3 o´clock scheduled time of arrival. After a short taxi ride we made it to our hostel which is actually in two separate locations. Burger King for dinner and then to the super market for what proved to be the most uplifting moment of the day. A 1.75 of the famed Flor de Caña rum for only 11 dollars. I forgot how cheap it was here! It would have been irresponsible not to buy it In all we got a liter of coke, the rum and two bags of chips for 14 u.s. money´s.. try and beat that with even ronny d. Once again, 12 hours of travel, four of which were spent at the border crossing but we are all still alive. Just as I remembered it appears that everyone in Managua wants to rob us- this part of town actually looks pretty nice. Tomorrow holds the biggest upgrade of the entire trip- a hotel, not hostel which costs twice as much for one person per night than what we pay for all three of us. Then off to Jalapa on Tuesday.


We have to pay for internet up there so the stories may slowly start to shorten for the next few days. Just remember- don´t come to Managua unless you have a reason, or just want some cheap, high quality rum (will someone price check it at firehouse for me, jiggy?)

Go Vikings, Brett Favre

Peace and love to all,
Luke

The rockstar lifestyle is catching up with us

So after Prez's post we played some drinking games with some Guaro and Fresca (surprise surprise). We played King's Cup with some Argentinan girls, which proves to be pretty challenging when you get the 'rhyme' category and don't speak the same language. I don't know what the hell rhymes with 'bicicleta'... Somewhere along the way one of the guys playing (from Colorado Springs, CO) decided it would be a good idea to get another bottle of Guaro. Since it seemed like a great idea at the time we threw some Colones his way and cashed yet another liter with him. As great of a time as we had, we were pretty dead to the world yesterday morning (or at least Prez and I were). After laying in bed for as long as possible, we headed out to the beach to get some more sun.

We constructed some awesome sand art, including a merman and 'Le Dick'. We also saw many people, both male and female in speedos and thongs. Prez and I are contemplating buying ourselves speedos to minimize our tan lines.

For dinner we were reeled in by a dude on the street corner who told us that we could get 2 pizzas for $10 and 2 for 1 beers. Not wanting to pass this deal up we followed our new friend (his name was Robinson - very Spanish, I know) to his restaurant on the fourth floor rooftop of a nearby building. Immediately we thought that this place was too classy for us, but the view of the sunset was incredible and the deal for food was just as awesome. After our romantic candle lit dinner we returned back to the hostel to watch Jurassic Park III, World's Craziest TV Commercials, Magic's Secrets Revealed, MTV Teen Cribs and the end of the Phoenix Suns and Atlanta Hawks NBA game. Since we still felt like shit from the night before we decided to turn in early... going to bed around 10:30pm (yeah, we're pretty cool).

This morning I woke up and went for a run at 8:20 and couldn't get Prez to get out of bed. I trucked it out alone and got my ass kicked by the heat and humidity yet again. Luke went out for a run when I returned. I also met a retired guy staying at our hostel that wants to get in to medical school. I wished him luck, but I'm not sure he will accomplish his goal since he's in his 60's and suckling at the unemployment teet.

Time for food...
Oh and we still haven't seen anybody drink out of the faucet here (or anywhere for that matter), something we do on a daily basis. I guess nothing phases us. Boom
Til next time
.chris

A Map for Your Enjoyment

Not sure how well this will work but I tried to create
a map that shows you where we have been thus far. Each color represents another leg of the journey. The lines are by far more direct than any path we have traveled. Oh well. Surf bums are waiting to use the computer. Gotta run. The other two bums are still asleep so I am going to go wake them up.

Missed it by THAT much...again

The remainder of our stay in Montezuma was relatively uneventful. We just chilled the first two nights as Rivers and I had some Imperial on the beach each night. The last night we each had a couple of liters and played cribbage. Here are some of the other highlights: We had a bum hang out by our hostel every night, drink of choice: Guaro and Imperial. One afternoon he was walking around with a noose around his neck looking for people to pull it. I hope I never have to resort to that. We ran every day in Montezuma, Chris and I went about six each day and Luke did his own thing. It was very difficult to do much more since it was extremely hot, humid, and hilly. Chris and I also raced the cops one day while they were on their motorcycle. They liked us. We also created our own drinking game for cribbage for all you cribbage enthusiasts such as ourselves:
When someone plays to 31 the other players drink
The losers of each hand drink the difference between the highest hand and the next highest hand
If someone pegs more than two points in a row during play the other players drink that many drinks over two (if someone pegs six, thats four drinks for the others)
If the crib is over 5 pts, the other players drink the difference. If it is below, the player with the crib drinks the difference.
We also ran into a girl staying at our hostel that also made the waterfall jump. She said, ¨I jumped and I forgot I was wearing a tampon, it felt like I was just railed by a black man. Then I threw up.¨ boom.

Fortunately the atm was fixed on Tuesday so we were able to get money and make our way to Tamarindo. We were about bankrupt at that point.

Now for our travel day from hell (Wednesday):
Our goal was to end up in Tamarindo, also on the Nicoya Peninsula and really not that far away. Upon asking around, we could have payed $35 each for a shuttle to take us there in about 3 hours or take the bus. Our little buddy who looks like he was no older than 14, but apparently ran the hostel told us we would have to take the bus to Paquera, ferry to Puntarenas, bus to Liberia, and a bus to Tamarindo. shit. But seeing as this would be cheaper we decided to do it. We love adventures, and riding the winds of fate.

6:00 am - wake up and go for a run. Ending a run in the ocean is about the best thing ever.
8:00 am - bus arrives to take us to the ferry in Paquera, when we were told it leaves.
8:25 am - the bus finally leaves, because they decided they had to clean every square inch of it only to see it turn into a pile of dust after our ride. The road into Montezuma is maybe the hilliest and dustiest road in Costa Rica. Only to be rivaled by our later ride into Tamarindo.
10:15 - arrive in Paquera for the ferry
11:00 - ferry leaves for Puntarenas. Highlight: Listening to ¨I'm on a boat¨ while actually being on a boat! Take a picture trick, I'm on a boat bi$%h! And we ate some tasty ham pastries of some sort.
12:15 - arrive in the shithole that is Puntarenas. The only reason to be here is to be taking the ferry or a bus out of town. So we got off the bus and took a short taxi ride to the bus stop in hopes of catching a bus to Liberia.
12:35 - arrive at bus stop. Last bus left at 12:20. Next one isn't until 3:00 pm. fml. So after standing around in complete dismay for a few minutes we decided to make the best of the time. The bus stop was right next to the worst beach in Costa Rica. So we wraped our towels around us, got naked, and put our suits on. Hung out on the beach and played ¨Cliff 'em¨ for and hour or so. If you are wondering, ladies, you were probably involved. But our answers shall never be revealed. And if you don't know what that is, don't worry about it.... We wandered for a bit, had some ice cream, and were serenaded by Mario the bum and his harmonica. ¨Me llamo Mario. I play nice song for you. I have 62 years. Merry Christmas and happy new year.¨ We gave about 40 cents to gtfo.
2:40 pm - taxi driver comes up to us and chats. He tells us not to go to Liberia because it is like a 4 hour drive as it makes lots of stops. So he convinces us to let him drive us the an intersection on the pan american highway and wait for a bus going to Santa Cruz (near Tamarindo). What the heck, we might as well. So we did. I was able to chat with him in Spanish for a bit, surprising myself.
3:00 - arrive at intersection, he tells us a bus will be there at 3:30.
3:24 - sure enough, a bus shows up. One lady gets on with no trouble, then we try and board and the driver tells us there is no room. f that. we're gettin on this b. So he told us we could stand. We later discovered that was not a scheduled stop and we were on a charter bus from San Jose to Santa Cruz. The lady he picked up was his wife. We might still be at that corner if not for her...So we stand for the next two hours. Luke counted 19 people standing and couldn't see everyone. The limit on the front of the bus said 10 standing only. We got radar gunned by the po-pos and pulled over, so the driver got out with his cash bag, exchanged a few words with the cop, and it was all good.
5:25 - arrive in Santa Cruz and catch the Tamarindo bus as it was leaving. Stand for another 30 min. We wonder if we are actually going there because this bus is weaving in and out of towns making stops everywhere, and it's dark. We thought the Ticos were gonna take us to a back alley somewhere and kill us. I believe we were the only gringos on the bus.
6:30 - arrive in Tamarindo after about 10.5 hours of travel. Followed a bum to a hostel, which actually worked out well. We have ac, a big screen tv, free internet, kitchen, and hookers (not really) for only $12 a night. We didn't give him any money. We've given our fair share to the bum population.
7:45 - got a deal. Cheeseburger, fries, and a coke for $7. Came back to our hostel and went to our drink of choice: Guaro y Fresca...yumm. We also realized our hostel owner is a womanizer.
He was cuddling on the couch with a girl that is about 15 years younger than him and claimed not to drink. What a skeeze. Then we just went to bed after riding the bus a couple times each.

So was the bus adventure worth it?
yays:
We each saved about $17 on travel fare.
We got to listen to ¨I'm on a boat¨ while on a boat.
Serenaded by a bum.
Got some beach time.
Saw two big cruise ships. Why a cruise ship would dock in Puntarenas is beyond me.
We know we can stand for over two hours.
We rode the winds.
Nays:
About 7.5 hours of our lives we will never get back.

Shout out to SB '08 Panama City, there is a Sharkys less than a block from our hostel. Maybe we can dream up some tasty shots, Mike D.

Today we booked our tickets on Tica Bus for our trip to Nicaragua on Sunday. Then we headed to the beach to tan our beautiful bodies. Luke and I made a dike just in time for high tide. It held out pretty well, but eventually was overpowered by the water. We made some exotic marinara hot dog sauce to go with our spaghetti for dinner. More Guaro and Fresca tonight? There is a Bob Marley party tonight down the street, we'll probably go and get a second-hand high.

Until next time. Stay classy, cuz we aren't.

Sand Blasts and Waterfalls

So after last night's long journey to Montezuma, we woke up fairly early and all of us headed out for a run. I ran with Dave south along the dirt road. It was really hilly and humid. Luckily there was some relief with some patches of shade. We heard some howler monkeys in the trees along the road as we ran. Pretty awesome. Montezuma is a really small town with a small cluster of shops and restaurants on the main drag. It feels like we're pretty far removed from the rest of the world. Way different than the other locations we've been to here.

When we got back we made some lunch and headed out to the beach to get tanner. Unfortunately the wind was blowing pretty hard, making it pretty uncomfortable to lay out as we kept getting sand blasted every other minute. Luckily there's more than just a beach here. We hiked south a bit and into the jungle a little ways to find Las Cascadas de Montezuma (the waterfalls). After hiking up a riverbed over some rocks for awhile we found the waterfall. We were able to swim in the freshwater pools at the bottoms and also jump/dive from some of the rocks. Luke and I even tried to free climb/scale to the top, but epically failed as we reached some ridiculously steep rocks. I think we could have made it, but coming down would have been another issue.
Just as we were thinking about heading back, some blokes from London told us that there was another waterfall at the top of this one and a spot where we could jump 40 feet into the pool below. Upon hearing this we definitely needed to check it out, so we hiked around the back and up the cliff to the next waterfall. We heard some more howler monkeys off in the distance and also encountered another couple hiking. The man was carrying a baby in a backpack...

We got to the falls and looked over the edge at the pool below. All of us were terrified until we saw a small blonde girl and a fat Brasilian guy do it. We then knew that if they could we could. Luke was the first to grow a pair and throw himself off the edge. After seeing that he didn't die, I jumped, followed by Dave. All of us lived to tell the tale. We also swung on a Tarzan swing into the shallower pool.

Well... now it's after dinner and we're all spent from the days adventures. The ATM in Montezuma is broken and we're all running out of Colones. Hopefully they get it fixed soon before we can't buy our way out of here. Ha.

Hasta luego
-chris

Monkeys, Leo got robbed, beer pong, and the casino

We made it to Backpackers Manuel Antontio, where we stayed on the 8th through the 9th. We got there in the evening after Leo picked us up in Jaco. We bought a new connector cord so we could rock out to American beats in the car. So upon arrival, we wandered into town and got a deal to eat on a rooftop, eat Casados, and a drink daquiri for only 3, 000 colones, or about $6. Good start, no? The hostel we stayed at was pretty cool, although our sleeping quarters were far from ideal...an 18 bed dorm. After that, it is safe to say we will not be staying in a dorm anymore. So we wandered down to the pool and bar and low and behold, we found ourselves a beer pong table. So we played about 4 or 5 games of beer pong at the hostel bar and befriended the bartenter - Alando. Cool dude. We also determined that we speak much better Spanish when we are drunk.

The next morning we got up early and went in the the National Park at Manuel Antonio. It was great. The beaches were spectacular, and trails were great for hiking. We saw some raccoons stealing food (one sniped an entire plastic bag of food from some lady) and we hung out with the monos (monkeys)! They came right up to you. There were some great views from the trails.

We have also determined that the beer flows like water here and people smoke like chimneys (everywhere).

We returned to our hostel and hung out for awhile. Went to the grocery store and cooked some dinner. Leo went to his bed and someone had taken about $50 from his wallet, which was in his backpack. Luke, intelligent as he is, left his camera and wallet(?) sitting on his bed below, but they were untouched. wtf? Fortunately, Luke found $20 earlier in the day, so what better than to head to the bar and play some more beer pong. And like most bars we go to, we ran it. Chris hooked up his iPod and we rocked out. After this Leo wanted to go into Quepos, only a five minute taxi, to find a party. We found the discoteca, but they were charging $6 to get in...so we decided against it. Frankly, we hadn't drank enough to do that anyways. So we wandered down the street and found the casino. Luke sat down at the roulette table (uhoh) claiming greatness. After losing $8 we left. But in his defense, he tried to change his bet on one but it wouldn't let him, so he would have broke even. At least he is still up in Central American countries. The guys working the table asked us if we wanted some crack or weed when we walked in. And the waitress asked us if we wanted drinks, and I didn't realize they were free. Dammit. But I guess the goal there was to get you messed up so you lose all your money. Damn Best Westerns.

That's it for my post. And we have been drinking the water in the places we have been staying..probably not a smart decision. We haven't gotten sick yet, but we probably all have a parasite.

DA

Tie the door shut with a rope..and don't let anyone off the bus

As you might notice, all three of us are in the midst of posting right now. The internet in Montezuma is limited and therefore we are all limited to using the Internet cafe. Hopefullly we won't overload your brains.

Yesterday morning started out much earlier than we had anticipated. About two hours earlier. After Leo got robbed on Saturday night he was hot and bothered to get the hell out of Manuel Antonio. So instead of leaving about 9 am for the 10:30 bus out of Quepos we ended up leaving and riding with him all the way to Jaco at about 7:30. Unfortunetly we missed the connecting bus headed for Puntarenas which we inteded to catch, and therefore had to wait three hours on the street for the next bus. Bummer, and just the start to a long days journey. During our layover in the street we camped out at the bus stop where Prez and Chris were told that they were not allowed to sleep on the park benches. WTF? Apparently PDA is ok but not sleeping. Chris and I found a glory hole in the public restroom- dirttty. I read my book while the other two played a game of cribbage and then we decided to get lunch; Pizza Hut personal pan pizzas. So good. Noon arrived and the bus didn't. We began to worry but just about as we were going to take up a cab drivers offer to porter us up the coast for 60 bucks the bus pulled in. For about 2 dollars each- this was quite the bargin. The bus ride to Puntarenas lasted about an hour and a half where we had to take a cab ride for 4k to the port. Here we bought tickets for the ferry across to the Nicoya Pennensula and a small town called Paquera. As we were about to board the boat (packed with people, cars and even semis) we were told we were trying to get on the wrong boat. Oops. Luckily the other boat (the one we were supposed to get on) was just pulling into port as well. We had to wait a little extra time for it to unload because an old lady was taken off the boat on a stretcher to a nearby waiting ambulance. According to Chris (from his previous experience working in Puntarenas) nobody wants to go to the hospital here. The boat ride was actually quite pleasant. (We were literally on a boat) It was airconditioned and they even had America's Next Top Model playing on a t.v. in Spanish. Apparently Tyra Banks speaks Spanish now? Exiting the boat proved to be the biggest challenge of the day because nearly everyone on the boat wanted to pack into the one bus that was waiting in Paquera. Somehow we managed to all cram in (see pictures). Our bus driver made us tie the back door shut so that it wouldn't fall out. If we would have been in an accident I think we all might have died. The next hour and a half of driving on dirt road was less than pleasant but we all rocked out to various songs. Prez to Maino and Chris/myself to Gaga. If you haven't heard her song Alejandro yet, I strongly recommend it. We stopped in a small town and everyone was instructed to get off. Except they wouldn't actually let us off. Instead we stayed on and had to pay for our ride and then kept going. Hopefully to Montezuma. Turns out we were on the right bus and eventually we made it to our final destination- a place to stay still a work in progress. The second hostel we tried had a private room right on the beach and we snatched it immediately; anything woudl be better than the 18 person hell hole we left the day before. Dinner consisted of pizza and Prez constantly walking next door to check on the score of the Packers/Cardinals game. Suck it Jiggy. We opted to not drink- well the other two had two beers and I had Tang. Nonetheless a man in the story asked us if we needed "some good stuff for our brain". We delightfully declined once more. What is with all the drugs down here!? Our first break from partying in days. We talked on the beach for a bit and then retired to our porch to play cards. In a great game I won by only 4 points. Retribution for my loss in the casino the other night. All and all the 10 hours of travel had taken its toll and we decided to hit the hay. Our next door neighbors were setting up bug nets- but that didn't phase us. A full day of fun awaited us.

"If they sell coke on the street they've got to be selling beer on the street"

That's the dilemma we ran into when we were drinking on the roof and ran out of Guaro after 10pm when the Licorera was closed for the night...

Good news, I survived that night from Luke's last post. But it made for a rough morning, and even worse when I decided to run with Chris down the coast to Playa Hermosa (means lovely beach in English). We thought it was about three miles, but it turned out to be about 4. So after almost dying on the run we returned to find that we both had blisters on our backs. Luke went for a little beach run and his blisters were as bad as mine. We think it is from the combination of copious amounts of sweat and sun.

Random sidenote. One thing we neglected to mention from two nights ago was our bum friend that we met on the street. He tried to get us to go to some pizza shack, but we decided it was too expensive, so he ended up just walking with us. He didn't do a damn thing, but when we got home he expected some money from us. We should have told him to get lost, but instead we pulled out a handful of colones for him. To which he responded, "I can't even buy candy with this." wtf, ingrateful bastard. We also found another prostitute we thought was a dude, but when she gave us to opportunity to feel her stuff we made like trees and got the fuck out. Then we saw him the next day wearing the same thing, and several times since. Earlier Wednesday night, we met some tools from Chicago. We watched one of them snort blow off his credit card. Chris hid their rum punch so we could finish it off last night.

Yesterday we took a cab back to Playa Hermosa. Luke just found a flyer for the World Surfing Games that were held there a couple years ago. Think we would find much success surfing here? Chris and Luke tried it again while I played in the sand. It is amazing how well I can entertain myslef by doing essentially nothing. They both diagnosed me with autism, I think it is more ADD.

We cooked a ton, literally, of spaghetti for dinner and then set off on a mission to call Leo. Who would have known payphones would be so difficult. They are on every block, but we couldn't use our change. We went to about six different phones before going into Mas X Menos (owned by Wal Mart) to find a phone card. unsuccessful. so we went outside to get some ice cream and re-group. Went back in, I guess you just ask the cashier, fyi, if you ever need a phone card in Central America. We ran into the St. Olaf group, who we partied with later in the evening.

The power just went out for about 15 minutes at this spot in the post. You just never know what to expect here. After going on another morning run, and getting some more blisters, we walked the strip looking for deals. We all bought some cute ankle braclets and Luke got some board shorts. He almost looks as cool as Chris and I do. We listened to "She Wolf" in Spanish in the store as he made the purchase. We went to the store and bought some Ramen, yummm. Six slices of generic cheese was $12! wow. we obviously didn't buy it. I showered for the first time in four days this afternoon. Felt pretty good. We just played with the owner's puppy! He told us he doesn't need to feed it because it just wanders around the city and begs for food. We probably have fleas now.

I just gave Chris more money. I feel like his dad giving him allowance each week. We paid $38 each for the three nights here. I think that's pretty good considering that's less than you pay for a shitty hotel in the U.S. This place was pretty dank.

We are waiting for Leo to show up any minute to take us down to Manuel Antonio for a couple nights. It is a national park, and it is supposed to be absolutely gorgeous.

the guitar

chris is playing the guitar (i'd say he is the next carlos santana) and prez is passed out (loser). we lost the matches box and cant find the lighter for the stove therefore we can't eat the eggs that we bought. damn. tonight was quite the adventure. nothing of any value really happened. i guess that doesn't make it much of an adventure. we played some games and met a guy from kansas. he was really boring. i guess thats what you get for being from kansas. his friend made fun of us for having accents. minnesotans stand out down here. they had an open bar at this one place called la loft. all they served was rum and cokes. little did they know that's what i love. chris yelled at a bunch of people on the street and i thought we were going to have to fight them but luckily the security guards would not let them in. ha. on the walk back chris wanted to get pizza but it was too expensive so we just ate some leftover rice, beans and bread. prez went to bed. the office is on tv right now and i'm guessing i'm the only one still up in the hostel since its 3:30 am. wake up call is 9 am for a run on the beach and then more surfing tomorrow. time to go to bed.


love to all,
luke

Surf's Up... (or down in our case)

After posting last night we decided to walk next door to the licorera (liquor store if you couldn't guess) and gout ourselves a bottle of Guaro, which is the liquor of Costa Rica. It is very cheap and smells like rubbing alcohol, but when mixed with some Fresca, it becomes delicious. We went upstairs and joined the rest of our hostel-mates on the roof for some games of Presidents and Assholes and Kings Cup. They were playing without the essential component of a communal container to contribute to when you draw a king, so I quickly solved that problem and procured a bucket from the kitchen. Fortunately (or not... depending on your tastes) none of us drew the last king to drink the mixture of Imperial, Guaro and Fresca. After the games I looked off the roof balcony to see a rather tall looking prostitute in a red dress on the corner. She also looked like she had an adams apple... never a good sign. When she talked to try to suck our souls her voice was deeper than mine. Guess that's what you get for traveling to the town the guidebooks call a surfing, partying town known for it's blatant prostitution.

This morning we were awoken at 6am by a bird repeatedly flying into the window. I guess he didn't figure out that he wasn't going to get anywhere the first few times because it continuted for about 10 miuntes. Luckily he either died or flew away because we were able to fall back asleep until 9:30. When we got up this time, we all went running, followed by some Pedestal on the beach. Next we finally got economical and went to the grocery store and got some supplies to make ourselves lunch (egg sandwiches, watermelon and tang - mmmm).

After working out and getting some food in our stomachs it was finally time to try our luck at surfing. We borrowed a board from the hostel and headed out to the beach to find the waves. After many repeated unsuccessful attempts we called it a day. We were all able to catch a wave, but actually getting up on our feet on the surfboard is pretty challenging. We've got the whole rest of the month to figure it out though, so I'm sure we'll be successful some day in the near future. We then decided to take a walk along the beach. This turned in to a 2 hour walk to the end, where we climbed on some rocks. We ended the day by watching the sun set on the beach. How romantic...! We chose to do this over an offer from our Hungarian hostel owner. Earlier in the day he asked us if we wanted to go smoke joints with him on the mountain and watch the sun set over the ocean. We kindly declined, but I'm sure it would have been quite the experience.

Dinner consisted of grilling hot dogs on the roof of the hostel while drinking some Imperials. Pretty awesome. We also heard Lady Gaga on the radio, sandwiched between some Spanish club music. Random, but sweet. We just returned from the store where we bought ourselves another bottle of Guaro for the night. On the way there we were offered weed at least 3 times (no prostitutes this time)....

Well, we're off to see what the night will bring us. We met some guys from Chicago and a surfer from Duluth that arrived here today. They seem like a bunch of bros, but we'll probably end up going out with them tonight. We found out that last night, one of them kissed that tranny I talked about earlier... hmmm

That's all for now

-rivers

One shot, two shots, three shots, more shots...we think

I guess it is my turn to post, and I'm writing on a terrible keyboard so I appologize for my mistakes. I'll start where luke left off last night. We left our humble abode of leo's room/hallway to go downstairs for dinner. Leo already had the curazu blue sitting out with a shot glass, so it was time to take shots. We passed the liquor around the dinner table until we cashed it - about two shots each while we ate our wonderful steak dinner with rice, beans, some cheesy potatoe thing, salad, and some bread...delicious. I have to say it was a little weird taking shots at the dinner table next to a young girl, leo's mom, cousin, and some rando.

We soon left for another adventure to EL PUEBLO! We met up with a couple ticas and three members of the st. olaf group and onto La Periferica we went. We showed up at El Pueblo shortly after nine...way too early. Much to our dismay, the place was a ghost town. All of the bars were shut down. We decided to go somewhere else, but as we were starting to leave we heard some music. None other than the late, great 2Pac! I knew it could only be one place, Tony's! Tony is a bartender I met when I was abroad two years ago. He rocks out to only the best old school, American hip hop. We thought we would stay for one beer since nobody else was there, but one thing led to another and multiple beers and somewhere around 3 tequila shots later we were getting Jose Cuervo poured down our throats. We had a little dance party and ended up having a great time. We even got to dj.

It soon came time to leave and of course, like most times we drink, get some snacks. Rivers and Luke were already chowing down on some pizza, but I wanted chicken. Leo and I went to the fried chicken stand, but decided the price was too high. So we settled for pizza. That wouldn't satisfy me, however. I wandered back to the chicken stand and offered a price for two pieces that they couldn't resist. No one else was going to eat it, so they sold it to me. It came time to leave, so we made it back to Leo's and did some internetting....some of you might know what was sent. Rivers may or may not remember doing that...

We were going to catch a ride with Leo at seven am to the Coca Cola bus station for our journey to Jaco. I didn't wake up for my watch alarm, surprise surprise. Rivers and Luke woke up to theirs I guess, but didn't want to get up. So Leo woke me up when he left for work and told me how to get there, sort of. And I'm pretty sure I still had mucho tequila and Imperial in my system, so it was a bit hazy. So we winged another bus ride into San Jose, not really knowing where it would take us or where we exactly had to be. We got off the bus somewhere downtown and headed west to the bus station.

We were definitely targets for a nice little mugging as we walked with our big packs and could hear people talking about us as we passed them. Stupid Gringos. We stopped once to ask a cop for directions to the place, wandered a bit closer, asked another street vender and a kid overheard us and told me to follow some bum. Rule of thumb says never follow a bum to a second location (or according to Rivers). Not knowing whether or not we taken advantage of, I walked and talked with him in English as Rivers and Luke lagged behind telling me not to follow him. But I soon made a new friend. His English was quite good, probably since he lived in Dallas, Texas in 1972. I guess his cousin is a dentist there. He led us right to the bus stop, we only had about a block and a half to go so I think we did pretty well for having no idea where this place was. We arrived at 11:06 and the next bus didn't leave until 1:00, dammit. If we wouldn't have been so hung over.

We waited, met a couple people from Detroit, Michigan (that's depressing), read a bit, layed on the ground, Luke had to pay 100 colones (about 20 cents) to poop and only got a small ration of toilet paper, Rivers sought out some empanadas de pollo (sooo good, especially for our first food of the day), and we were serenaded by some Tico. We left on a full bus, there were many people standing in the aisle. We decided if any of us would have had to stand we would have died. Rivers had the worst seat on the bus, I sat there first but there was no room for my legs. He ended up giving his seat up to some lady and sat between to seats in the aisle. His hips were getting crushed, so I definitely would not have fit, cuz I'm fat. Rivers fought the urge to puke the entire bus ride, and there were several times when Luke and I felt the same. Winding around the mountains to get out of San Jose was awful. But it was beautiful. We eventually could see the Pacific Ocean, and the last few kilometers of our trip took as long as the majority of the length. We stopped all the time, and we couldn't wait to get off (sexually).

We are in our hostel now in Jaco, which is nice. I've got a hello kitty mattress and some STIDZ (but they don't phase us). Luke found a lighter on the bus, which single handedly cooked dinner for half the hostel. We ate the Taco Bar, I ordered pizza. Watched the Gophers bball game, they sucked. Now we are debating whether or not to go out again. The self proclaimed "hotttest beach party bar" is across the street from us. If not tonight, we will be there tomorrow, or both. The other hostel people are drinkin on the roof. We may also join them. Where's the basement?

We are going surfing tomorrow, so if we don't blog it's because we all drowned in the rip tide.

Peace and love,

Prez and the other two sluts

Viva El Pueblo!!!

Shoppin' the Deals in San Jose

After our 10 am wake up call, the three of us rolled out of bed (albeit painfully) thanks to our sunburned bodies. Prez was able to sleep a little better since he has the comforts of a bed; the air mattress was a little less forgiving for Chris and myself. After breakfast (of nothing) we left Leo's to find the Pereferica bus for an adventure in San Jose; Leo had to work and therefore we were truely on our own for the first time. Prez, after his month stint here a few years ago, had some idea of what was going on but much of our journey was on a whim. Our first stop was the American Mall. There we found pretty much nothing of great value. Lots of stalls and shops vending cell phones (pagers too?) and millions of games for the Wii. Needless to say the Spinning workout area was of the most interest. Leaving the comforts of an American mall behind we walked a few blocks to the building where Prez learned Spanish when he was here as a student. Class was in session and the security guard was a bit too scary for us to venture inside. Our stomachs begged for food so we visited the larger, more modern mall down the street. After walking around for a bit Chris decided to try a Quiznos sandwich- Prez and I got Subway. Ordering was a challenge- and later on we discovered that we paid twice as much in the mall as other places downtown; a common occurance we are learning the hard way too many times. And really, who pays 7 dollars for a 15cm sandwich!? I guess it's the price we pay for safe food? And if you were wondering, a foot long sandwich down here is about 13 dollars- not 5. After deciding to go see Avatar (for only 3 bucks) we realized that the movie was in spanish and was not 3-D (our main stopping point) and then didn't go. At the Apple store we bought Leo a cable for his car speakers so that we can rock out to our Ipods when he drives us around. Next we decided to take our journey one step further by heading toward the Mercado Central. The only problem was that we had no idea where to go. We had to make the choice between a 40 cent bus ride or walking 3k. I'll let you take a guess as to what we decided to do...suprisingly we took the bus. After getting on a random bus we somehow ended up right where we wanted to be! I'm guessing that will never happen again. The market was everything we wanted it to be, minus getting pickpocketed or shot. The task of the afternoon was finding myself a jersey and buying sunglasses for the other two. After a bit of searching I found a jersey on sale. I wanted to buy a La Liga jersey but the guy working the store told me that nobody liked them so I decided against it. To this point unsuccessful in their search for sunglasses, a street vendor approched us trying to sell his Ray-Ban glasses for $20 dollars and a deal was in the works. Bartering down to 15 dollars each, the man demonstrated the flexibility of the sunglasses and how sturdy the lens were (by banging on them with a lighter). Chris kept telling the man that he didn't want the glasses but to no avail. As soon as Chris would try and hand them back, the guy would put them back on his face."They're authentic", he said. The deals kept getting better- Prez asked if he could buy one pair for $12, but he would not have any of that. We all laughed at him the entire time- I even walked away and took a picture of the whole ordeal. In the end two pairs of glasses, suggested retail price (approx.) $2, asking price $40 was purchased for $10 each. Perfect. About the time we got onto another bus last nights dinner (Taco Bell) was ready to exit. But alas, we spotted the group of St. Olaf students who are here for the month. We talked to them for a bit but decided that we'd be able to catch up tonight when we meet them for a night on the town. I feel a little bit weird about seeing them but oh well. We walked back to David's old house and watched the end of Star Wars (La Guerra de las Estrallas). Back at Leo's Chris went for a 51 minute run; 6 laps around the University of Costa Rica while Prez and I did a card workout. All three of us showered but got dirty from our towels which were/are/and will be covered with black sand for the rest of our trip. At least we smell a little cleaner. Clean boxers for all- the first time since leaving Minnesota. Leo's mom is making us Steak for dinner, he asked if that was ok-- seriously? Plans for tonight include meeting the group for a night out..Opps.. time to take a shot.. Ok time to go. We're off to Jaco tomorrow morning; a surfers paradise. Our first trip outside of San Jose w/out Leo. Could be interesting. More to come later.

Luke

Sun Rises and Black Sand

We've made it back to San Jose from our first destination - Puerto Viejo. I'll pick up where Luke left off Saturday (1/02) afternoon. It continued to stay cloudy pretty much all day Saturday so we decided to take a 25 minute walk south of Puerto Viejo to another beachm Playa Cocles. Walking along the road is kind of ridiculous. They're not in very good shape, so there are cars swerving everywhere trying to avoid potholes, other cars, pedestrians and strayt dogs. Needless to say, it can get a little interesting. The waves on this beach were ridiculously huge and there were red flags up indicating that it wasn't safe to swim there due to the strong riptides. Instead we settled for burying me in the sand: After this piece of art we got into a game of beach soccer against a group of Ticos and a fat guy from Mississippi. Leo was sent to the other team and Prez, Luke and my team was victorious. Player of the game (after Prez of course) was a girl that wasn't afraid to sacrifice her body for the good of the team.

On the walk back to Puerto Viejo we saw a random guy with only the top of his head shaved. He was trying to balance a glass ball on his head while staring off at the sea. Probably having a vision quest - WTF? We also saw a sign on the beach indiacting that 49 acres were for sale for the low price of $150,000. I think we'll probably put some money down on that one soon.

Upon arriving back in Puerto Viejo, we headed to dinner at Tamara's Grill and had Casados - a typical Costa Rican meal with salad rice and beans along with meat. Leo and I had a fish fillet (snapper) and Prez and Luke had chicken, yumm... After dinner we headed over to the supermarket and picked up a handle of Jamaican white rum for the night. It was our lucky night because the clerk threw in 4 free glasses to drink out of and on the way out we got free screwdrivers (vodka+orange juice drinks) for the road. Also the awesome American beer they keep in stock (you may notice a certain red dog):
We then went back to the hotel and took naps for an hour before starting our festivities. We proceeded to sit on the balcony for the next 3 hours drinking Cuba Libres (rum+cokes) and playing card games (Chandellier and Riding the Bus).
"I have a feeling we're going to get schwasted tonight." - Prez
"We're going to wake up naked on the beach." -Rivers
Luke talks a big game when riding the bus and Leo rode it all the way through on his second time ever playing the game.
9:56pm - Shirts off o'clock
Before long, we finished the entire handle of rum and headed out for the night. We went to Johnny's again and joined the rockin' beach party there. It was around this time that Prez and I decided to stay up to watch the sun come up the next morning. After leaving Johnny's we headed back to the hotel to put Luke and Leo to bed. Since our hotel was above a bar, it was a good thing they were intoxicated because the bar played loud music until 2am every night making it impossible to sleep. The room walls also vibrated.

At this point Prez and I were committed to seeing the sun rise so we had a heart-to-heart convo on the balcony until 3:30am and then to pass the time we headed back out to the beach and did some late night naked swimming:

At 5am there were still people playing music outside the hotel and we got in a quick game of drunken cribbage. At 5:30am we headed back out to the beach to get ready to see the sun rise and stumbled upon two people having sex on the beach... awkward. It definitely wasn't even that dark out anymore. Ha.
"At least we're in good company, the drunks are still wandering around." - Prez (not referring to ourselves)
We also played with some puppies that were hanging out on the beach. I wonder if they had slept at all...? At around 6:00am we finally got to see the sun rise. Due to some cloud cover it wasn't as glorious as we had expected. It was still neat though. At 6:15 Prez and I stumbled back to the hotel and went to bed - very much still iniebriated. We were awoken a few short hours later at 9:00am by Leo, who yelled as us and said we were going to the beach to play. After complaining for a long time I finally got my shit together and got ready and headed out to the beach with the group. Prez and I were quite possibly still drunk.

It was then that we were informed that we had eaten fried chicken from a street vendor the previous night, which nicely accounts for the missing colones from my wallet. Leo also told me that I hugged the chicken man... weird.

We layed out on Playa Negra (black sand beach) for most of the day. Some highlights were: spear fishing for crab with homemade spears fashioned by Leo; football in the sea; getting really tan and blonde (and sunburned). Before we had to leave for our drive back to San Jose, Prez and I decided to go for a run on the beach. Did an out and back northwest toward Cahuita (probably 4 miles total). Once you got out of the town there was absolutely nothing but beach and it was beautiful. Along the way we saw a naked guy sunning himself and a topless chick standing on the beach getting water poured over her by another girl (showering). Must have been the day for nudity.

On the car ride home we discussed our nutrition for the day. It included:
1.25 pieces of bread + peanut butter
1 fanta
1 other drink (Me and Luke: Powerade, Prez: H2OH)
2 Liters of water (Prez)
1 bag of chips
This lasted us all the way until 7pm when we all had the Big Box Meal from Taco Bell in San Jose. Now we're back at Leo's house and we'll see what tomorrow in San Jose will bring us. Keep checking back, as we'll be sure to update frequently.

Hasta Pronto!
-Chris