The Travel Chronicles

Sorry everybody I didn’t want to tell you this but…..I’m sick!! I’ve been sick even before I even arrived in Nicaragua. However im still having a great time and to be honest this is really the best place to sick. me and Nneka got back from the beach yesterday. We both rushed to get ready to go to her service club’s christmas dinner. Check us out

Her organization brought in toys 3 million toys for kids, can you believe that!! That had to rent an house to store them. They said it was waist deep in that house. The organization is Rotoact, they do projects throughout the year in Central America.

Well the Nneka’s host family gave me a home remedy for my cough. Rum with honey and lime…it really did stop my coughs for a while.

Well today Nneka had to work and do farm visits so I decided to go to Grenada. Nneka was really worried about me being alone so she called Marie, one of her friends I met my first day here. Maria is studying to be a Vet and she happens to be a Grenada native. I go on an 45 min minivan that’s used as a bus. I only paid 75 US cents or 16 Cordobas to make the trip to Grenada. Here is a pic of Marie

She had a hotel room ready for me so i just dropped off my bags and headed to the countryside. They have the largest lake in Central America here…it’s like a tropical unpolluted version of one of the great lakes!! This lake was really part of the Pacific until an earthquake jutted some land up. That’s why this lake actually has freshwater sharks in it and people still swim in that lake!! not ME!!

And they have mountains opposite of the lake.

Then I met her family. When her mom haerd me cough she immediately gave me a mentholated stream treatment and medicine. This was after dinner of course!!
Here is Marie’s family

So don’t worry about me being sick. I have medicine and great people around. You all should see this place. they have great nature trails completly undeveloped and Im loving it and the generous people.

chow…off to bed since nneka will be coming in the afternoon. I haven’t even begun to actually explore the city part of Grenada!!

Hello everyboby!!

Right now I´m leaving the Barcelo Resort in Montelimar Beach. Nneka wanted to take a little vacation so she booked us a Cabana on the Pacific side of Nicaragua…check it out:

We take a bus, actually it was a school bus used as a busan hour and a half from Managua, where she stays. We got off in the little village close to the resort, then took a taxi. Actually the taxi was a man pushing us by bycylc:

I had a great time chilling at the beach at this all inclusive resort…here are some long awaited pics:

Nneka chilling on the beach at sunset:

And me:

Check out the view at breakfast!! I think I´ll take a nap in that hamock!!

We also hung out at Nneka workplace yesterday. Here is one of her coworkers also know as Nicarasta (just kidding…) he teaches english and taught me the nuiances of Nicaragrean spanish:

Gotta run…I have a school bus to catch back to Managua then we have to get ready to go to some Christmas parties.

Well just want everybody to know that I made it safely to Nicaragua.  We are at Nneka workplace place distracting everybody from work.  We are going to the beach!! I’ll post pics about our journey later.  Sorry guys just don’t feel like typing today.

Well gruys…due to the increasing requests I will be continuing my travel blog. This year I will be going to Nicaragua for Christmas and then on to Brazil for New Year’s Eve. Like last year I will be sending postcards out to the people that make responses on the travel blog only. I will be sending out an email shortly. Oh yeah, feel free to make responses to this post, but it won’t count for the postcard!!

I really don’t know if I will be able to make any posts while in Nicaragua due to the slow Internet service. So check in around the 24th. However I know the internet service is great in Brazil, so posts will definitely be up on Dec 29th to recap what I’ve been up to.

I always like to start with some educational things about the countries I visit.

Nicaragua

Nicaragua is the poorest country in CA (Central America) yet it’s the biggest and safest. I has 19 volcanoes, freshwater sharks that swims in the largest lake in CA, a pacific coast, a Caribbean coast and the country also voted in the first female president in this hemisphere (her term was 1990-96). Speaking of volcanoes, it has a young active volcanoe geologically speaking. It first appeared in 1850..the last eruption was in 99′ but it bellows stream everyday.

I am really excited about going to Nicaragua because of it’s pristine beauty that hasn’t been overwhelmed by package tourists (yet). They actually had an article in the New York Times dubbing it the next “Costa Rica”…I hope not!!

Brazil

I won’t be jetting all around the country this time. I will only be wandering around the Salvador de Bahia region.
Check the following link to learn more about Brazil:

My Itinerary

Well gotta go…still packing but at least I found my passport!!

Today I arrived in Manuas… it´s incredibly hot hereduring the day but really nice at night!! It´s a bustling city in the middle of the Amazon rain forest. I went to the port on the amazon today and I can´t even describe it. There´s people selling supplies everywhere and the buildings are beautiful. I didn´t have time to see everything I wanted but I´ll hit those places if I make it out of the Amazon.

Today I checked into my Pousada. It´s really nice. They have chickens (like all the places I went to in Brazil) and hummingbirds everywhere. After doing so much walking I took a dip in the pool they have here.

Tomorrow I´ll head 3 and a half hours into the jungle. So I won´t be posting any updates for the next couple of days.

Well sorry I can´t post pictures here…sorry Susie but I like taking pics of the places I went to – I know what I look like 🙂

But I´ll have three or four post-trip posts to recap new year´s eve, Rio and the hang gliding episode plus other insights.

I´m getting sad..I love this country -the nature and the wonderful people (oh I have a Carioca, which means a person from Rio, pape now :).

Wish me luck in the jungle. I´m heading out at 7am. I gotta get some sleep

Or maybe it´s the side effects of taking Malarone?? Just kidding

I went to Corcovado to see the Cristo Redentor statue or the big Jesus. You have to take to train to climb the top of the mountian…it takes above 30 mins to reach the top!!

Once on the top the view is nice but I enjoy the view hang gliding better. It was a hazy day so the pictures look foggy. We were up so high that you´re standing iterally in the clouds!!

Here´s the world famous Maracana futebol stadium…it had 200,000 capacity!! Too bad there´s no games right now.

And Sugerloaf and Guanabara Bay….

After coming from the island I thought Copacabana was over blown..it´s very touristy and the beach is nasty. There´s algea in the ocean that could give you deseases so I didn´t stay there too long…

It was so hot that I heading back to the pousada to take a dip the the pool before going out. Well that´s a quick recap of Rio. I´m doing some more exploring today. Then tomorrow Im heading to the Amazon. I don´t know if I´ll be able to post while in Manuas/jungle. When I get back , if I can´t post I´ll give you an Amazon recap.

In the meantime, cross your fingers for me see ya in 6 days..

I survived hang gliding Friday. I was so scared and nervous that I had to use the bathroom right before we did it. I didn´t want to have an in-flight “accident”. It didn´t help that my pilot was trying to find his cell phone so he could call his wife!!

This picture will so you just how high it is…it´s the highest peak to the left…

I literally ran off the side of a mountain 1700 feet above the city!! Running is so important when hang gliding. If you don´t have the enough speed you could crash. There was this girl before me that froze out 3 ft from the edge and her pilot literally had to drag her off. Once you start running you can´t stop. If you can do the big leap everything else is way safe.

Her´s me by the takeoff ramp on the top of the mountain.

We landed on the beach…like this dude but with a hang glide instead.

It was a great experience. The view was incredible. I´ll have pictures of me hang gliding post-trip on the blog and maybe a link to a video clip afterwards.

I sorry I haen´t been posting in a while but I´ve been busy exploring Rio. So I the next three posts are quick recaps…

Thursday night I met my friend Danielle – a carioca ( a person born and raised in Rio). She took me to this samba club in the Lapa district where they played some awesome vintage samba. Her old classmate ,Romulo, was celebrating his birthday. If you´re reading this Romulo I hope you have a great birthday!!!

The club was an 100 year old building with three huge levels. The top two floors had openings so you could look down onto the dance floor.

We had great time talking, watching the samba band play and dancing.

This pic isn´t very good because is was dark in the club (of course).

Oh speaking of samba…there´s this dude this a part of the samba school that will play in the carnaval. Here´s him in his outfit. I hear him all the time next door practicing…

Hey Tiffany…email me your mailing address!!

Anyways

Well guys..it´s raing in Rio (boooo!!!). It had to happen I guess. This is the first day of my entire trip that the rain didn´t stop in 20 mins. So it guess I had it coming. My pousada I´m staying in is so pretty. My room has an terrace and I can see monkeys and Tocounos and even Christ the Redemer in the distance.

Hopefully it will clear up because I really want to go hang glidding tomorrow. Tonight I´m going to Samba with a friend of mine in Ri0.

I didn´t take pictures because it´s so wet here but I can give you some of the island Fernand de Noronha. By the way – No I didn´t ride the horse, it´s not their only mode of transportation. They actually take off the road vehicles such as buggys off the road 🙂 They have a bus for their main road, which is the shortest in Brazil 4.3 miles. Here´s another crazy fact: Fernando de Noronha is the the smallest place in the world to have their own time zone (it´s about 7 square miles I think).

Anyway more pics…theese are all me the day I spent hiking around the beach:

Here I am…

Look at the wonderful views lyou have on the paths:

Look the P&G GO office…tropical style

Here´s dolphin rock…did you notice why??

Crazy Linzo…this one is for you. These where the guys that taught me how to body surf. They were really cool teachers. Notice the one on the left is drinking a Caprichia (sp). It´s a very stong drink made with sugar, limes and rogut (or sugercane moonshine).

Last but not least is the sunset…marvelous.

Today I spent all day hiking and seeing some of the 21 beaches located here on the island. Once I get to Rio, the internet service should be better and I can show you more pics of this island.

I had an awesome time!! I some more sea turtles while snorkeling and two sharks!! Tons of fishes. I´m goiung to take a nap and listen to some forro (pronounced fo-ho) music tonight and dance!! I´m sleeping in late and then catching a flight to Rio tommorrow.

Here´s a group pic of the people I spent New Years Eve with in Salvador…noticed I changed into my swim suit bottom 🙂 I swamed and danced the night away!!

Here´s a pic of the Daniell Mercury concert I went to that New Years Day. She´s like a big national star here in Brazil. They had this on national TV….

Here´s a pic of the island from the plane as we were approaching the island…

More pics…

Here´s me planto-scubing…

And the dolphins…

Here´s a pic to prove to you how rustic this island is … the pousada I´m staying in way nicer though

They should keep you all sated until I get back to the mainland…I´m going to hang my swimsuit to dry and rise off my flip flops!!

I´ll have to do an after-trip post to fill you all in on what when on New Year´s Eve (or the G-rated version) …I have to get the pics developed once I get back in the states!!