Leaving the massive expanse of Mexico City we drove south and west towards Cuernavaca. When we got turned around and slightly lost at one point we were stopped by a state police officer who wanted to fine us for not having a state permit for our “cargo”. Using our extensive experience with shady police officers, we talked to this nice gentleman, explaining that we had no cargo other than personal items and he finally let us go without paying a peso. It is in moments like this that we realize how far our Spanish language skills and ability to work with people have come. When we arrived in the city of Cuernavaca we were a bit disappointed. We had hoped we would be out of the city but found ourselves in yet another vehicle laden metropolis. Luckily, we found a very mellow place to camp on the far outskirts of Cuernavaca. The campground made a nice base for exploring the famous silver town of Taxco and the astounding Grutas de Cacahuamilpa. Desperate to see the ocean and surf after almost three months out of the water, we continued our journey driving from the Cuernavaca area to the Pacific coast and Zihuatanejo. With three days to go before Sarah’s Mom’s arrival we camped at La Saladita and to our surprise were able to get back in the water and surf the perfect waves. It is amazing how out of shape you can get when you don’t surf for three months. Meeting Sarah’s Mom at the airport was great. We experienced the same excitement we have felt each and every time family and friends have come to pay us a visit. We spent our first night with Mary Jo in La Saladita so that she could see the beautiful beach and some surfing first hand.

We all piled in the van the next morning and drove the four hour drive up to the Patzcuaro area where we had made reservations at a nice B&B called Posada Espiritu Libre in the small village of Tzintzuntzan on the shore of Lake Patzcuaro. Our host Didi went to work making us feel right at home as well as feeding us each morning and most evenings. Didi is an excellent cook and her peaceful B&B was the perfect location for us to spend quality time with Mary Jo. Knowing we were going to be in the area for ten days, we decided to drive into Morelia so we could order our replacement tire at the Costco in Morelia. With the tire ordered, we thought we were pretty much set until five days later we noticed another MAJOR tire problem with our other rear tire. An eight inch long crack somehow developed on the inside wall of the tire and sent shivers down Eric’s spine when he first saw it, knowing we had to at least drive on it back to the B&B. We spent many hours on the phone with Costco and BFGoodrich to find out what the deal was and Didi lent a hand in the at times difficult communication process. As it turned out BOTH tires were determined to be manufacturer defects, so when it was all said and done we got two new tires free of charge. The only catch was that we would have to make another trip into Morelia after taking Mary Jo to Zihuatanejo to catch her flight. The good news was that we got to push back Mary Jo’s departure by one day and enjoy her company for just a little bit longer.

The time with Mary Jo was wonderful. We hit most all of the local attractions and did some shopping as the Patzcuaro/Morelia area is famous for its unique regional arts and crafts. Eric’s favorite was the Dia De Los Muertos skeleton figures called Catrinas. Sarah and Mary Jo’s favorite items were the copper wares in the town of Santa Clara Del Cobre: hand-hammered copper sinks, vases, and even bathtubs. We wanted to get one but forced to decide between throwing Mary Jo and Bruce out of the van to make room for a copper bathtub……well let’s just say we think we made the right decision choosing family over cargo and we settled for a small vase instead of the larger items. The weather couldn’t have been better and it became a running joke that Mary Jo said at least four times a day “The temperature is just so perfect”. We were so sad to see her go that we almost made her miss her flight, arriving with only minutes to spare. Thanks to Sarah’s Spanish skills, Mary Jo made it to the front of the line and on the plane without a problem. Thanks for the visit Mom!

After a wonderful time in the state of Chiapas, we headed north and east from the capital city of Tuxtla Gutierrez toward the gulf coast and Veracruz. Having read a little bit about the mountain area of Lago Catamaco, we decided to stop in and see what it was all about. We found a great place to camp called Tepetapan R.V. Park without too much trouble. We only planned to spend a night or two but ended up finding so much to do that we spent several nights. We did some exploring in the area, including a drive to the town of San Andres Tuxtla and the impressive Salto de Eyipantla. One of the unexpected highlights of camping in Catamaco was meeting the Hopalog family: Kitty “MomaHops”, Jamie, Jesse, Pike, Ellen and Sissy. This wonderful family has been on the road for over three years, pulling a trailer with their van, documenting the entire journey on their website. As always, it was difficult to leave Catamaco with its peaceful atmosphere, beautiful setting and wonderful people. We continued on towards the city of Veracruz, stopping only to swap out our back right tire with our spare due to a softball-sized blister which developed on the inside wall of the tire. The amazing thing is that, A) the tire didn’t blow out, B) a nice cab driver flagged us down pointing out the problem, and finally, C) this was the first time on our entire trip that we had a problem with a tire. We ended up spending two nights camping on a beach just south of Veracruz, where we tried to get a replacement tire at Costco. Since our tires are not a very common size we were told that we would need to wait a week for the tire to arrive. We decided to continue on down the road using our spare tire and postpone ordering the replacement until we were going to be in one place long enough to receive the new tire.

Veracruz was very interesting with its massive port and historic downtown area. We saw some surf potential, as well as the remains of the recent Carnival celebration. Veracruz is home to the largest Carnival celebration in all of Mexico. Heading west, we stopped in the beautiful city of Xalapa for a visit to the Museo Anthropologico Xalapa or MAX. The museum was amazing. The architecture alone was truly unique as well as the massive collection of regional artifacts and the famous colossal Olmec heads. Despite being late in the day, we continued west towards Mexico City camping at 10,000 feet of elevation along the slopes of the snow-capped Malintzi volcano outside of Puebla. The weather was so enjoyable that we spent two nights camping. The altitude was such a change for us that we were huffing and puffing just walking around. The drive from Malintzi to Mexico City was pretty simple and not too long thanks to some helpful tips from a very nice bus driver. En route, we stopped for lunch at a roadside restaurant that served typical dishes as well as edible worms, wasps, snails and moths. Eric did his best to be adventurous dabbling a bit; however, Sarah stole the show trying at least one of everything. We are thinking of sending her in to win us some money on “Fear Factor.” The locals were extremely impressed. At the end of the day, we arrived in the town of San Juan Teotihuacan, a town on the outskirts of Mexico City famous for the ruins of Teotihuacan. San Juan Teotihuacan’s trailer park was a great home base for our explorations into Mexico City. We ended up making several day trips utilizing the inexpensive and plush bus service in conjunction with the city’s Metro system.

If you have never been to Mexico City, we highly recommend visiting this megalopolis. We found such an abundance of sites and interesting places that we were quite overwhelmed. The highlights for us were the Palacio de Bellas Artes where we saw some very beautiful murals, amazing stained glass and art deco architecture. Not to mention getting to go inside the opera house where we saw the famous Tiffany Glass Theatre Curtain. Basically, it is a massive stained-glass mosaic stage curtain depicting the volcano and valley of Tenochtitlan. We also visited the Templo Mayor, Zocalo, Palacio National, Metropolitan Cathedral, the National Museum of Anthropology and Chapultapec Park. We took a double-decker bus tour of the city to round out our visit which was fun despite the rain.

One thing we have come to love about traveling with an open time frame is the people you meet. While we were in San Juan Teotihuacan we met an amazing woman named Erna Brugman from the Netherlands. She has lost the use of her legs and was told seven years ago that she had three months to live. Well, she puts the “live” in living. Our days always started and ended with Erna and we even loaded her up in the van and took her to the pyramids one day. To our amazement she was determined not only to visit the ruins but to actually climb the 60 + stone steps to the highest point accessible on the Moon Pyramid. Without using her legs, she employed her strong arms to lift her body up each stair. With unflinching will and determination, she reached the top and later safely descended back to the ground completely on her own power. GO ERNA!!! You are our hero and we are forever grateful for meeting you. We had often asked ourselves or been asked by friends, relatives and fellow travelers, “What place, experience or moment stands out from this journey?” We would throw out different locations, people or sites in a sort of mental recap of the trip. But after our adventure with Erna on the Moon Pyramid, we don’t hesitate when someone asks what one memory stands out above the rest. Thank you, Erna, for sharing your strength with us.

Leaving Guatemala we crossed into Belize which was a bit strange since everyone speaks English and everything seemed to cost more. We got charged for the first time to bring Bruce in but didn’t have much of a choice. From the border we drove to San Ignacio and found the Inglewood Camping Grounds run by a very kind former engineer from California. The electrical system and Wi-Fi internet immediately tipped us off as to what type of engineer he was. We spent a couple days in San Ignacio doing laundry and making a plan. With the rain falling, the cost of everything being high and our short schedule, we decided to pretty much pass through and head for Mexico. Belize is beautiful but we think that you need a boat to really appreciate it so next time we will have to sail there.

Crossing from Belize to Mexico was great. We immediately found carne asada tacos and reminded ourselves of some of the things we missed about Mexico. The $30 per person exit fee for leaving Belize left a sour taste in our mouths and a smile on our faces as we watched the border shrink in our mirror. We drove up the coast to Tulum where we stopped and tried to call our buddy Omar on Cozumel to alert him that we were coming to see him. We spent a night in a crazy Disneyland-like trailer park near Playa Del Carmen called Paa Mul with over 50 giant RVs from the U.S. and Canada and some of the most luxurious hot showers we had experienced in a long time. The next morning we got a hold of Omar and caught the ferry to Cozumel to meet him. The next four days flew by as we visited with Omar and caught up on his travels to South America and back. He took us fishing, scuba diving with his dive shop, Deep Exposure Dive Center, and took us to all of his favorite local food spots. Cozumel is a really cool island if you get away from the main drag where all the cruise ship tourists and businesses are. The far side of the island is nearly uninhabited and even gets surf. Eric met a local guy named Nacho that Omar introduced us to who lent him a board and took him for a surf in the crystal clear blue Caribbean waters. The waves were a bit messy but actually really fun. We are now believers, you can surf on Cozumel.

After saying goodbye to Omar, we headed for the ruins of Chichen Itza where we camped for one night and spent a morning visiting the ruins. They are very neat ruins but we found ourselves a bit spoiled after seeing Tikal and Copan. We made it to Uxmal for the sound a light show which was really neat. They basically have all of these lighting effects set to a story about the ruins. It was a very different way to see the ruins albeit hard to photograph. The next day we went to the Grutas de Loltun where scientists have found evidence of human presence dating back to 15,000 B.C. After touring the caves we drove to Campeche and spent a night in a woman’s back yard that used to be a campground. She still allows people to camp in her yard and was extremely nice. She told us all about Campeche so we headed into the historic centro. We found the old Spanish walls, constructed to prevent pirates from sacking the city and the antique colonial city within reminiscent of Disneyland’s Pirates of the Caribbean ride. From Campeche, we drove six hours to Palenque were we checked out a camp spot knowing we would be returning with Sarah’s Dad, Darryl, and Step-Mom, Tina, in the next few days. We woke up and drove to San Cristobal via the mountainous road through the heart of Zapatista country.

The following day we picked Darryl and Tina up at the international airport in Tuxtla Gutierrez only about 30 minutes from San Cristobal. We were excited to see them and they were very excited to see us and have a chance to explore a part of Mexico they had always dreamed of seeing. Over the next week we visited all of the sites in and around San Cristobal including Zinacantan, San Juan Chamula, Na Bolom, the market and cathedrals. We stayed in a very cozy hotel called the Hotel Hacienda Don Juan. Each day we would have coffee and chat at this neat coffee shop we found when we were in San Cristobal on our way south six months ago. One of the highlights of the trip was visiting Palenque. The ruins of Palenque are more or less Mexico’s version of Tikal. Surrounded by jungle, the impressive structures and setting lend to a true taste of the Mayan world. After camping with Darryl and Tina in the van, we headed back to San Cristobal with stops to see the waterfalls of Misol-Ha and Agua Azul.

When we waved goodbye to Darryl and Tina we smiled thinking about all the great memories we made and wonderful places we visited in such a short time. So that pretty much brings us up to date. We are planning on spending the next few months exploring more of Mexico including Veracruz, the Mexico City area, Taxco, Patzcuaro and of course more surfing on the coast. We hope to see you all soon.

Que lo vaya bien,
Eric, Sarah and Bruce

When we crossed back into Guatemala from El Salvador we knew we were in for a different experience than the last time we were in Guatemala but we had no clue what it would be like. We had decided to head to the remote town of Tamahu where Eric’s Mom and Dad have gone for several years as volunteers on medical missions. The journey to Tamahu was beautiful as we climbed on the winding road into the Alta Verapaz mountains where much of Guatemala’s famous coffee is grown. When we arrived in Tamahu we went right to the Mission San Pablo in the center of town to introduce ourselves and find out what we could help with while we were there. We met Padre Belisario who had heard we were coming from Barb’s emails and welcomed us with open arms and a neat little house to stay in. He introduced us to the neighbors and helped us find things we could help with like going to the primary school run by the nuns to teach little bits of English and sing songs.

We wasted no time getting integrated in the community as we met the neighbors and started our daily ritual of playing with the local kids and Bruce in the street in front of the house in which camped. Our timing couldn’t have been luckier as we arrived a few days before the beginning of the festival of the town’s patron saint San Pablo. The first big event for the week was the crowning of the Mayan queen which we were permitted to attend. The election ceremony was full of traditional songs and dances as well as each candidate’s display of traditional dress, prayer and a little speech in the Mayan dialect, as well as Spanish. The next several days we got to meet and know Padre Ricardo who took us up into the mountains where there are many small villages of Mayan farmers and families. The people were amazing. They had a use for everything and seemed to make so much out of thin air. The experience sure made us recognize how gifted we are to have been born in a place and into families where we were able to have a bed, clothes and food, not to mention a college education. We met a woman named Martha Elena at the Casa de Corazon de Maria which is a soup kitchen for the poor of the town and the surrounding villages. She is an endlessly energetic and cheerful woman who has formed a co-operative of Mayan weavers in the area. She took us on a tour to meet and photograph the women of the co-operative. Our dream is to find a way to help these women by providing a method for them to sell their art to the world via the internet.

Undoubtedly, we felt the strongest connection with our neighbors and surrogate family, the Petans. They have two daughters (Denisse and Karla) as well as a young son named Dieter and an older son who is studying in Guatemala City. We visited with the Petans every day and learned many things about the local history and the region from their kind and patient explanations. We further improved our Spanish conversing with them and talked about all sorts of ideas for the future, including the construction of a computer lab in town. For all of you out there in tech land, when we get settled somewhere down the line we will be sending out more information about this project and ways you might be able to help if interested.

The climax of the cultural events was the parade and feast day for San Pablo. We were the only strangers in town and although we felt like aliens at points we were truly grateful for being able to experience and share the event with the locals. They loved hamming up for our digital camera and then seeing their picture on the screen. The most colorful part of the events was the Dance of the Vanado, or the deer. This is a tradition where the elders of the town wear very old costumes depicting deer, hunters and other animals where they dance for hours upon hours to traditional marimba music.

It was tough, but we eventually had to leave Tamahu as we knew that Sarah’s Dad and Step-Mom would be coming to meet us in San Cristobal de las Casas on February 10th. We packed it up and headed toward Belize through Coban and the jungles of central Guatemala. The road was really beautiful and less traveled as the way to get to Flores and Tikal. We had heard much about these famous Mayan ruins. We arrived in Tikal and found nice camping right in the park despite the strict no dog policy -- shhhhhh. We spent the following day exploring the mystical world of Tikal and reacquainting ourselves with the sight of other travelers. The ruins blew us away almost as much as the jungle setting. Our best description is that Tikal is like taking the most spectacular jungle and natural environment and throwing in equally breathtaking and historic Mayan ruins. This is one of those places you must see to appreciate. After Tikal, we headed for Belize. Guatemala is a strange place: simple, a bit rough but sure to change your life if you give it the time and open you heart to it. It most definitely changed ours.

On New Years Day, we dropped Alison off at the airport in Managua and drove to the Honduran border with enough time to cross over and check into the Hotel Barcelona, where we had stayed with Omar and “G” on our way south a couple months earlier. We woke up early the next morning and drove to the Honduras, El Salvador border and crossed into El Salvador with no problems other than the slow process of entering into El Salvador. Once in El Salvador we bite off a little too much trying to charge all the way to La Libertad with only a few hours of light. The result was a frustrating and somewhat sketchy time navigating San Salvador at night. With the help of some nice Police officers, we finally found the road to La Libertad and eventually the nice campground in El Tunco recommended by our Canadian friends Chris and Mel.

El Tunco was great even though we weren’t in the prime surf season. We within walking distance of La Bocana and Sunsal and had decent surf while we were there. The local people were super nice and one of the funniest things was the campground caretaker Salvador’s kids. They were always running around like any little kid at the beach: covered in dirt or sand, happy and half naked. We had some really fun longboarding sessions in the early morning at Sunsal and the occasional shared wave.

After El Tunco, we went to San Salvador to visit Puerto Del Diablo on our way up to Cerro Verde. The internal tourism in El Salvador is starting to take off so the government is promoting its national parks and the idea of camping heavily. This was great for us because we were able to find really cool places where we could camp for almost nothing. From Cerro Verde we drove toward the Honduran/Guatemalan border where we found the Monte Cristo Cloud Forest. It is similar to Monteverde in Costa Rica accept for there are hardly any people other than the rangers. We saw three Quetzals in a tree right when we pulled up to the park, what a welcome. It was cool at night and the view looking down over northwestern El Salvador into Guatemala was breathtaking.

We resigned ourselves to the fact that there was just too many things to see and places to surf in El Salvador for this trip so we have decided that out of all of the countries in Central America, we need to explore more of El Salvador first. We hope that you find a way to get there someday if you are in for a taste of some of Central America’s most unspoiled nature experiences and best surf. Despite what people told us, we found it to be a safe country with very nice people and great roads.

Despite a busy border, we crossed back from Costa Rica into Nicaragua without a hitch driving from the border all the way to Lago de Apoyo near Granada in one push. We spent a night at the Monkey Hut swimming in the crystal clear waters of the lake and enjoying a relaxing morning before heading into Granada to check into the rental house Eric’s Mom and Dad rented for us as a Christmas present. We made our way to the Casa Bamboo and settled in before heading into Managua to pick up Alison. Picking up Alison at the airport was so fun, she was totally excited and stoked to have some time off from work, she is in her first year as a 4th grade teacher in Phoenix Arizona. We returned to Granada that night and started enjoying our relaxing 10 days around Christmas and New Years immediately.

Aside from the general good times around celebrating Christmas and New Years together we found lots of other adventures while Alison was with us. We hiked up Volcan Mombacho with our neighbor and guide Victor, spent a day at Lago de Apoyo, went to the market in Masaya, explored the sites in Granada and had tons of deep conversation amidst making our own meals and baking with the house’s oven. Alison brought all sorts of goodies including Christmas decorations which we used to give the house a holiday makeover. We watched movies including National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation thanks to Cheryl and Sean. The only sort of business we had to deal with was our laptop since it crashed and wasn’t working prior to Alison’s visit. Eric spent a day in an internet café troubleshooting the problem and was able to get it in somewhat working order thanks to a helpful local running the internet café who had a copy of the Windows setup CD.

One of our favorite things while Alison was with us was the nightly ritual of pulling chairs out to the street to join the locals in the tradition of hanging out and talking during the evenings. The neighbors were super nice and took us in like we had lived there for years. They brought us food, shared drinks and stories every night in this typical Granada fashion. Christmas Eve and New Years Eve were a bit different with kids playing in the street until all hours of the morning lighting off fireworks and celebrating together. When it was all said and done, we were sad to part with Alison but felt so lucky for the time together in the great house and beautiful colonial city of Granada. Thanks again Glenn, Barb, Alison and everyone who sent us little gifts and notes. Happy 2007 to all of you out there and we hope this year brings health, happiness and good times to all of you.

When we returned to Costa Rica we took a slightly different path, sticking to the coast to the south. The camping south of Dominical near the town of Uvita was beautiful and empty which was a total change from camping in Dominical with Noah before. From Uvita, we drove up the decent coast road to Manuel Antonio and towards Playa Hermosa. The road from Manuel Antonio to Playa Hermosa was quite good for Costa Rica and we chose to camp for one night in between at a buggy little beach just south of Esterillos. When we pulled into Playa Hermosa Eric was practically in tears remembering his time in Hermosa almost ten years ago learning to surf. We immediately found some of Eric’s old friends including John O’Toole and Mary from Cabinas Las Olas. We spent a couple nights at Cabinas Las Olas surfing and hanging out before migrating to John’s house. John was so nice to let us crash and hang out with him, he and Eric went surfing every morning and evening while Sarah watched people getting hammered in the heavy Hermosa surf.

From Playa Hermosa, we headed up to try our luck at Boca Barranca again but didn’t find any surf so we moved on to the mountains. First we checked out Monteverde where we stayed at the park’s front gate ranger station and explored the reserve. We found that even with the ability to camp, it was cheaper to stay in the ranger’s lodge because you got admission into the nature reserve as a part of the lodging. We saw some amazing wildlife including a Resplendant Quetzal, Tarantula, Millipede and countless plants, trees and flowers. Thanks to our guide, we were able to see and learn many things about the unique cloudforest of Monteverde. After our visit to Monteverde we took dirt roads to the area around Lago Arenal and Volcan Arenal. We were able to camp at Arenal’s ranger station thanks to a nice ranger named Carlos. We had a ball visiting with him and telling stories. We spent the next morning hiking around the volcano and taking pictures of this very active beast.

Our next destination was Mal Pais on the Nicoya peninsula, another one of Eric’s must see destinations from his previous trip to Costa Rica. The drive from Arenal to Mal Pais was long and we ended up camping on the side of a dusty road en route but made it to Mal Pais without a problem. While Playa Hermosa had stayed more or less the same, Mal Pais had completely changed, for the worse. It is still a beautiful place with great surf and nice people but there are tons more houses, hostels and hotels as well as annoying ATVs screaming up and down the dirt roads all day. We had fun surfing for a few days and camped at an Austrian owned place called Pachamama. We asked around and decided to go for it by driving up the rugged roads of the Guanacaste coast all the way to Playa Avellanas. The drive was a true adventure with some really neat and exciting river crossings. One of them required you to drive down river about a quarter of a mile before bogging up the muddy road on the other side. We tried to take pictures but were so excited with the adventure that we didn’t get many. We spent a night in the cool little town of Samara and then moved on up the road to Ostonial where we met a really nice couple traveling in their camper from Powell River B.C. They were camped out waiting for the arrival of the sea turtles for the phenomenon known as the Arbada, when sometimes hundreds of sea turtles come ashore to lay their eggs in one night. We totally lucked out and basically tagged along with our new Canadian friends Mel and Chris that night and saw one of the most amazing sights on our trip. The next morning there were still many turtles coming ashore to lay there eggs and we were able to take photos. Since the turtles are so sensitive to light, you cannot take pictures at night or use flashlights so the night before we were lucky to have the quarter moon so that we could watch the turtles work their magic.

From Ostonial we traveled to Playa Avellanas where we spent a week or so camping at Azul Escondido with Chris and Mel. It was super fun to visit with Chris and Mel who were on their way to Panama and had many similar stories of their trip from Canada. You can read about their trip on their website http://www.4friendsandadog.com/ The waves weren’t great at first but after the first two days the swell picked up and the winds changed for the better. Sarah had some amazing sessions at El Estero and continued to improve on her new board. With time running out, we decided to head inland to see Rincon De La Vieja before crossing back into Nicaragua to meet Eric’s sister Alison in Managua.

With the clock ticking on our time with Noah we picked up the pace and trucked toward the Panama Canal and Panama City. We spent a night in Playa Las Lajas, the mountainous town of Boquete (Panama’s Aspen), and finally Playa Santa Clara. When we drove from Santa Clara to the Panama Canal we were all giddy with excitement. When we drove across the bridge over the Panama Canal we almost couldn’t believe that we had done it. We spent several hours learning about the history of the amazing technical and human achievement of the Canal’s construction at the Mira Flores Locks. We watched ships passing through the locks and took lots of photos of the impressive site. Since Noah had to fly out the next day, we found a hotel near the airport in Panama city and enjoyed our last few hours with Noah. After saying goodbye to Noah we drove back through Panama City to Santa Clara where we would camp and rest for the next few days recuperating from the blistering pace we had set with Noah.

We picked up another hitchhiker in Santa Clara, Guliano from Italy. Guliano rode with us out to Playa Vanao or “Vanado” where we scored some fun surf and good camping. Despite the rain we explored Punta Cambutal before going back to Santiago to drop off Guliano and get the van lubed up. From Santiago we went to Santa Catalina, one of the most famous surf spots on Panama’s Pacific coast. After a great camping experience in Santa Catalina, we headed to the mountains again checking out the town of Volcan. Volcan is a town that seems like it should be in Switzerland rather than Panama and we took to the nice weather and nice people quickly. The hiking on Volcan Baru was great and we even checked out a local festival and met a very nice ex-pat who works his own finca up in the mountains outside of Volcan. We took an unofficial tour of a coffee beneficio with its founder’s son and grandson who taught us all about the coffee growing, picking, sorting and packing business.

Panama surprised us with its excellent roads, infrastructure, clean water and mountains. The people were incredibly nice and we found that we, as usual, had a hard time finally leaving. It is nothing like the somewhat over-touristy Costa Rica and as with every country in Central America, completely different from its neighbors.

Our time in Costa Rica started out with a bang. On the day that we planned on crossing the border, we were confident and prepared having crossed 3 previous borders and being totally prepared. However, the “guides” on the Costa Rica side had another plan, to get money from us. We ended up spending about five hours wrangling with the crooked “guides” eventually meeting a very nice Argentinean surfer named Juan from Tamarindo who helped us finally find the proper official who promptly told us we had everything in order and that there was no problem. When we pulled away from the border we were so happy to finally be in Costa Rica. We gave Juan a ride to his Mom’s hostel, La Botella De Leche, in Tamarindo. Juan had been on an annual 3 month trip to Puerto Escondido where he is legendary for pulling into massive barrels and his Mom was so happy to see him again that she treated us like family for having delivered him home

We hung out a bit in Tamarindo even though it is totally blown out in a very strange Orange County sort of way. As always, we met some very nice people including a friend Jarod who let us use his Wi-Fi and a nice couple from Santa Cruz who we surfed with. After quickly getting our fix of the glossy Tamarindo, we followed local advice and headed to Playa Avellanas and a neat little surf hostel called Azul Escondido where we camped for the next week or so. The rain came on strong and really never let up making all of the bad dirt roads into impossible mud tracks. The rain was too much to surf so we just hunkered down with the hostel’s manager Lukus and tried our best to stay dry. With Noah’s pending arrival and no sign of the rains letting up, we realized were going to have to bog some seriously bad roads in horrible weather to meet up with him. We crossed our fingers and plowed through the mud on the Guanacaste coast arriving at the San Jose airport just in time to pick up Noah.

Noah’s arrival lifted our spirits and his energy was much appreciated. We headed to Boca Barranca and camped in front of the Hotel Boca Barranca thanks to the incredibely kind family who runs it. The next morning, we awoke to no rain and perfectly peeling lefts, something Boca Barranca is famous for. Noah is a shaper of surfboards and made each of us a custom surfboard. Sarah got a custom 8’10” performance longboard and Eric got a 6’3” standard squashtail shortboard. We all had such a blast surfing together that first day that we decided to stay and see if it got better. Noah had 10 days to travel with us and was leaving out of Panama City so we quickly hit the road when we saw the surf wasn’t going to stick around. We made a short stop in Dominical on our way to Pavones and Punta Burica. Pavones treated us really well and we got to surf large, clean waves in a jungle environment. After our incredible luck at Pavones, we decided to push south into Panama. Although it was short and pretty wet, we had a great time passing through Costa Rica on our way south and we looked forward to the return trip.