August 30, 2010 - Filed under General
We’re rounding out our time in Mexico, preparing to head back to Roatan, so I figured it was about time we got caught up on things around here. First of all, sorry for the lack of posts lately. Mike and I have both been swamped with work, and it can be hard to motivate ourselves to spend even more time online, when instead, we could be enjoying the beach or the pool, with an ice cold cerveza.
Posted by: Kelly
August 9, 2010 - Filed under Stuff to do
I know we’ve said this before, but Mike and I really aren’t very good tourists. I’ve seen my share of temples and cathedrals, and museums have never really been my thing. That being said, every once in a while I drag Mike out to do something touristy, mainly because I feel like we should… I mean we may never be back, so might as well see it while we’re here, right? The ruins of Tulum, were one of those things.
Unlike most of the people we know, this is our first time to the Mayan Rivera. It seems like most of our friends at one time or another have done a package trip here, and have ended up visiting Tulum. Most people say it’s a “must-do”, so one Saturday when the dive boat was full we decided to check it out. Read More…
Posted by: Kelly
August 2, 2010 - Filed under Drinks
More interesting flavours from interesting places. This time, we’re posting our review of the beers of Honduras and Belize. Honduras was a surprise after Costa Rica’s range of very similar lagers. We found Honduras had 4 distinctly different lagers that were readily available just about everywhere. Belize was also a hit with two light lagers and a stout.
HONDURAS
A pale lager brewed by Cerveceria Hondurena in Tegucigalpa (as are the other Honduran beers), ‘Salva Vida’ translates to ‘Life Saver’ in English. It’s the most popular beer in Honduras and you’ll find it everywhere for a dollar in local shops or two dollars in tourist priced areas. With a slightly skunky aroma and a metallic finish, it’s thin yet malty. Darker than the other available lagers. Overall an easily drinkable beer. 4.8% Alcohol. Read More…
Posted by: Shim
June 15, 2010 - Filed under General
One of the hardest parts of long term travel is being so far away from friends and family. Gone are the long lunches with girl-friends, and Sunday barbecues at the beach. No more long weekend ball tournaments, and no more late night dinners with good wine and good friends.
When you’re constantly moving around, making new friends can be hard. Sure, it’s easy to meet people… traveling has a way of breaking down normal social barriers, making it easy to approach new people and start up a conversation. The problem is, that conversation is often exactly the same:
THEM: “Where are you from?”
US: “Vancouver, Canada”
THEM: “How long are you traveling for?”
US: “We’ve been on the road for almost two years.”
THEM: “Wow, must be nice… how do you afford it?”
US: “We work online…..blah, blah, blah…”
From there, the conversation will progress to where we’ve been, where they’ve been, we’ll compare favorite places and add new ones to the list. We’ll swap travel stories, the good and the bad… and at the end of the day, or evening, or dive trip, we’ll say goodbye. Encounters like this are great, we’ve met so many interesting people. All of whom have helped to make the ferry ride, or the boarder crossing or the night out, all the more memorable. But, at the end of the day you know that most of these people you’ll never see again.
Posted by: Kelly
May 27, 2010 - Filed under Other, Scuba Diving, Stuff to do, Underwater Photography
On our way up to Mexico for our friends’ wedding, we stopped off in Belize for 2 weeks to relax and do a little more diving. Having only dove Roatan in the Caribbean, we were looking forward to diving another location for comparison.
When we arrived in Placencia, we didn’t realize it was coming into low season and rainy season. For most of our 2 weeks, it’s rained a little on some days and a lot on others. We’re also often the only people in the beachfront resort hotel we’re staying in. So we’ve had a staff of 10+ taking care of us each day as we lounge by the pool when the weather cooperates.
Posted by: Shim
May 24, 2010 - Filed under Travel
After 3 months in Roatan, it was time for us to get back on the road again. We are headed up to Belize for a little vacation from our permanent vacation. So we’re closing the laptops for a bit, taking a break from checking emails, and working on our tans which are surprisingly weak after this long in the tropics!…
We packed up our things (including 50 lbs of new dive gear) and headed out the door to catch the 7am ferry from Roatan back to La Ceiba. An hour later we were in a taxi headed to Puerto Cortes, north of San Pedro Sula. We had to stay overnight in Puerto Cortes and booked one night at the Brisas Hotel on Coca Cola beach (named for it’s proximity to the bottling plant). Puerto Cortes was a little thin on entertainment, so we splashed in the pool, had a bite to eat, and retired early along with a new frog buddy who apparently lived in our sink.
Posted by: Shim
May 24, 2010 - Filed under Scuba Diving
When we were planning out the Central American leg of our trip, visiting Roatan was high on the list of destinations. We’ve often heard what a haven for scuba divers it is, both due to the location (a quick 2 hour flight from Miami) and the cost. Roatan is one of the cheapest places to get dive certified in the world and the fun dive prices are also amongst some of the lowest.
When we arrived in Roatan, we found a range of dive shops. From small shore based dinghy operations and speed boats, up to large 20 person capacity boats that will do day trips all over the island. We decided to go with Coconut Tree Divers, one of the larger, central shops which was close to where we were staying. They’re the only shop in the West End that do 4 dives a day which fits well with our shifting schedules during busy work weeks. They’re a highly social bunch and we had many good stories and nights out with our dive masters and fellow divers. They really went out of their way to make sure we were well taken care of from gear to dive site selections.
Posted by: Shim
April 28, 2010 - Filed under General, Scuba Diving
We arrived in Roatan in early March just as the last of the seasonal storms were coming through. Scouting out a place to stay for a few months we found a large range of options and locations but we quickly focused on 3 areas on the west side of the island due to their proximity to grocery shopping, beaches, entertainment, and dive shops. The island is quite hilly, so a car or scooter would be a necessity in many areas if you don’t want to be taking a taxi 10 times a day.
Posted by: Shim
Costa Rica was definitely more expensive than a lot of the places we’ve been over the last year and a half. That being said it also offered the most convenience and more modern amenities than anywhere else… which I suppose could be a plus or a minus depending on what you’re looking for. For us it was just what we needed. After a year on the road, and a particularly busy three months we were quite happy to find a nice place to rent and stay put for six months.
Before I jump into the numbers part of this post I want to remind everyone that we’re not budget backpackers. Yes you can do Costa Rica a lot cheaper than we did, but since this isn’t just a vacation for us, it’s a lifestyle, we often make choices that aren’t inline with other travelers priorities.
A comfortable place and a decent internet connection are always first priority on our list of requirements, which often means we stick to more touristy places and don’t venture off the beaten track as much as other travelers. When we arrived in Costa Rica we both had a lot of work lined up and knew we’d be spending the majority of our days online, so it was even more important than usual. Read More…
Posted by: Kelly
After 6 months, our time in Costa Rica has come to a close. Last week we woke up early to take the 5am shuttle to Liberia from Tamarindo. Around 9am, we boarded a Ticabus headed to Managua, Nicaragua. A few hours later, we arrived at the Nicaraguan border to find a HUGE line. Spending the next 3 hours frying our brains in the sun while we waited to get our exit visas, then another hour waiting as the Costa Rican DEA randomly selected our bus for a screening, and then another hour getting our entry visas in Nicaragua. During all this, the Canadian men’s final hockey game was going on… something we had realized only a few days earlier. Oops, bad scheduling on our part and we had hoped to make it to our destination on time to catch it. But we did meet a few people on the bus and chatted the hours away.
Posted by: Shim
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