Convento De La Popa, Colombia

Kitten milking on the red tiles

Funny thing is, the reason why I chose this place to visit was not for the historical aspect or the religious value, but for the view of Cartagena. The view sucked. Haha, I'm slightly joking. You basically would have to have a lens that costs over a few thousand dollars to see Old Town. Don't get me wrong, getting a view of any city from a vantage point is enlightening. You just get the bad with the good. Enough of what I'm not showing you.

We hired a taxi to take us up here as there was no other public transport. We had to agree on a set price before hand because he had to stick around to drive us back down. I think we got ripped off. Somehow prices were agreed upon, and then changed.

The first exciting thing we saw was five little kittens curled up on themselves sleeping. As we take a few pictures of them, the mom comes up meowing waking them up while carrying two green lizards in her mouth. It was kinda gross but felt so natural. Two of the kittens play with the lizards like a ball of yarn. The others roll around, and this one just buried his little face in his mom's belly. Hungry little kitten.

Where our Taxi driver got married.

After viewing all the religious artifacts we noticed our taxi driver was wandering around the courtyard. As we talked to him he told us he got married in this part of the church.

Steph staring out into the atrium.

Probably my favorite thing about the Convento De La Popa was the atrium. A little well in the middle. Arches lined the brick courtyard. Vines growing on the columns. And a Stephanie looking into the sky.

Old Town Cartagena, Colombia

Looking out of our hostel.

It's the same day but now we're away from the crowded mud volcano and back in Cartagena. Strolling the streets of Old Town Cartagena. we reverse the order of the walking tour of Old Town soaking up the Colonial style architecture. As we walked aruond, one of the things that we agreed on was that other countries have local fruits and juice stands at every other corner. So We picked up these little fruits (The name escapes me) but they're green, on little branches, and they remind me of lychee. You crack the brittle skin with your teeth to expose the meat and suck it out and spit out the seed that unfortunately takes up most of the space.

Steph standing in a typical Colonial alley way

The colors stand out so well, I couldn't but help make Steph stand still. We followed the path but didn't really go into any of the museums or churches. Towards the end we gave up following the path because our stomaches dictated we search for food. I don't remember what logic decided this but we ended up just eating cheese bread and Arepas. A ritual we soon stopped. Even if we were't happy with the food, the drinks were quite satisfying. Before we left to visit the Volcano we walked down the alley way where we saw maybe twenty people preparing their juice carts. One guy slicing up fruits and pouring them into a this giant fish tank of juice, one guy squeezing limes so fast it looked like someone using a switch blade, and another guy chipping away at ice blocks the size of shoe boxes.

Sitting on the wall built by the Spaniards.


As you do the walking tour you see parts of the Las Murallas which is this thick wall built around the port of Cartagena to protect it from pirates and the like. Spaniards would store the riches they would steal from the indigenous people at this port. But after the wall came up it became a cornerstone for the Spaniards allowing them to influence Colombia.

Just another alley way [Photo credit: Steph]

Enjoying the colors of Cartagena

Volcan Lodo El Totumo, Colombia

Tourists sitting in mud volcano

So when heard of a volcano where you can take a mud bath we assumed it was a giant volcano with a mud spring like the hot springs in Volcano Arenal in Costa Rica. We were completely wrong, it was a mound of mud in the shape of a volcano with a pit of muddy clay that was probably 20 feet tall at most. It's said that there is organic matter below that cause the gasses to rise and create the mud. We got in our bathing suits and jumped in. Supposedly we were allwoed to stay in there for 45 minutes, but it was too crowded to enjoy. It was weird, you would jump in, they would give you a massage and then push you in the middle in the orgy of people. It was so bouyant that you could sit and float. It's a weird feeling not being able to feel anything below your feet. Felt like the dead sea, but in mud.

Mud man Sean. [picture credit: Steph]

Seriously, way too crowded. people grabbing you to move around, a random foot between my legs. We fought our way across the crowded pool of mud and climbed out. Scrapped off any excess mud and walked down to the lake below to wash off.

View of the lake from the mud volcano.

The massage ended up costing 1.50$, there were ladies who would try to wash you down in the lake for the same price. I some how got conned into paying some kids the same price for watching my shoes. Mostly because we didn't want them to spit in our food. I later found out the food on the tour was served from somewhere else. Oh wells.

San Jose, Costa Rica

Stephanie booking flight tickets at our Tranquilo hostel

This entry is dedicated on our style of traveling. It's crazy and fun is what it is. Every night so far we never have any hostels booked. We look at a Lonely Planet suggestions, show up at the hostel, ask for a room, and say yay or nay depending on the cleanliness of the place. Transportation on the other hand is a bit harder since we have so much land to cover and so little time. So we opted to cut out Panama the other day because of how long it's been taking us to get around Costa Rica. we booked a flight to Bogota, Colombia. We suddenly changed our minds, got a full refund, and decided for a cheaper but longer flight to Cartegena, Colombia. We laughed at ourselves.

Us making dinner in the hostel's kitchen

It's also been a great money saver by making dinner ourselves. This time we were semi inspired by a dish called Casados which seems to be a fairly simple dish of rice, beans, fried Plantains, and any other specialties. I'm making the rice, but Steph prepared most of the dishes. It seems like half of the hostels here in Costa Rica seem to serve breakfast. This place was universally known for their pancakes. Half the reason why I choose this hostel. They did not disappoint.

Sean and Stephs version of Casados

And voila; yellow rice, tomato & zucchini, black beans, and a side of papaya.

Manuel Antonio National Park, Costa Rica

A boat in front of Manuel Antonio National Park.

So the weather has been somewhat been less desireable. In the morning it's semi overcast with breaks of sun light here and there. Eventually later in mid day the clouds thicken and you can see the rain come. Every day, with out fail, this has been the routine. This was our first day at the beach and was hoping it would be slightly different.

This is the entrance to Manuel Antonio National Park. We were conned into paying full price when we could have gotten student discounts if we had only walked in a bit further to the ranger station.

Stephanie looking out to sea.

We ate lunch on the beach and had to run away when high tide almost swept away everything we were eating.

Trekking through the jungle. [Picture credit: Steph]

Walking in the sand barefoot was nice, but at somepoint we had to put on our sandals to hike around in the rain forest. We didn't get to see too much since the park closed at four and we got there at two. Even though it started to rain on us we trekked on. The majority of the rain was shielded from the canopy of the rain forest, but we were still sweaty and covered with dirt. So we hung up our gear and jumped in the ocean in the rain.

Monteverde, Coast Rica

Stephanie and I getting geared up for Zip lining.

This probably is the highlight of the trip in Costa Rica so far. We didn't actually know what we were getting ourselves into. We figured it was somewhat exciting, right? They first give us an intro course on how to stay aligned, how to brake, and how to traverse. Ok, Stephanie pushes me to the front of the line. We wait for a group of 6 guys, they run up the stairs and start setting up their posts by going down the ziplines. I get up, they lock me in and send me flying. Ok, not so bad, not even scary, it was only 40 meters. Pretty fun stuff.

Stephaine on 100m zipline.

Here's Stephanie on the second zipline of 100 meters. Our feet dangeling above the tree line. You do each zipline sequentially in a course fashion. On the third one, we spiral up these stairs to find the zipline going across the valley 425 meters away. What the hell, I can barely see the other side. If you fall, you fall what would seem like forever. This time we go in pairs. They linked us up and let us fly. Holy crap. You have to do this. Who ever is reading this, you HAVE to do this! There's some slight up hill hiking on some of the stations, but well worth it. They have twenty four platforms

Doing the tarzan swing

Towards the end they do an assisted rappel for you off this giant tree. We hike up some more and find ourselves on this giant Tarzan swing with maybe a thirty foot freefall. We waited for everyone to do it and everyone's reactions were different. This one girl swore her little head off like she was going to kill someone. Next up was the finale, what they call the "superman". You wear a body harness, and they hook you in and your body is completely suspended except your arms. This time you can't reach the cable to slow yourself down. All you can do is stare off into the clouds that are floating by at eye level and scream.

La Fortuna, Costa Rica

Stephanie eating Fish Casados, a local dish.


I have to say I've fallen in love with Casados. I've probably ordered it the past three times we've been out. Each one has been slightly different, yet still amazing. The first one had perfect pico de gallo and a fried egg on the rice. the one that Stephanie is mad grinning to had hash on the side. It's really cheap too!

Camping at the hostel.


So we spent the second night in one of these camping it out with sleeping bags. Kinda luxurious if you ask me but it was so comfy. All the windows and doors zip up. There's an outlet for power with a huge lantern on the side. At night it was pretty cool and refreshing compared to the humid and rainy day.

Baldi Hot springs at the bottom of Volcano Arenal.



So the main event of this day was to see Volcano Arenal. Sadly we only hiked up for about an hour to the base to look around for a bit before it started to rain on us. Arenal was mostly covered in clouds so no amazing pictures. Apparently a couple of months ago you could watch the lava flow down at night but it's fairly inactive right now. The second part of this day was to hit up the hot springs at the bottom of the Volcano. We went to the lesser of the two hot springs (the first being twice the price for all natural springs). But it was still worth it. They had crazy amounts of pools, all different shapes, sizes, and most importantly temperatures. I think we sat in one that was 113 degrees F. They had waterfalls, bars, and even water slides. there's a guy at the top of the water slide warning you that if anything happens to you it's not the resorts fault. You end up sliding down 45kilometers/hr(roughly 28mph) at one point.

Houston, Texas

This book has prooved to be quite useful, as a pillow.


Landing in Houston for an eleven hour layover is not fun. Everything here was closed when I landed. Walking to a resteraunt was too far. Taking a taxi would cost ten times the meal. The only things available was a vending machine. So I set off to break my twenty dollar bill. No luck, still starving. Wandered each terminal for change machines, of course they were out of order. It's midnight, I give up. I'll find a corner to sleep in. I desperately wanted to lay down but all the chairs had arm rests on them. The cold hard floor will have to do.

In a few hours I leave to Latin America. Strapped with Lonely Planet's South America on a Shoestring, my camera, and my backpack. I'm meeting my friend Stephanie down in Costa Rica and then we're blazing it to the bottom of the Americas. The goal is to reach Uruguay in 5 weeks. It might be a crazy idea but I think it's going to be fun. Depending on our internet connection, I'll be trying to keep this blog updated as often as I possibly can. Wish us luck!

Oh yeah, and I don't know ANY Spanish.

A bit more than the essentials. [I've actually cut out a few things to reduce weight/space.]