Medellin

Medellin was a complete surprise. All I had previously known about the city is that it was once the territory of notorious druglord Pablo Escobar. What we found was a very modern city, with a perfect climate and extremely friendly locals (known as paisas). 

Medellin has a public transport system that rivals any city in the world, including high speed rail and connected gondolas into the hills. We took a gondola up to a hilltop suberb to see the city from above.

We stayed with Sergio and family, friends of Torrey's relatives the Fields. They were the perfect hosts. Sergio took us out for a few dinners where we tried local specialities, like the belt-loosening "bandeja paisa". Sergio's father Rene basically planned out our next few weeks with suggestions of places to visit.

One such recommendation was Hispania, a small town south of Medellin where Rene has a small finca (farm). The house has a stunning view of Hispania and surrounding mountains. We had a bit of a fiesta with a family who were also staying at the finca. These paisas fed us constantly, then arranged for a cousin to help fix our van window back in Medellin on the way back through. I'm not kidding, Colombians are the nicest people in the world.

The view of Hispania from Rene's finca, and us with the lovely Colombian family at the finca

In Medellin we also caught up with Kellie's friend Claudia and partner Jorge. Kellie hadn't seen Claudia since university. They treated us to dinner in "La diez".

Cartagena: Mud, sand, and sweat

We stayed for a few days in Cartagena, a magnificent colonial city on the Caribbean. We met up with our kiwi mate Dan, and spent a few days shuffling around historic streets in intense humidity. 

We also saw these guys throw down a pretty decent rap outside Dan's favourite cafe:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1B0uaEg9vCs

We visted a couple touristy spots outside of Cartagena. North of Cartagena is a mud volcano. It is 15 metres (about 49 feet) high and has warm, thick mud in the crater. It is very weird to swim in, as you are less dense and kind of float on the top. Unsure how sustainable the attraction is, since every swimmer must take a kilo or so of mud with them out of the crater. The level looks way down on what it used to be. It was still a really cool experience.

We also visited Playa Blanca, a beautiful beach to the south of Cartagena. Well, it would be beautiful if it didn't have so much trash and people trying to sell you stuff (every now and then they come by with something useful like a cold beer though).

Central American round up

Mexico: Two months
Mexico has it all: amazing beaches, mountains, jungles, wildlife, culture, ancient ruins, music, great food, fiestas, and of course wonderful people. There is a lot of pre and post Hispanic history, as well as pre-human natural history. Mexico was our favorite country in central america. 

Belize: One week
Belize is an interesting contrast to the rest of Latin america- it has a distinctly Caribbean feel and is an interesting mix of cultures. It was once a British colony, and is now home to people who speak a creole language, cook a lot of delicious Caribbean barbecue, and are much darker than the rest of CA. The beaches and jungles are stunning.

Guatemala: One month
Guatemala has the highest percentage of indigenous people in CA, and this makes it the country with the most interesting culture. The Mayan ruins are spectacular, the native women in their traditional dress are beautiful, and the colonial spanish towns are fascinating. We loved it.

El Salvador: Two weeks
El Salvador's biggest draw is its beaches, which are amazing. It doesn't have as much wildlife or culture as its neighbors, but the Salvadoran people make up for that- they are the friendliest in CA. We found good volcano hikes, surf beaches and lovely small towns.

Honduras: Three hours
While you can't judge a country in three hours, our time here was full of difficult customs officials and very bad roads. 

Nicaragua: Three weeks
Getting robbed will always cloud your judgment of a place. There are excellent beaches, stunning canyons, gorgeous colonial towns, and heaps of volcanoes. But there are also people who will break into your van in the middle of the day and steal a whole bunch of your stuff.

Costa Rica: One week
We were expecting it to be really expensive and full of Americans (we have nothing against Americans, of course, but we don't travel around Latin America to hang out with them). It is both of those things, but it is also full of wildlife and home to incredibly friendly people. Costa Rica is our second favorite country in CA, and we can't wait to go back.

Panama: Three weeks
We hadn't given Panama much thought. There's nothing but the canal, right? Nope. Panama had the most and best free camping spots in all of CA- next to rivers, canyons, and coral reefs. And thanks to the huge international influence from the canal, we could find really good cheese, cheap wine, quinoa, and Triscuits. Panama is all right with us.

From Panama to Colombia

Our last few nights in central america were spent camping at the beach opposite Isla Grande. We found a great free spot right on the beach with a coral reef nearby. More campervans joined us, and by the last night there was a fleet of six vehicles parked up. 

After over 5 months in Latin america, we are well used to being around people speaking a language we don't really understand. But for the last week or two, we have been hanging out almost exclusively with French speakers, which has been pretty funny. There's French Fred and his family of four, our Quebecois friends Marc and France, our hilarious French friend Jil and his wife Corinne, a lovely Swiss family of five, three French campers, and a Belgian family of four. In case you lost count, that's 20 French speakers, and then us!

We stayed at the Ferry Xpress terminal on our last night in Panama, and had a very long day waiting for various inept officials. We were told to arrive at 8am for police inspection and customs (which took 5 mins and didn't happen until 3pm), then told to arrive for boarding at 6pm and departure at 7pm (which didn't happen until 10pm and 3am respectively). The boat ride took 18 hours, arriving at 9pm the next day, then we didn't clear customs until midnight. But we made it!

Celebrating on the boat with a bottle of champagne with our friends Marc and France, 

and the Gladiator in front of our chariot to South America

Panama City and the Canal

We arrived in Panama City this week hoping to catch the Ferry Xpress, a notoriously unreliable vehicle ferry that plies the waters between Panama and Colombia. There is more than the usual amount of pointless paperwork involved in this border crossing. We arrived early on Monday morning to take care of business, and the Gladiator promptly broke down in the world's dodgiest neighbourhood. After warnings from well meaning passers-by about the dangers of the neighborhood, we found a friendly mechanic who toiled all day to get our compressor back online.

Panama City was a bit of a surprise. It is enormous for starters. There is a forest of modern skyscrapers to the south of the Canal. There are historic colonial neighborhoods. Also evident is a large gap between rich and poor with very poor downtown neighborhoods.

Of course, the Canal is what spawned this massive metropolis. We spent hours watching boats go by, and schooled ourselves up at an excellent museum on the history of the Canal. To summarize some key facts about the Canal:

• the Spaniards dreamed of an Atlantic to Pacific crossing ever since Vasco Nunez de Balboa was the first European to cross Panama and see the Pacific Ocean
• the French thought they would have a crack at building a sea level passage in the 1880s. They failed dismally, the engineering problems were too great and some 20,000 workers died of various jungle diseases
• the Americans then took over the project and successfully built a canal over 10 years, finally completing it in 1914 (still losing 6000-odd workers in the process)
• the Canal is 77 km long and saves ships a 20,000 km trip around the sketchy Cape Horn at the bottom of Argentina
• a series of locks raise and lower boats over 26m of terrain
• some 40 ships cross every day, and spend about 8 to 10 hours in the Canal
• the canal handles 4% of world shipping and 16% of US shipping
• a massive project is underway to double capacity of the Canal to accommodate the enormous ships we use these days

Halfway there...

We finally made it to Panama. We have three weeks to make it to the other side of the canal, to the port of Colon where a ferry to Colombia awaits. Hopefully.

We have now driven through ten countries, which means ten days of exiting one border, and entering another. "Border days", while not always unpleasant, are never really that fun. Lots of paperwork for the van and for us. The Panama border was by far the longest border day of them all... It started off with fumigation for the van, then we needed to pay a $3 tourist entry fee at another office, then $1 at another office to get a sticker in our passports, then an hour and a half getting mandatory car insurance, then three hours getting through the immigration queue, then we needed to get a temporary import permit for the van.

All of this made harder by tropical sun, and massive amounts of people. This week is Semana Santa a.k.a Easter. People flock out of the cities to the beach. It seems if you are Panamanian, you head to Costa Rica and vice versa.

The crowds at the Panamanian border. No fun!

Anywho, Panama is beautiful. The last three nights we have been at the Lost and Found hostel, where we met up with our friends Ali and Jeremie, who first made an appearance in Nicaragua. The hostel is set high in the cloud forest with a stunning view. It takes 15 minutes to hike to the hostel from the road, as they didn't want to build a road there. The owners are very creative. There is an elaborate treasure hunt that takes five hours to solve. There was also another easter treasure hunt in their surprisingly difficult jungle maze. But perhaps the most ceative aspect of the place is a novel written by the owner. It is a "psychological horror" that has clues about the history of the hostel and surrounding region, which opens up yet another elaborate mystery to solve.

If you are interested, website here: http://www.thelostandfoundhostel.com/ and novel here: http://www.amazon.com/The-Lost-Found-Psychological-Horror-ebook/dp/B00MCYLVAA

The national parks of Costa Rica

Fact: there are a shitload of national parks in Costa Rica. Here is our national park round up to help you out should you want to visit any:

Parque Nacional Volcan Arenal 
Park is under an active volcano. We saw monkeys, tree dwelling eyelash vipers, wild turkeys, and agoutis (Costa Rica's second largest rodent- about the size of a small dog. See middle picture, below.). The small trail system doesn't really justify the $15 pp entry fee.

Parque Nacional Rincon de la Vieja 
A large national park with beautiful waterfalls for swimming and general horseplay, a large trail system through different landscapes, and geothermal activity. Definitely worth visiting.

Parque Nacional Cahuita 
Our favourite national park that we visited. Three hours return trip alongside perfect beaches and a marine reserve. There are lots of capuchin monkeys, sloths, vipers, non-nocturnal crab hunting racoons, and much more. Probably worth paying to get a boat out to snorkel the reef if you ever visit.