Fort Lauderdale, Cruise: Samana, Domincan Republic; Tortola, British Virgin Islands; St. John, Antigua; Bridgetown, Barbados; St. Kitts-Nevis

April 5th-April 18th

Back in the planning process for this trip...we thought it would be the most brilliant idea to end with a bang...a cruise through the Caribbean.  I know it sounds absolutely ridiculous to end one "vacation" with another...but that is precisely what we did.  What a better way to end a third world excursion than to embark on a luxurious and pampering vacation? Okay Okay...I tried to justify it...but you're right...it's still ridiculous.  Anyway....we started hunting for cruises and almost gave up until we found a deal so silly cheap for 9 days we couldn't turn it down.  So before we even had tickets to and from Central America...our final adventure leaving from Miami was booked!

We landed in sunny Ft. Lauderdale late afternoon on the 5th of April.  We stared out the window in complete awe at the huge high rises and the perfectly manicured highways.  Somehow, I mixed up the name of the hotel and our cab driver dropped us off at the fancy Ocean Manor Hotel and Resort.  I knew it looked too good to be true!  Upon getting out of the cab and grabbing our stuff...who do we run into but Dennis Rodman.  Covered in tattoos, piercings, and standing like a giant!  Before we got to run off and have drinks with him our driver realized the mistake and came back to get us...probably for the better! :)

Our 3 nights on the outskirts of Ft. Lauderdale were sunny and beautiful!  We didn't have a car and being 10 miles from the main city we did a lot of walking.  Our second day we walked 10 miles uphill both ways to shop for new clothes for the cruise.  We realized they may not appreciate our worn and ragged hiking wear.  Our cruise was "Freestyle" so we didn't have to get too carried away in the local Target and Old Navy .  Once again...we did a lot of sunning, picnicking, and strolling on the playa.  Is "Professional Vacationer" an acceptable job title at this point? 

Ft. Lauderdale

The Cruise....oh the cruise......

First off I should note that we had a legit fear that we actually wouldn't make it to the cruise ship.  What was supposed to be a 40 minute shuttle ride from Ft. Lauderdale to Miami turned into 2.5 hours due to a serious accident and stopped traffic.  Our itinerary said if we were not on board by 2pm, we would not embark.  At 2pm we were still sitting in traffic!  We were hustled through security when we arrived but they took us :) 

Taking off from Miami

The 9 days on the Norwegian Dawn were dreamlike.  Rags to riches.  We could not get over the ship and all it had to offer!  It was a palace on water.  I had never been on a cruise and every thought-out detail was enchanting;  the luxurious showrooms and fancy smancy staircases, the amazing food and daily entertainment, the deck hot tubs with incredible views and the gym with floor to ceiling windows. 

Taking off

Atrium

piano bar inside deck 7

outside on the deck celebrating the start of the cruise!

The ship stopped at 5 ports; Samana, Dominican Republic; Tortola, British Virgin Islands; St. John, Antigua; Bridgetown, Barbados; St. Kitts-Nevis.  What I had imagined was being dropped off on some tropical deserted beach.  I did not realize that each time we were taken to a port where the area thrived and survived on cruise ship tourism.  Though we were often bombarded with vendors it was still a blast!  In Tortola and Bridgetown we took taxis to those exact picture perfect, tropical beaches we had seen flashes of planning the cruise.  In the other ports we explored the funny little towns.  The last port (St. Kitts) was one of our favorites.  I got a handful of braids while Adam got massaged (partly against his will) with Aloe Vera plants by quite a large local.  Countless locals walk around with little pet monkeys dressed up in all sorts of outfits (Bob Marley, Princess, Knight,...).  I believe they are called Green Monkeys.  We agreed they are the cutest species we've seen.  They all wore little diapers and seemed quite happy to be out playing with the tourists and smiling for photos. 

Barbados

Looking at the Dawn as we head to shore in the Dominican Republic

Tortola BVI

Antigua

St. Kitts

Other than hopping port to port, our normal day looked something like this; Up between 6 and 7:30 for coffee and breakfast.  Breakfast as you can imagine had anything and everything you can conjure up. (We had the choice to do fancy sit down meals 3 times a day but only chose to do so for dinners. ) After breakfast we would hit the gym.  It was never very crowded and the view out of the glass windows kept us entertained the entire time.  This also dissolved a lot of the guilt I had for the countless buttery, flaky croissants filled with dark chocolate that kept begging me to eat them.  After the gym we went hunting for the sun.  If it wasn't a port day, we would pick two lounge chairs and stretch out for a day of tanning, reading, listening to the bands, and ice cold brewskies.  One of the nicest parts of the cruise was that it never seemed horribly crowded.  In the middle of the day most everyone was at the pool.  If you were out of the deck in the mornings or after 5pm, there was hardly anyone you had to share the floating castle with.  We spent a couple evenings watching the sunset from the hot tub on deck 13 at the very back of the ship.  Very beautiful and peaceful!

sunset

Dinners were great fun!  We would dress up (as much as we were able to with our clothes) and sit down for some of the most amazing food we've ever had.  There was always a menu of the day where you could pick from a handful of choices for each course.  There was also a menu with many more choices that were always available.  The first course of appetizers would be something delicious like calamari, garlic and mushroom polenta, sauteed shrimp, salad, crab fritters, spinach quiche ect.  The main courses were equally as incredible; lobster tails, filet mignon, lemon crusted fish, seafood scampi, you name it!  And then desserts...the best part.  Though we never had much room left we couldn't resist strawberry cheesecake, warm molten chocolate cake, tiramisu, key lime pie....and the list goes on.

glass of wine before dinner

After hours of dining we would head over to the evening shows.  It was some of the best entertainment I can remember seeing.  Singing, dancing, ventriloquist acts, hypnotists, illusionists, magicians, comedians.  All of it very impressive and entertaining!  We crammed in as much as we could before collapsing with exhaustion! 

There were a couple of days when the sun wouldn't show his face and the skies sent down scattered drizzles.  This was just fine by us.  It gave us time during the day to explore the 14 story ship, catch a movie in the cinema, shoots some hoops at the basketball court, play bingo, and visit the casino (only the quarter machine which for some reason excited us as if we'd hit the jackpot).  There wasn't a dull moment.  We stayed wide awake during the long days with massive amounts of coffee and of course...ice cream cones :)  We spoke in British accents more than not and did a lot of dancing down the never ending halls.  Life on the Norwegian Dawn was nothing short of incredible…

outdoor basketball court deck 14

Our beautiful ship!

On Monday the 18th of April our smiling parents met us at the Charlottesville airport and welcomed us back to the states.  It's been great being back and knowing that we get to catch up with all you fine folks soon!  Adam started back to work Monday the 25th and I am being a nanny for my sweet little 7 month old nephew AJ!  Settling back into life in the US has been wonderful though our brains are still a bit mixed up.  Just yesterday on a walk with my mom I twice was sure I spotted Howler monkeys in the trees.  We've both bitten our tongues many times not to spit out Spanish in passing. 

Though it is always tough to say goodbye to such a fun experience, we are so thankful for all the memories we've made and adventures we'll talk about in all the years to come!  Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers along the way...it was evident the Big Man was watching over us constantly :)  And thank you to the best travel partner in the world who was nothing but amazing to be around the entire time.  Thank you for keeping us laughing no matter what we had gotten ourselves into ! :)

Besos y brazos.....

our last day in Central America

Costa Rica-Tortuguero, Alajuela

March 30th-April 5th

Our final chapter in Costa Rica was set in the town of Turtuguero on the northern Caribbean.  After two long wonderful weeks of having a rental car, getting back to public transportation for our last leg seemed such a challenge.  The voyage took nine hours.  Seven hours on bus and two on river boat.  The bus leg of the trip was unbelievable hot, smelly, stuffy, reeked of body odor  and was standing room only.  It made us appreciate even more what a luxury having a couple weeks in the car was! That being said, the view out the window still takes our breath away and makes it well worth it!  The 2 hours on boat was painless.  We piled into a long thin boat and headed down a canal that could have set the scene for "Jungle Book".  The mysterious water was home to turtles, snakes, Cayman crocodiles, American crocs.  The lush surrounding jungle was filled with monkeys, exotic birds, colorful frogs, iguanas, rare lizards, and poisonous Vipers.

(banana fields)

(on the bus)

(boat ride)

The town itself is very interesting.  You can only get to Tortuguero via boat or plane.  I don't think its quite an island but more of a peninsula.  On one side is the beach and the other is swamp land.  The beach is 22 miles long yet the town only exists in a 300 x 400 meter area.  The rest is just thick brush and forest.  From what we learned, most tourists choose to stay on the outskirts of the main peninsula where nicer accommodations can be found.  Backpackers head to the heart of the town where prices are more affordable.  As we found in the southern Caribbean, residents here are beautiful Jamaican descendants and speak a broken English Creole dialect. 

(Tortuguero)

It took about 10 minutes that first afternoon to explore the entire town of Tortuguero.  At first it was a bit eery with it's swamps, local drunks staggering the street, and it's "nothing to do" vibe ... but little by little we picked up on it's charm.  No cars can be found in Tortuguero only the occasional bike and lots of boats patiently waiting for the adventuresome traveler.  A dirt road runs the 1/4 mile through town.  On the far side of town sits the entrance to the muddy national park where we hiked one afternoon in our rented rubber black boots.  The remainder of the town is full of shops and sweet smelling bakeries catering to the tourists who ensure the towns survival. 

(Antonio and Coco's house)

(Tortuguero)

(Viper snake in the national park)

Tortuguero was hands down the hottest, stickiest, muggiest place we've been.  This made it particularly painful that we could not swim in the refreshingly cool ocean due to shark and barracuda infestation.  Luckily, our funny hotel had a little pool which we soaked in when the sun was at its strongest.  (This detail made up for the tens of roaches peaking out from there nasty holes  in the shower and napping on my toothbrush!). 

(Adam and Cait on the beach)

The main purpose of our long journey to the northeast was the hope of seeing a giant Leatherback turtle.  We were a couple months early for their main season of coming to shore to lay their eggs.  Knowing this, we were still excited to do a night walk with our guide Roberto hoping we would get lucky.  We had fun walking barefoot in the dark and letting the moonlight trick us into thinking every huge piece of driftwood on the beach was one of the enormous creatures. 


The day before we left we were up by 5am for a morning canoe trip through the canals where we spotted a lot of wildlife.  In addition to searching for animals at Tortuguero, we did a lot of walking on the endless beach and making friends with the local kids and stray dogs.  Though the town had its challenges, we are both glad we made the journey to this hidden swamp land!

(Cayman Croc)

(poisonous frog)

(camouflage lizard)

(sweet little girl and her playful puppy)

(our friend Antonio who had ice cream with us)

(Cait and Coco)

(Adam's plate of lobster tales)

After 3 nights in Tortuguero it was back to Alajuela for our final few days.  This is a city we have really come to love and appreciate.  It has all the characteristics of city life but with a much more small town feel.  We loved that we only crossed paths with tourists at the hotel and never out and about town.  We spent our last bit of time trying to blend in with the local day to day bustle.  We walked many many miles exploring all the ins and outs of Alajuela.  We spent a couple evenings people watching and eating ice cream on the main square.  We made it priority to stuff our faces with as much sweet mango as possible knowing it's just not the same in the states. 

When Tuesday the 5th of April came, it was time to leave Central America.  It was bittersweet for sure.  There were so many things to miss in these countries!  But...the adventure isn't quite over yet!  Mid-day on the 5th, we took a flight to Ft. Lauderdale Florida where the final part of our 3.5 month adventure would unravel....

Costa Rica-Cahuita/Puerto Viejo, La Fortuna, Cartago

March 20th-29th

Destination numero uno with Seth and Jess was the southern Caribbean coast of Cahuita and Puerto Viejo Costa Rica. Our home for six nights was the Atlantida lodge on the outskirts of Cahuita.  The southern Caribbean is surprisingly different from the rest of the country.  The Ticos here have beautiful dark black skin and wear their hair in thick dreads or braids down their back. Similar to Belize, a Caribbean dialect is also spoken and reggae music and Bob Marley rule the dirt road town.  Cahuita rests on Playa Negra (Black Beach) named this for the dark sand that fills the shoreline.   There are few tourists in this town compared to all the locals.


Our time spent on this side of the country was wonderful and relaxing.  The food here is described in the guide as the best in the country.  They add a "Caribbean Touch" to the cuisine which highlights amazing flavors (lots of zesty lemon, coconut, tender seafood).   I thought about naming this entry "Eating our way through the southern Caribbean" but realized there were so many other pieces to highlight.  Besides eating, we spent a lot of time in the sun.  Black sand beach was an ideal spot to bring a cooler and soak up the rays.  The beaches further south were more tropical and beautifully clear (and home to the best street meat in Costa Rica).  On our second day we hit the road early for horseback riding and zip lining.  The stables and zip were way out in the middle of nowhere but nobody complained when we realized it was a private tour just for us.  We road into jungle and out along a rocky river.  Jess's horse was a bit crazy but she handled it well.  Hers disliked all of the other ones so we tried to keep them at a safe distance!  The zip lining was amazing!  Over the jungle and river we went.  Since it was just our little group normal safety rules were lessened to add a bit more excitement!  We also rented bikes from our new best friend in town "Big J".  We think he liked us a lot until Adam blew out a tire on his brand new bike and mine was returned making horrible screeching metal noises.

(celebrating Jess's birthday!)

(town of Cahuita)

(Adam, Jess, Seth on horses)

(gearing up for zip lining)

(Seth doing dragon pose)

(Playa Negra)

Having a rental car gave us a lot of flexibility to check out the neighboring town of Puerto Viejo and beyond.  South of Puerto Viejo we found long beautiful stretches of white sand beaches that most were too naive to know about (we stumbled upon it by chance).  The water here was easily the prettiest we've seen in the country and the coral reef was only 100ft out in many places.  One day we rented ATVs to better explore.  As we headed south toward the Panamanian boarder we found more hidden beaches lined with lush green jungle.  Talking to a local it wasn't hard to understand why one hidden piece of shoreline was featured on the cover of a well known travel magazine.

(wild horses on the beach)

(Cait and Jess kayaking)

One reason we made our home-base Cahuita was its proximity to the national park.  We spent one day exploring Cahuita National Park's jungle and beach trails searching for animals.  We spotted lots of critters, lizards, sloths, and of course....monkeys.  This area is home to many White-faced and Congo families.  About 3 miles into our hike we noticed a seemingly harmless White-faced monkey following us, curious about what we had in our backpack.  When we stopped on the beach to smash into a fresh coconut he was at full attention.  He watched enviously (they can make that face) as we put a corkscrew into the coconut and passed around the cold sweet milk.  When Adam cracked the nut to get the meat out, the monkey could take it no longer and lunged at him.  We threw him a piece to get him away while we ate the thick white almond-like center and took lots of pictures.  Hearing the commotion, monkey #1 was joined by a second monkey.  This time they came at us again, and when we didn't stand down, one jumped on the other's back and they bared their teeth.  It sounds silly to let 18 inch monkeys scare you but believe you me....they get crazy!  They are amazingly quick and have no fear (not to mention sharp teeth).  Another monkey joined the first two and we realized they were not backing down until they had every bit of that coconut.  So yes....4 giant mammals lost to 3 little teeny ones who scratch their bums in public and chew with their mouths open.   Tough luck!

(Seth and Adam working to get into that coconut)

(the monkey stalking)

(standing tall to look tough)

(attack mode... picture stolen from Seth :) )

Our next wild animal adventure happened a couple nights later.  We were sitting outside of our rooms on a covered porch finishing up drinks and cards around 11pm.  All of a sudden Jess's expression went to disbelief as she told us "not to be alarmed but a giant sloth was headed right towards us".  We turned around and could not believe what met our gaze.  A large, fury 2-toed sloth was slowly crawling (upside down) toward us on the lip of the roof's overhang.  It literally would have smacked right into Adam and Seth if we had not moved.  Sloths are such funny animals to watch, especially up close.  Their brown shaggy hair hangs off their long arms and legs them making them look like they fell out of a Dr. Sues book.  As we snapped away in delight we noticed a newborn baby clinging to the mother's belly!  We could not believe our luck!!!  We had just been saying how neat it would be to see a sloth at close distance...and here was one big mama passing right by us at our hotel in the jungle!  We followed the sloth as it moved along and were a bit horrified when it chose its route across the garden, via the low hanging electrical wire.  A few minutes later the sloth was still slooooowly making its way along the wire when a second and larger sloth started coming at it quickly.  Our first thought was that this was the father here to rescue the mother and baby from the watchful humans.  This was not a rescue mission.  As the second sloth started charging, the first sloth picked up incredible speed regressing the way it came.  Only then did we notice the second sloth also had a baby and that this must be some sort of protective attack.  We watched in horror as our sloth and her newborn were knocked from the electric wire to the ground 7 feet below!  Thankfully, mom and baby sloth were just fine.  After a little nap from all the commotion, the mama sloth returned to her hunt for the perfect tree to curl up in.

(our suprise visitor!)

(the tired mama takes a break)

(sleeping baby)

Our last evening on the southern Caribbean was spent on the beach surrounding a bonfire (we're still not sure this was legal action).  None the less, it was a perfect way to say goodbye to this leg of the adventure.
Saturday the 26th we drove the 4 hours back to San Jose and said a sad farewell to one of our wolf pack, Jess.


Afterwards, Adam, Seth and I headed back to La Fortuna (where we'd been with Jeff and Nik) to spend a couple days. There is so much to do there that we had missed a lot on our first voyage.  We got there Saturday afternoon and (you guessed it) had a huge and delicious meal of Italian food after settling into Hotel Vagabondo.  Just before sunset we hopped in the car and took off for the natural hot springs.  We spent the evening with the locals soaking in the warm pools talking about how lucky we to have full visibility of the famous volcano at the base of the town (the same one poor Jeff and Nikki saw none of!). 

(view from Hotel Vagabondo of Arenal)

(Seth and Adam soaking in the springs)

(Volcano Arenal)

The next morning I ventured closer to the restaurant to get Internet service.  To my disbelief, I had 4 or 5 (very calm ) emails from Jess explaining that her flight had never left the day before and filling me in on her whereabouts in Costa Rica!  Come to find out, there was a problem in Miami and all flights that day were cancelled.  The earliest flight home she could get was 3 days later!  Thank goodness she speaks Spanish and seemed to have no trouble befriending a cab driver to help her find a little hostel in the city!
We packed up quickly and were picking Jess up 3 hours later.  Our pack was back to four!  We headed south of the capital to the city of Cartago.  The drive was absolutely stunning through deep green fields and winding up to the top of Volcan Irazu.  We sat by the side of the road for a while eating ice cream and watching a horse competition in a funny little mountain town on the way (we saw no other tourists anywhere that day!)

(watching the horse show)

(haunted garden in Cartago)

Early Monday morning we went back up the volcano to the national park.  To our surprise the cloudy morning cleared up and we had complete visibility of the mysterious volcano craters of Irazu below.  Seth may or may not have woken the sleeping volcano with his ancient Mayan ritual of throwing the volcanic rock back into the crater...only time will tell!

(Volcano Irazu)

(Cait and Jess trying to stay warm!)

Late that morning back in San Jose, we hugged Seth goodbye as he headed off to Oregon. 
We spent Monday afternoon exploring the city of Alajuela.  Alajuela is such a sweet city with lots to see and do.  The bustling streets are packed with bright shops and stores and lots and lots of friendly ticos!  Our favorite part of the day was meeting Marcos who owned a fruit shop.  He insisted that we come right in, sit on his 3 stools, and drink cold coconut milk while he cut up our fresh pineapple and mango.  We stayed and chatted with Marcos for an hour or so and would have stayed all day if he weren't so busy.  He made sure we were all certified on how to machete through a coconut before we left. 

(Cait getting machette lessons)

(Jess, Adam, and Marcos in the fruit shop)

When Tuesday morning rolled around we discovered Jess had a bug!  Poor girl!  She was such a sport and did finally end up making it home safe and sound to Philly late that night!
 

Cait and Adam are still loving life together in Central America :)