Wednesday, November 28, 2012
WHAT
Thursday, October 25, 2012
Snow????
Snow in Denver!!! Cold weather and snow are something we've yet to get used to. Thinking back to this time last year when board shorts and flip flops were the daily attire and the only real concern was what the swell was doing and where we were going to surf that day. Looking forward to spending some time near the beach for the thanksgiving holiday one full week right on the west coast. Missing what has now become a major part of our lives we reunite for some aquatic adventure. I now have the smart phone with and app for surfing which sends a daily swell report for Costa Rica up through Mexico and further up through CA, wow today looks like the surf might be gooood:) Loveland Ski Area opened on Tuesday, on mile of man made ice with a light dusting of mother nature.http://skiloveland.com/
Cheers
Sunday, September 16, 2012
Real Life
Much love
Saturday, March 17, 2012
LOTS OF PICTURES
As we mentioned in earlier post mechanical issues with the RV have taken a bit of wind out of our sail so the lack of blog attention is due totally to that. Here are a ton of pictures from our travels.
Northern Nic was great, not only for the waves but also the people we met and how tranquillo it all was. Casey broke his board on the last day which put a small damper on us leaving this place but overall Nicaragua was great.
http://www.nicaraguasurfhotel.com/
Two borders make for a long day, but we safely made it to El Salvador. The borders went well and were surprisingly easy until we got into El Salvador. The adjuana, which is where we get the vehicle and dog permits, was about 10km away from the actual boarder. Spent an hour there and after all the waiting we ended up having to go back to immigration at the border to get the dog stuff checked out. It was a minor bump in the road but we managed to figure it all out. OPPS almost forgot to mention how bad the roads were in Honduras, HORRIBLE, the worst roads we’ve ever had the chance to experience in either of our lives. Megan explains it by saying “ it’s like bumper cars, your swerving all over the road to miss pot holes and so is on coming traffic. You never know what’s going to happen at any given time, even if there is no other cars on the road.” Thankfully we only hit about 387 pot holes out of 100,000,000 not bad for our first time through.
The focal point of this town/city is its pier. Daily boats are lifted straight from the ocean via crane as fish brokers and every day people nudge their way closer to see what each boat has to offer. The pier was bulging with anything from the sea, Red Snapper to Manta Rays and Jumbo Shrimp to EELS, literally any creature you can think of that lives in the ocean was caught daily and there on the dock ready to be bought. We enjoyed some fresh sea food while doing what we do best, people watch.
What a great place minus the crazy expat that wanted to kill the dogs. El Zonte Surf Camp was top notch with first class digs, which in van people terms means a great working shower and more importantly a toilet with a seat. Seriously this place was super rad and anything we say about it couldn’t do it justice. Great clean facility with pools, multiple lounge areas, great people , awesome food and more importantly cheap beer, wait we forgot to mention it is literally steps away from a kickin right hand break.
http://www.horizontesurfresort.com/
Yet another mechanical issues with the vehicle left us stranded on the side of Cerro Verde which is a volcano in El Salvador. As we were driving up the 12km long steep road to the camp site the van decided to have issues. Not sure what to do so we loaded up two backpacks with all important document and the computer and set off on foot in search of the campsite hoping they had a phone that worked. No phone at the campground, but at the top there a tourist center with tourist police who luckily had mechanics on speed dial. A couple hours went by and finally the mechanic shows up in a small beat up old car. Wow we thought, wondering if this guys was really going to be able to help or not. His first bright suggestion was to toe the van with his little car, whatever we thought, as we laughed our way through this crappy situation we didn’t really care at that point. While the mechanic was strapping up the van to his car a nice old man comes strolling up the road on foot after a long day of picking coffee. The tourist police asked him if it would be possible for us to pull into his property for the night while the mechanic grabbed some parts and tools for the next day. Without hesitation he said yes and just like that we had a secure and safe place to sleep for what turned out to be the next 5 nights. That first night as the sun was going down the family opened their doors to us and offered us some hot coffee. For the first time in months we were actually cold and had to dig out our jeans and long sleeve shirts from the bottom of the closet. Hot coffee sounded perfect! With no running water or power we sat in their small dirt floor house with only light from the fire and a flashlight providing just enough light to see each other as we fumbled our way through every sentence. The family knew zero English and we were both frazzled from the day’s adventure so needless to say we didn’t have much to say. Our five day stay with the family was such a great and humbling experience. We witnessed first hand how truly generous people can be even if they don’t have much. We are pretty sure the family took pity on us and our situation because they were more than generous by provide three meals a day, taking time out of their evening to take us on hikes around the volcano, explain the coffee picking and growing process, inviting us to church and opening there home to total strangers.
We were both bummed to have past through Guatemala so quickly. At this point we realized that the van didn’t like hills and seeing that a majority of Guatemala is mountainous terrain we decided to stay close to the ocean and quickly pass through. Issue number three with the van has us bumming yet again on the open road. One saving grace was the sign for Taco Bell 5km up the road, a boost for moral and spirits we slide in for some authentic tacos and burritos, extra hot sauce please. We made it safely to the northern part of Guatemala with hope that we’d find yet another mechanic. We stayed in a hotel that resembled a prison and had major insect issues but after four days it was back on the open road minus a thermostat. Mexico here we come!!!!
MUCH LOVE
Friday, March 16, 2012
Mexico
Sorry for the lack of pictures.. Someone forgot the charge the camera. Casey ;)
Cheers
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Our Travel map to date
Here is where we've been. Our overall travel map from when we started in January to today. Some spot are totally random but are there because we had to stop due to mechanical issues with the RV. Lots more to come through out Mexico.
Good Times Just North of the Border
On high from our successful first border crossing and it’s on to San Juan Del Sur
to get some things and then to Maderas for what we’ve heard is good camping right in front of the break. Had to stop in for some of the best pescado burritos in Nicaragua at the Taco Shack. Then it’s off to the first back road in search of the beach and some camping. Cruising down the dirt road at the hipper speed of seven mph and what do I see in the rear view mirror… A gringa hanging out the window taking pictures of the rig, as they pass their camera was fully functional snapping photo after photo of us, “ are we famous?” They signal us to follow them for a beer and the rest is history. Seven days later we hated to leave our new found great friends.
Glad to meet back up with Sage and plan on traveling up through Nicaragua together for the month. Thankfully, Karen and Roy let Sage stay as well, so including the guest we were all one big happy family. Karen and Roy talked us into staying until Superbowl which we were totally ok with so each one of us cooked something different, created a betting pool, had a few drinks and then it was on. Karen slept through most of the game but some how managed to take home the pool.
We had such a great time with not only Roy, Karen and Sage but their guest as well, we are so blessed to have ran into them that day on the dirt road. Lots of laughs and good times were had for all!! Here are a ton of random pictures mostly from Roy and Karen’s property.
Next stop Popoyo near Guasacate for some heavy waves and more Nicaraguan sunsets. Another Nicaraguan back road, lots of dust, pigs, more dust and small wooden shacks with Claro satellites.
Three hours later we end up lost in Rivas and in the middle of the market. Not really sure but I think we might just stick out a little bit?
After some help from locals we get back on the dirt road headed north. In search of camping near the beach and we stumble upon this hostel with breath taken views.
The town of Guasacate was very small not even sure I’d call it a town more like a village but it’s becoming more and more popular because of the world class waves. We lucked out and found a lot with a guard in a shack, asked if we could stay and he opened up the gate and let us roll in. Right on the beach and with poop shack.
So far one of the biggest problems has been trying to find places to drop a duce after morning coffee, so knowing there was a shack to hit was a comforting feeling.
North to check out more of the coast. Pochomil first and then head further north to El Transito to El Velero to our final destination before heading to El Salvador. Assederros which is also also becoming more and more popular for it’s good surf and un crowded waves.
One issue that we’ve had to deal with other than finding a good toilet is finding a place to fill the propane tanks in the RV. I think right now we’ve wasted a good two days driving around in search of the magic filling station. With that said after leaving Popoyo we headed north toward Pochomil. We decided to keep cruising north to the capital, Managua, while Sage heads down to Pochomil to find a camp site. Great! See you in a few hours. Managua was a quick thirty minute drive and then the next two and half hours were spent driving around in search of propane in the hot, hot sun. No luck let’s get out of this crazy city, so we head out back up the hill to meet Sage back at Pochomil. Little did we know that the combination of heat, hills and 175,000 miles can add to only bad things for your transmission. As our car slowly rolls to a stop in the middle of no where we had no idea what our next move would be. This was the first time we have been in a situation where we were totally helpless. NO idea where we were, no phone, no shade, no knowledge of any mechanics…we were stuck between a rock and a hard place. We got out of the car to put out our hazard triangle and within 30 seconds a cop pulls up. YES HELP…Not to help but to give us a ticket! Can you believe it… we were so mad that the cop just gave up after both of our frustrations exploded on him. I can’t believe the cop was going to give us a bogus ticket. So finally we came up with a plan. Since we only had reverse we were going to reverse our way back into town. Casey at the wheel and I was holding the triangle alerting cars to get out of our way. After about a mile the road narrowed into one lane so we couldn’t continue. We parked again and sat there watching the sun go down. Finally we had some real help. A car pulled over and called a tow truck. We waited there until the truck showed up. The sight of the tow truck was amazing! We are rescued!!! He pulled the van up on the flat bed and told us to get in… THE VAN. Casey and I had to climb our way up in the van and the tow trucker was barreling down the road. It was quite the sight for us to be extremely high but also for the people we passed. You could just see the people’s jaws dropping. He dropped us off at a transmission place and we checked into the hotel next door before we went to bed we emailed our friend Sage to tell him what happened in hopes that he would read his email (even though he hasn’t been on a computer for 2 months). The next morning we walked over at 8am and they were already tearing the transmission out. The owner of the shop said it would be done that day. While all of this is going on we were worried that Sage was still waiting for us without any word of where we were. We were sitting in the hotel room talking about taking a bus down to Pochomil to find Sage and tell him what happened since we figured he didn’t read his email and before we knew it there was a knock at our door and it was HIM... “ House Keeping” Oh thank goodness he read his email hoping that we emailed him where we were. That evening the car was ready and we were planning our trip to leave that next morning. Two days, a months budget and a new transmission later we were back on the road heading North.
Here are the pictures from the tow truck view to the lovely artistic hotel.
After heading North for a while we pulled over to talk to Sage about which town to pull into. We drove through El Transito which was a bit strange since we saw 3 transvestites within a half a mile. Noting wrong with transvestites but the town itself was not what we were looking for. So we moved on. Farther down the road we stopped again to chat and as we were talking this nice brand new Dodge pick up truck pulled over and some Nicas asked us if were knew where we were going and needed help. They handed us a beer and wanted to take pictures with some gringos. “ are we famous?” As we were chatting they told us that they had a vacation house they were not using for the weekend and if we wanted to be close to the beach and stay in a house then we should follow them. So we did. We get to this gate and we start questioning where we are…
We go inside and it was the creepiest place we had been to. It was like a ghost town. Really nice house but most of them were abandoned. We asked them what this place was and they said it use to be an American subdivision until the government took the land without any warning. So as we sat at these people’s house they showed us around and then they left back to Managua. We stayed a little longer to make a plan. We finally told the guard that we were going to get some food and left. Still in the same gated community there was a sweet field that was right on the water. So we stayed there. Casey kept referring to this place as “The Hills Have Eyes” which didn’t ease my nerves. That night it was quick to bed none of us wanted to stay up too late. The next morning the security guard came walking by and had breakfast with us and told us that we were safe there and we could stay as long as we wanted. So it wasn’t as bad as I had thought before it was actually a really nice place. So we stayed for a few days more and then moved on. Here are some pictures of our campsite, Anakin’s new friends (the cows), our delicious fish dinner (we bought the fish) and some creepy houses in the community.
Oh and as we were leaving we came across this massive vehicle… can you imagine traveling in this?
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Mexico
We nursed our way into Puerto Angel yesterday in true BYRD fashion. Completely stressed due to the vehicle, extremely hot with no water or beer and two panting dogs right in our faces. All the stress aside it's always nice to find the campsite, unload the dogs and hit the ocean for some cooling off time! Zipolite beach which is the name of the small area we are at happens to be one of the last remaning nude beaches in Mexico. I wish we would have gotten the heads up before we hit the beach, boobs and wieners all over the place, we conservativly opted for the suit options. Today in a couple minutes another mechanical will come and tell me what I already know and will try and fix something above his pay grade. We've been pretty frustrated with the mechanics down here impart to our lack of Spanish spoken when it comes to mechanical issues and how people down here seem to avoid issues dealing with conflict and only want to please so most responses are "esta bien" or "si." We both realize up to this point that trying to explain the issues with the vehicle in our broken spanish are not to good, however I know we are getting the major points across, so why don't you fix what I've asked or tell me what's truly wrong and fix that dang van so we can drive back the remaing 2,500 miles with less worry and stress??? VENTING OVER.
Stay tuned for past and up and coming adventures. Most of the RV parks we've decieded to stay at have WiFi so we'll be more regular with our posts.
Much Love
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Our 1st Border Crossing
So we didn’t sleep a wink the night before because of all the nerves flying around. We kept asking ourselves, “What would happen if they don’t let us through?” and we really had no other plan in mind, what to do is there really no plan B. So we said a little prayer and away we went.
We got in the camper and drove about an hour to the border. It started raining halfway through the drive and when we got closer and our hearts were beating faster than ever, the rain stopped and there was a huge rainbow. No it wasn’t a double rainbow.
It was a sign! The rainbow put smiles on our faces and we were positive it was going to work out. We arrived and parked. We got through the Costa Rican side pretty quickly. A couple of stamps here and a couple of stamps there and a few more stamps over there and we were done. A sigh of relief and we jumped back in the car and drove to the Nicaragua side. Parked. And did the whole thing all over again. A few stamps here, there and away over there. Lots of walking and waiting but at the end of 2.5 hours we were done!!! WOW that was easier than we had both thought.
Here are a few more pictures of the border and all the buildings we had to walk to.
After we drove into Nicaragua we had to take pictures of the extremely long line of trucks that were waiting to get into Costa Rica… almost a mile long!
What a GREAT day!!! First border down and about 5 more to go!!!
Much Love
Last Stop in Costa Rica
Well we got to Liberia for a quick 2 nights so we could gear up for our BIG border crossing. We stayed at this campsite outside of town and there was NO ONE there. KINDA weird. We had the whole place to ourselves. So we found a nice shady spot with electricity and put her in park.
We went into town and got some things that we needed before we left and fixed up the camper with our helpers… the dogs and felt so nervous like it was the first day of school. We set an alarm so we were the first people there and we weren’t standing in line with mobs of people who had just come off the bus. Now you are probably wondering… why are they so nervous.
Well here is the low down~
We bought a camper that is from California in Costa Rica from a German family. So we were a bit scared that we were going to be rejected at the border. Casey signed the back of the title and the German man signed the front giving us ownership but it is all in English and it may look a bit funny to a person working at a border in Central America. So we had an attorney write up a Bill of Sale in Spanish just in case. It is not like we could just run to the DMV and get the title switched so we had to make sure it was legit. That’s where the nerves come in. So in Liberia we made sure we had everything we needed to get through that border and from what we’d heard you needed loads of copies to give to the border agents after they take you for all there money. Batteries charged, copies made, fridge stocked, air pressure checked, oil good, propane regulator still slowly leaking, celebratory drinks ready for Nicaragua let hit the road.