Flying Down Volcanoes...No Bull

Clearly my New Year's resolution to be more prompt with my blog updates has not come to fruition however I had been waiting on some photos from a couple of the activities we were involved in to appear on Facebook, unfortunately this still isn't the case so a few others will have to do.

New Year's Day saw us head to San Jose with a couple of other Aussies that we met in Bocas Del Toro; Paddy and Moose. Upon arrival it appeared that San Jose had little to offer and they were rather annoyed at themselves for agreeing to head back up to Costa Rica when they were hoping to head down to Colombia as quickly as possible. We spent the day after arrival moping around the city and looking for something to do for Paddy's birthday the following day. As I had been the instigator in their slight detour I was somehow guilt tripped into booking myself in for an 80m bungee jump to celebrate his birthday.

We arrived at the Bungee feeling relatively fresh but rather concerned at what lay ahead as only Alex was the only one who had previously jumped.

Pre-Jump

Mid-Flight

Beer Has Never Tasted So Good!!!

Having previously said that I would never do a Bungee Jump in my life I am glad that I did it and watching other people struggle was very entertaining and in the end the whole group managed to jump which made the whole situation more satisfying.

On the way home we were told that over the Festive Season, Bull Running takes place every night in San Jose and that anyone was able to enter the ring if they were stupid enough to do so. We decided to head over to check out the situation only to find out that we had to sign up right away if we wanted to take part. Under normal circumstances this would have been fine however it was rather concerning when we saw everyone else padded up and wearing soccer boots whereas we would have to take part with no shoes (better than the thongs we were wearing) and in shorts and a t-shirt.

Running With The Bulls Costa Rica

The advantage of being gringos with no shoes was that we made numerous appearances on Costa Rican Television. Whilst I couldn't find any coverage of us, this YouTube video is an overview of the night we went.

In San Jose we met up with Alex Peade and said goodbye to Paddy and Moose who eventually managed to continue their trip down south. The next stop was Monteverde in the highlands where we continued with a few activities.

The first day we arrived we decided to go Ziplining as we had heard that Costa Rica is one of the best places in the world to do it.

Cool As A Cucumber

A Rather Uncomfortable Tandem Line

Ziplining was good fun however the safety standards were not up to what they were in Bolivia especially when we went down the Tarzan Swing which is a death trap waiting to happen.

Where's The OH&S?

We also went on a coffee and chocolate tour which whilst I'm sure is quite interesting for some we found extremely boring with the only highlights being the opportunity to drink coffee and eat chocolate; which somewhat justified the $30.

Coffee Picker: A Career Option If Accounting Doesn't Work Out

After Monteverde we headed off to a San Juan Del Sur in Nicaragua where we spent most of the time relaxing during the day and partying at night. The most exciting moment was actually when we managed to hitch a lift with our hostel owner to Granada; a city about 2 hours away by car. The owner however seemed to be unaware that this is how long it should take and spent the first 20 minutes of the drive flying along the roads. Following the ignorance is bliss motto I kept my head down and read my book until I heard some rather quick downshifting of gears and looked up to discover that we were about to crash into the car in front. The crash was quite serious although fortunately no-one was injured and we managed to find a local chicken bus for a connection to Granada. However, this was not the end of our problems as the Alex's were tasked with watching an American's bag on the bus only to discover as we arrived at the terminal that it had been stolen; we made a quick escape and hopped straight into a taxi and it's safe to say I won't be getting onto one of those for a while!

Granada didn't have much to offer as a city and so we headed off to Leon to take part in Volcano Boarding which involves sledding down the side of a volcano and trying to go as fast as possible with the speed recorded by a radar gun at the bottom.

The Race Track

As can be seen from the score sheet above Alex (Doug) Dixon managed a measly 38km/h only to be significantly outdone by Peade who crawled down at 22km/h, on the other hand I was 2nd fastest and managed to fly down at 60km/h; I didn't realise I was travelling with such sooks!!

We managed to get stuck in Leon for a couple of days more than we would have liked however we are now in Guatemala which has been a lot of fun so far. We are headed to Belize in a couple of days and hope to do some scuba diving and fishing.

I hope you all had a great Australia Day; I will post about how we spent ours in my next post within the next week, although I still can't believe that Thrift Shop won the Top 100...

Sailing, Sun and Plenty of Rum

Sorry about the delay in writing this however some serious partying over the festive season rendered me intellectually incapable of writing anything worth reading.

After a few days in Cartagena we headed off on our boat "The Independence" for five days of sailing from Colombia to Panama via the San Blas Islands. We booked with The Independence due to the fact that it was a large boat sleeping up to 24 people. We arrived at Colombian Immigration to find an Austrian couple and no-one else; for the next two hours we waited for others to arrive however this never happened so it appeared a relatively boring few days would follow.

"The Independence"

One of the unlucky boats

Sailing the Seas

Due to a lack of common sense we had a rather large night the day before the boat and consequently faced the large seas already feeling somewhat queasy. Alex came to regret this later that evening when I found him leaning over the railing losing a couple of kilos.

Searching for Rose

We arrived at the San Blas Islands the following afternoon where we spent the next few days relaxing and swimming. The weather wasn't as good as it could have been however we were also entertained by Captain Michel's theories as to how the Earth was created and the stories associated with that. Just one example is that the world's oil supply is from when Venus collided with Earth about 5000 years ago!!

One of the Islands

The Last Supper

We got to Panama City about midday on Christmas Eve and booked into the hostel looking to involve ourselves in some Christmas festivities. The afternoon was spent with a few beers before a steak dinner and plenty of rum ensured that similar to The Newport Arms in Australia, Panama City was able to provide us with a Christmas Day hangover!

Panama City Skyline

On Boxing day we headed to the Panama Canal in the hope that we could avoid the crowds; unfortunately this was not the case. The Canal itself was well worth a visit and the history behind its construction was very impressive and highlighted its importance in modern day shipping transits.

Waiting to enter The Canal

Entering The Canal

Miraflores Locks

After Panama City we headed to Bocas Del Toro for what turned out to be five nights. The majority of these 120 hours were spent in some state of intoxication so it would be hard to outline all of the stories however I will provide a couple. One afternoon we headed over to Aqua Lounge; a bar built over the water that had incorporated the ocean into swimming pools. Alex at this stage was rather intoxicated and I managed to convince him that we would buy him six beers if he managed to stun and catch a fish. Two hours later Alex came up empty handed declaring that even as hard as he was slapping the water the fish were still moving...such a worry! On one of the larger nights I managed to get lost on the wrong island for two hours and only made it home with a few cuts and bruises once the sun had risen; turns out I had tried to get a boat to the island on which I was standing...

New Years Eve was mostly forgotten and therefore one to remember. It involved playing cards, drinking beer, shots of jager and copious amounts of rum followed by running around the streets avoiding fireworks and generally having a good time...the rest I will leave in Panama.

We are now in Nicaragua and over the past week we have taken part in some adrenaline pumping activities that will be outlined in my next post. I hope you all had a fantastic New Years Eve and made plenty of resolutions that will no doubt be broken! All the best for the New Year and I resolve to be more prompt in my updates...