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
I love the pictures!! I probably would have cried in my throat a little bit upon seeing that beautiful Taco Bell sign in the distance.
ReplyDeletePS: Can I have the picture of Anakin wrapped in the sheet when you get back to the States? I think it should be his Profile Pic..."dear diary, today i took a little bit of time to pamper myself and rest."
Love you! xoxo