La Vida Colorida

Day 414.

New day new country, in fact our shuttle to Nicaragua would be taking us through our 3rd country in the space of 14 hours - Honduras. We would not be stopping however and so we were limited to views out of the car window as we traversed the country, plus a fleeting moment or two to sample the local food at the border crossing. Passports stamped we crossed into Nicaragua around 2am, tired and all travelled out we were quick to pass out into our hostel bed.

We woke to some serious heat. By 8am I was dripping with sweat, and I wasn't alone - although granted Limbster was 'just right' . The temperature had jumped a notch as we went south and was now a solid 35 degrees. Strictly vests only from now on - if anything at all.

It didn't take long to settle into hostel life here, a more travelled route than El Salvador meant for nice hostels and good crowds, and we quickly met some great people to share our time in Leon with. After a fairly shambolic revolution museum tour in which none of us left any wiser than we started we decided to dedicate our evening to a local favourite - Flor de Cana rum plus a little live music. You might need to shower 5+ times per day but drinks are cheap here and more than make up for it - two pints of the local beer in a nice bar @ £1.50. Its easy to see how things spiralled that evening...

The following day Limbster was quick to come to mine and everyone else's rescue (once she had sobered up at 11am that was), quickly hunting us down a pool where we could relax and recover. Come Saturday night we opted out of socialising at salsa and went to sample the local cuisine together. This is predominantly great bbq meat accompanied with rice and beans - which is the staple of all diets here. After finding a local whole in the wall, and eating too much as usual we headed to the town square to soak up the atmosphere on the Saturday before Xmas, vibrant markets, children signing and lots of course fried chicken and fries!

A trip to Leon wasn't complete without visiting one of the many surrounding volcanoes. And it wasn't long until we were stood on the top of the most active one in all of Nicaragua, jumpsuits and googles on, ready to slide all the way back down on our tabogan like board. A rather unusual activity granted but certainly a first and much more efficient than our usual method of descent. Views were incredible also.

Heading down second out of our group meant the pressure was on for me and there was plenty of adrenaline on the way down, surviving a quick scare at the halfway point but all in all making good time down the 728m volcano. What Limbster might have lacked in speed she certainly made up for in style, cruising into that end zone bum still on board, and hey she also saved me having to add the slow mo effects on the video in a months time too.

Leon really did have a lot to offer and with the Pacific Coast just a 30 minute drive we couldn't miss a visit to the beach. Black sand and sunset swims never get old and today was no exception, we might not have spotted the green ray today but there would be many more like this.

It appears that traveling might well be having a positive impact on our general knowledge also, with us leading our quiz team to a triumphant victory come our last nights stay in Leon. That or the oppositions understanding of simple math was lower than average on this occasion. Czytaj więcej

Day 457.

For the first time on this adventure we had made it to the carribean sea (a first for me at least!). Feeling fresh and excited to explore on the back of the workaway we had arrived by bus to Cahuita - and the carribean influence was quickly apparent!

Suddenly, the likeness in people to the western world disappeared, and the rasta like vibe of the carribean was all around us - and we loved it. Brightly coloured wooden houses, rice N beans and porches perched right on the idylic carribean sea made it even more special.

Before setting out to explore however we needed to get some admin done - more specifically we are flying to Patagonia in 3 days time, the world's biggest wilderness and have completed all of zero research. Stocked up on rare treats after the river - wine and beer to be specific and dived right into a sesh of blogs, trail maps and YouTube videos on how to change a tyre, a skill that embarrasingly we should have aquired a long time ago.

Reseach complete we ventured into one of Costa Ricas national parks just next door. This really was like stepping into jurassic Park, swarming with wildlife, thick jungle trails leading to empty palm tree lined beaches - paradise. Being first into the huge park meant we had the place to ourselves - this also had its disadvantages - most crucially being that there was nobody to forewarn us regarding the poisonous snakes lying in wait of our trail!

Top tip for the future - once dodging danger once don't go proviking the parks most dangerous illuminous yellow snake with a stick (correct term being the yellow eyelash pit viper) - its never worth the photo.

It wasn't all danger however - and entertainment was plentiful, crab eating raccoons being a real highlight. Not sure Ellie knew what a racoon was before her first sighting. And was certainly perplexed to see one digging through a coconut when we turned the corner! Whittled away a surprising amount of tine observing the envious monkeys hovering over those raccoons just waiting for their go on the fallen fruit.

Not quite settled with the abundance of wildlife already we had our heart set on spotting more sloths - and we didn't stop looking in those towering jungle trees - but this time it was to no avail and the illusive sloth escaped us.

Beginning to see a snippet of the expensive Costa Rica here that all backpackers complain off - supermarket shop for two loafs of bread, pack of mayonnaise, spreadable cheese coming to a staggering $16!! Given this would be $5 just across the border this was a big increase!

All sunned out we made the most of our motel like hostel on our final night - the flat screen TV a real treat, it didn't quite stretch to aircon however and so the carribean heat meant for a rather clammy evening!

After 3 weeks it was time to say goodbye to Costa Rica and all the amazing wildife that comes with it - its South America time! Czytaj więcej

Day 473

Even we didn't quite appreciate how empty parts of Patagonia could be. And this drive certainly was a little sneak peak into that - hundreds upon hundreds of kilometres of nothing except rugged nature. Even after a mere 700km I can safely say we passed no more than 30 cars coming the opposite direction - and this is peak season, madness.

Stopping only for coffee breaks out the back of the van we powered through the battling winds. Learnt the hard way that it's wise to observe wind direction before going to the toilet on the side of the road - thank god for the extra baby wipes we packed with.

Our only salvation came in terms of the argentinian petrol station YPF, placed helpfully every 300km long the infamous route. Ready with fresh air in the tyres for Jengibre we darted for the border - still optimistic we might make the remote outpost before it closed for the night.

Quickly dawned on us that Google maps cannot be relied upon and that we would be stopping one more night in Argentina, Limbster came through with a cracking camping spot on an epic lake, and most importantly wind protected. Watched sunset come down with a helping of lentil ragu, hadn't banked on the extra night and so all out of wine - absolutely gutted but likely good for long term health at the rate we're getting through it. Trek hard, drink hard.

Woke early with a picturesque breakfast in the border town, cleared out our remaining fresh food supplies and hit our contraband (a giant sack of peanuts). Arrived at the mountain border as the gates opened, hadn't expected such an un- thorough car inspection on the chiliean side and kicking ourselves we hadn't stocked up on more wine and petrol - both instantly 2x the price the second you cross the border.

Most picturesque border to date, with 6km of no man's land cut out of the mountain. Stamps complete we kicked off our adventure on the Carretera Austral - the ultimate Chilean road trip. Stopped for supplies in the border town, limbster didn't enjoy the local store, dark expensive and playing xmas songs at 8am - all no's in her book.

Drive was incredible, cruising across the side of mountain after mountain all the while trailing the perfectly turquoise lakes. Slightly daunting with the sheer cliff drops now present but all adds the the experience. Everything takes time here but it's hard to complain, the landscape taking a diverse turn to snow capped peaks and lushous green forests - our style indeed.

Enjoyed a stop off at our first confluencia - as far as we're aware, the joining of two large rivers, in this case one lushous blue and one mint green - a spectacle indeed. We now weren't far off our destination - Parque Patagonia, a huge reserve we planned to explore. Our arrival felt like something out of a movie, everything looked like a postcard and guanacos welcomed us in the dozens.

Exhausted from the drive today, collapsed into the thick grass together, fully wrapped up, mountains in the background and just let the burning sun cook us. All about moments like this.

Woke early to take on biggest walk to date, a 23km circuit through this huge park. We flew through the trek thanks to a top pace setter, when she isn't frozen boy can she set a pace. Trek all to ourselves and enjoyed a few stops to attempt to conquer the mighty subs we'd packed along.

Making it down early on the trek meant we got time to sample the solar showers, admittedly we weren't very optimistic about these at first. But once I heard the moaning from the women's bathroom I knew it could be only one of two things, limbster bracing the glacial water or that in fact we had warm water - thankfully it was the latter and spirits were high!

We wasted no time and decided we'd seen enough of this incredible park and began our departure, admittedly this took longer than planned with me in the co pilot seat - maybe the role of directions is slightly harder than I give credit. Everything is for a reason however and the drive was one of the best yet, top driving by limbster and well worth the detour.

Until next time parque patagonia... Czytaj więcej

Day 495.

The 17 hour bus ride from Bariloche to Mendoza was, despite the length, one of the most luxury bus services we've been on to date. Nothing can rival the beds of India of course but a dedicated bus hostess, hot dinners, unlimited coffee and organised bingo games meant it was certainly up there!

Not long after breakfast was served we arrived in Mendoza, the red wine region of Argentina, and famous for top notch Malbec. It just so happened we had arrived during the annual wine festival - which meant red wine fountains, never ending beauty pageants, plenty of horse riding and flag waving cowboys - the town was alive to say the least. Unusually regardless of the hippie Argentinian culture there was no backlash against the annual beauty pageants which has hundreds of women paraded for 4 days throughout town with thousands of supporters in their wake.

It wouldn't be a wine festival without a mega degustación (tasting). Ljbujania style we picked up a class and wasted no time sampling the tasters from a selection of the 900 Vineyards surrounding this town. In fact we nearly even felt like we fitted in to our classy surroundings until we would return to the dive of a hostel we had booked for ourselves - £4 a night might get you a bed but it'll be a sweaty dark and dingy one that's for sure.

Nonetheless we argued less money on sleeping = more money on wine and steak, which we certainly embraced. Wasting no time in trying some local T-bone (a first for limbster) and sampling some red - without it we'd have never been able to sleep through the 35° heat in our 2x4 room.

After 3 days of enjoying the festival atmosphere it was time for the grand finale, not ones for a 3 hour dance event we passed on buying tickets and clambered our way to the hilltop for a sneak preview. As expected the highlight was our cheese, salami and beer picnic but it was a adventure nonetheless - opting to take the less dangerous way home..

As the festival wrapped up it was time to explore the real reason we were here, the Vineyards themselves. Bikes hired we set out - with plans to explore just 5 of the countless nearby in one day. It wasn't many kms before we arrived at the first winery, nestled amongst rows and rows of vines with the andes mountains as a back drop - it was pretty dam perfect. Opted for a 3 wine tasting per person, and heavy on the Malbec, it would have been rude not too (all for £1.80 mind), incredible.

After that things got more and more blurry, the cycling got a little more difficult and limbsters hands became a little more liberal with the surrounding grapes as we crawled vineyard after vineyard. To finish off our day of tasting the bike rental man offered a happy hour of free homemade Red wine at his wine bar next door upon our return - not ones to miss free wine we returned on the dot to take advantage of such a deal.

After that sudo Craig made an appearance, which left limbster to fend for us both at the bus station, wisely opting for tickets to Buenos Aires the following day and sourcing herself a satisfying dinner after a long and wine fuelled day! It was a wise choice as waking the following morning we both knew we were well and truly wined out, customising our own bottle would have to wait until next time - a night bus to the capital, Buenos Aires awaited us... Czytaj więcej