Thoughts After Seven Months of Travel

It seems a shame to me that in the last 7 months, we didn’t see more, do more, meet more people.

We had plans to do and accomplish different things, and I kind of feel like we planned to do *more*) during the past 7 months of our lives.

My friend Patrick Shaw says that people greatly overestimate what they can do in a year, but greatly underestimate what they can do in ten years.

So maybe we should talk in ten years.

But thinking about it, I realize that we did do a LOT over the past 7 months in central and south America, and laid a foundation for coming back to this part of the world throughout our lives.

However, we had plans.

This post talks about what we had planned to do versus what we did.

(I have written this post to remember what we planned to do, actually did and didn’t do, and also should help others traveling through Central and South America to discover some great places and things to experience.)

Lakes:
We didn’t see lake Titicaca (Bolivia), or Lake Nicaragua.
But we did get to see the beauty of Lake Atitlan (Guatemala).

Islands:
We didn’t see the Galapagos Islands (Ecuador), Isla del Omitepe (Nicaragua), or the San Blas Islands (Panama).
But we learned to SCUBA off of Isla Colon (Panama) in a town called Bocas Del Toro.

Animals:
We didn’t get to see whales or dolphins.
But we helped guard baby turtles and were part of their introduction into the world.  We saw monkeys in lots of places throughout central America; saw llamas mating; hummingbirds and butterflies in Mindo, Ecuador; and many other animals and critters.  We loved the variety of animals we saw, even if the insects were sometimes disturbing.

Language and culture:
We didn’t spend time living in an indigenous community, (though we spent lots of time around indigenous people).
But we speak Spanish pretty well now.  (Thanks Maribel!)  We speak well enough to be well understood, to receive compliments on how good our Spanish is, and to understand even difficult topics like politics and religion.

Business:
Because of taking Spanish class every day, and the time involved with both planning and getting from place to place, we didn’t grow our business in the way that we wanted to.
But I know 100% that our videos and written reviews of the places we’ve stayed in Antigua, Guatemala; Boquete, Panama; Quito, Ecuador, and Cuenca, Ecuador; have resulted in more bookings for the owners of those places.  Our knowledge of marketing on the Internet has helped other people to grow their businesses.  That’s exciting to me.

Ancient Cultures and Civilizations:
We didn’t get to San Augustin, Colombia; or in Peru – the Ruins of Kuelap, Macchu Picchu (due to flooding in March), or the tomb of Sipan near Chiclayo. But we saw the remnants of powerful and amazing ancient civilizations at Copan, Honduras; Tikal, Guatemala; Guayabo National Park, Costa Rica; Ingapirca, Ecuador; Cuenca, Ecuador; and Cajamarca, Peru.

Land Travel:
We did not see Belize; visit Santiago, Chile; return to Buenos Aires, Argentina; nor did we get to most of the countries in South America.
But we saw every land country in Central America (except Belize); went to or near the top of five volcanoes in three countries (Irazu and Poas, Costa Rica; Pacaya, Guatemala; Masaya, Nicaragua; and Cotopaxi, Ecuador); we covered thousands of miles by bus, plane, car, in the water, and on foot; saw amazing markets at Saquisili and Otavalo, Ecuador, and at Chichicastenengo, Guatemala; got to the capital cities of Guatemala (Guatemala City), Nicaragua (Managua), El Salvador (San Salvador), Costa Rica (San Jose), Panama (Panama City), Ecuador (Quito), and Peru (Lima); and met many amazing people along the way.

Personal Growth:
I’ve recognized and let go of some of my own ethnocentricity (which I didn’t know I had); become a Spanish speaker; learned that the jungle is a great place for me to visit, but for short-term visits only; and have learned that even though the longest we’ve been apart in the last 7 months is 4 hours, Carrie and I love and appreciate each other as much or more now that we ever have before.

I feel like a year or more could be spent exploring just Ecuador and Peru, with a mention to the lifetime that could be spent exploring Colombia and the other countries in South America.

I do think that these are areas which we will return to at some (as yet undetermined) future point in our lives.

At the same time, 7 months in central and South America has given me an even greater appreciation for the country I call home, the place where I grew up.

The United States of America is a place where stores almost always have change for a $20 bill, many stores are open 24-7, the bathrooms nearly always have tissue paper and toilet seats, and the spirit of the people, more than anywhere else I’ve ever been, says both in word and in action, “we can do it if we’ll just work hard at it.”

I am so grateful for the opportunities provided by our travels of the last seven months, and I’m very grateful as well for the opportunities and life I’ve been able to have growing up and living in the United States.

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Where Have You Been?

Carrie &Jonathon,

I’m confused looking at your site… you guys have traveld a lot looks like… where all have u been?

james

Hey James!

Well, we have done a lot of travel in the past, but since October, we’ve been

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Podcast #5: The Northern Part of Central America

In this podcast, we cover about 7 weeks of travel, from the time we left Granada, Nicaragua, early in December, through today, January 18.

Download the travel podcast MP3 here
We cover our travels through places and experiences like:

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How We’ve Spent The Last Few Days

There’s not much newsworthy to report when you spend a few days in a hotel in Costa Rica, working on a computer and talking on the phone

(We use Skype for most of our calling – Carrie’s actually on the phone with the hotel lobby in this photo).

But I think it’s important to post here too about the work we do.

Alongside all of the cool things we get to do, and places we get to go, we also do spend a fair amount of time working.

So, we’ve spent a few days at the Adventure Inn hotel, not really going on any adventures in Costa Rica.

But the hotel is nice, relatively quiet, and the Internet is good speed (especially compared to the speeds we’ve experienced in many parts of Central America).

That means that this is a good time and place for us to be working.

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Tourism Map of Central America: Our Map from 3 months of Travel

In three months, we visited 6 countries, covered over 2,500 land miles (mostly by bus) and saw some really amazing places.
We also met some truly fantastic people – both people who are involved in tourism as tourists and tourist guides, and people who are living their lives in the countries we visited.
This map is not yet 100% complete, but gives you an idea of the places we’ve been and what we’ve been up to.
If you’re looking to ride Ticabus or Tracopa and want to know exact locations, this map should be rather helpful for you.
Also, we’ve tried to put in all our hotel stays (Think we got them all on here) and will be linking from this map to the reviews on our site so that you can easily get to everything in one place.
This should help you know where to stay if you visit these countries.
If you’re going to Central America, we hope that this helps you to both find things you’d like to see and do, as well as to know where exactly those things to see and do are located.
If this map does prove helpful for you, please comment below and let us know!

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Carrie’s Current countries visited

visited 15 states (6.66%)
Create your own visited map of The World
On our trip through Central America, I got to add 6 countries to my map of visited countries. It’s too bad not all of them have a stamp representation in my passport.
I’ve actually been to more countries that this, but I didn’t spend the night, so they don’t count. I’ve been to France numerous times when I lived in Germany, and I also drove through Austria. They’ll be added to the list sometime soon through.

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Geckos, Roosters, Fireworks, Car Alarms, Children, Dogs, Sneezing, Parades and Bells, Doorbells, and Construction

What can you really do about so much noise but laugh?
I’m a relatively light sleeper, and have learned to travel with earplugs. In fact, before departing on this part of our travel/working experience, Carrie and I bought a box of 500+ earplugs on Amazon.
We used some of these at La Tortuga Feliz and haven’t used them too much since. Not that we haven’t had occasion to. With the exception of Hotel Angela (where we had an interior room) and our time in Boquete, Panama, every morning and often in the middle of the night, I’ve been awoken by the sounds of roosters, children, fireworks, children, dogs, parades, or bells. In general, I find North Americans and American culture to be pretty noisy, but I’m finding Central Americans and Central America to be even noisier.
As I’m writing this, Carrie just woke up and asked me (first thing – not “good morning” or anything like that, but) “Is that a dog or a sick frog?”
In general, every city in Central America (and in Argentina) has some stray dogs which seem to do the majority of their barking between 9PM and 3AM. About 2:30 AM and continuing through to about 5:30 or 6:00 AM come the roosters. They continue throughout the day, but this is when the majority of their sounds occur. Roosters are PLENTIFUL in almost every place we’ve been in Central America, most of them sharing their calls LONG before I can see any sign of sunlight.
Then come the fireworks. I like fireworks as much as anyone, but regardless of where we have been (again excepting Boquete), there have been fireworks every day just before 6AM, just before 6PM, and frequently around noon. Sometimes they also get shot off for a few minutes at midnight.
Why so many fireworks? Well, apparently that’s what they do in Central America in December and January to celebrate Christmas. There’s even a saying in nicaragua which goes something along the lines of “a man always has money for beer and fireworks, even if he can’t afford to feed his own family.”
In Granada, Nicaragua, they have 9 days of celebrations for the Immaculate Conception of Jesus in which they revere statues of Mary and parade them through the town to the church. These are fun festivals which include candied apples, trinkets, and of course, fireworks.

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La Paz Waterfall Gardens: Waterfalls Near Poas Volcano

La Paz Waterfall Gardens (includes waterfalls – $35/each for non-nationals – $70 total.).
La Paz Waterfall Gardens is not only a set of gardens and waterfalls, it’s also a small zoo with monkeys, birds (including toucans), jungle cats, frogs, and my favorite part of all, a butterfly house.
Carrie and I are not big fans of going to zoos. Though we think in concept they’re a good idea to get people interested in conservation and to make people aware of what exists in the world, for ourselves, we’d just rather find a way to go see the animals in the wild. But not all people are thinking that way, so it’s good that the opportunity exists in many cities around the world in the form of a zoo.
Anyway, because the road was closed due to an earthquake from a year or so ago, the only way to see the waterfalls was to pay to go through the gardens/zoo.

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Poas Volcano and National Park: Costa Rica’s Poas Volcano

Today was a great day in Costa Rica.
We spent some money to do it, but we got to the top of Poas Volcano (our second day attempting to see Poas).
On the way up the volcano, we got some very good advice from the driver of a tour minibus who had stopped his bus so tourists could take pictures of a natural sloth he spotted.
We stopped and took pictures of the sloth as well.

This Poas guide’s advice: if it’s rainy in the morning on the top of Volcano Poas (regardless of what the weather is doing elsewhere in the country), go to La Paz waterfall gardens or do zip lines first, and then go to the top of the volcano.
So we took his advice. (More on La Paz Waterfall Gardens in a bit.)
We got to the first crater of Poas at the right time for the sky to be clear and to see the whole crater ($10/person +$2/car for non-nationals).

We learned some interesting factoids about Poas that I would like to share, just in case you want to come to Volcano Poas as well.

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Crazy Costa Rica: Ruminations on Costa Rica

Irazu Volcano and National park, where we tried to go today but didn’t see much due to fog:
http://www.costarica-nationalparks.com/irazuvolcanonationalpark.html
http://www.costaricamap-online.com/php/map03/map03map.html
Guayabo National Monument, where we did go today even though we got there shortly after it was closed, but didn’t see much due to pouring rain:
http://www.costarica-nationalparks.com/guayabonationalmonument.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guayabo_National_Monument
Costa Rica. Ah, Costa Rica

This might become a bit of a rant. If you’re not up for that, this particular post may not be for you.
Looking at the past couple of days, I feel like one good thing I can say is “At least nothing bad happened.”
And I think it’s terrible to have that be one of the primary thoughts in my mind about a country which clearly has a lot to offer.
While venting these thoughts about Costa Rica on Facebook, I was a little disappointed.
Someone said I sounded like a typical American with my complaints about things not going according to plan or schedule.
I’m familiar with the “typical American,” also known as the “ugly American.”
It’s the first time I’ve been aware that something I’ve been talking about with regard to our travels has come across that way. Hopefully it’s the last time I’ll come across as a typical American in a negative context, and I’ll definitely be more aware of that going forward.
At the same time, I have felt frustrated or annoyed nearly every day we’ve been in Costa Rica, while not at all in Panama. The first week at Hotel Aranjuez in San Jose, the second week at La Tortuga Feliz, the turtle project near Bataan (south of Tortuguero), the third week in Puerto Viejo, and now, this week, outside of San Jose.
One good thing I can say about Costa Rica is that the people we’ve met here have been really nice.
None of this is a reflection on them.
Here’s what I’m running up against, I think, in thinking about Costa Rica…

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