San Juan Islands - 2008

The summer of 2008 brought us to an adventure of buying our first house.  Needless to say, we didn't have a lot of spare change to do much traveling. However, our wonderful realtor told us how she and her husband loved to go to the San Juan Islands, so we decided to check them out.

The drive took a little longer than we thought as the best way to go is to head north and right before you get to Seattle, you turn west and drive all the way to the end (of the continent), about two or three hours via a smaller highway, construction, and stops along the way.  But alas, we made it to the ferry in Anacortes. We bought our ticket to San Juan Island, the biggest and most populated of them all.

We have this magnet. 

The ferry ride was very beautiful and very windy. It was maybe an hour or so until we arrived on San Juan Island. It had been a long time since I'd been on a ferry where you take your car, so that was exciting. We drove onto the island and went about 20 minutes until we found our campground. It was a really nice campsite right by a lake. Even though it was sunny, it was too cold to swim in it. 

Windy ferry ride. Some people live on those islands behind us and commute to work to Friday Harbor via kayak or boat.

What a surprise this was to find on our morning drive.

 At least he was nice.

We headed back out to explore the island.  We found an outdoor concert and joined the crowd. We stayed there until we got hungry, then headed back to the campground to make dinner - hotdogs over the campfire - yum!  After a long day of traveling, we were tired and ready for bed.

Jace in his element.

The next day we got up and were ready to go kayaking! We went on a half day kayaking trip around the island. It was perfect! There was no wind and the sun was out. Way across the water we could see Canada. I waved to my relatives and pretty sure I saw them wave back.

Kelp is very nutritious and quite delicious!

After that, we went on an awesome hike where at the very top, we could see a lot of little islands surrounding San Juan.

Great hike!!

Then we went to Roche Harbor, which is a posh hippity hoppity spot where lots of rich people park their yachts. We walked along the deck and saw some yachts for sale. The prices were in the millions so we'll have to teach a few more years until we can buy one.  Maybe it was because we still had our hiking clothes on and dirt smudges all over, but we got some dirty looks, so we left and went to an outdoor patio restaurant for lunch. The clam strips were delicious!

Roche Harbor

We continued on our drive all around the island. The San Juan Islands are well known for their whale watching, but we had yet to see one. We went to a park that was supposed to have great views of whales.  We parked the car, walked down to the waters edge, and what do you know, there were whales right out in front of us!  There were two or three small groups of orcas, including a baby. They would swim around each other and blow water from their spouts. It was very exciting, especially since we had just walked down there and immediately saw them. Two women who let us borrow their binaculars told us jokingly, "We hate people like you. We've been here since 8 am." It was sunset now and it was a magnificent sight to see.

I didn't take this picture, but I swear this is what it looked like!

The next morning, we went to breakfast at a cool little cafe that was really expensive. In fact, I ordered some coffee, fruit, and toast. The menu said the bread was "8 grain organic wheat blah blah blah" so I thought, "Yum! How healthy!" even though it was $3.99. When the waiter brought us our food, we noticed the toast was the same bread as the bread we buy at home, and pay less than $3.99 for a whole loaf at Winco. Oh well. We had a good laugh and I savored every crumb.

This is actually a different coffee shop, but we did the same thing there.

We caught the ferry and headed home. The San Juan Islands are a great place for a weekend adventure. We want to go back and check out the other smaller islands someday....

Crater Lake - 2007

The summer of 2007 brought us to McMinnville, Oregon. That in and of itself is quite the travel adventure, especially when Jace is driving a giant U-hall.  We mostly spent the summer exploring our new town.

One day, I asked Jace, "Do we have any plans tomorrow?" "No, I don't think so," he replied. "Ok, well get the tent ready, we're going to Crater Lake." I had been there with my dad and brother when I was 10 and Jace and never been there. So we packed up the car and left the next morning.

We got there mid afternoon and it was just as gorgeous as I had remembered. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and it was really warm. The water in the lake was so blue! We took a hike into the crater. It was SO hot which really helped make our decision to jump into the water. There is a rock that people jump off of into a little swimming hole. Even though it was in the high 90's, nothing prepared us for how cold the water was, after all it is glacial snow melt. The second I hit the water I thought I was having a heart attack, which if I was 40 years older I probably would have. We dried off and warmed back up as we hiked back up the trail.

About to have his heart jump out of his chest.

We found a great campsite and had a yummy dinner of hot dogs and chips. It was probably the best camping experience we have ever had. It was the most perfect temperature and kept the top off the tent so we could see the stars. We woke up to the smell of fresh pine trees and a beautiful sunrise.

Man make fire.

We drove around and went and saw the pinnacles which are pretty crazy. They're similar to stalagmites but made out of rock and dirt not in a cave.

The pinnacles are hundreds of feet tall.

We drove home refreshed and energized. It was a great trip, short but sweet!!!

Costa Rica/Nicaragua - 2006

To celebrate our survival of our first year teaching, Jace and I decided to go to Costa Rica and Nicaragua. Actually, planning this trip was what got us through the first year of teaching alive.  We moved out of our first house and put everything into storage and would be returning after our trip to a different house.  We were ready for an adventure!

We left for warm, sunny Costa Rica on a cold, rainy day. We actually had to sit on the airplane for a long time due to a crazy storm. But we finally took off and landed in San José, the capitol of Costa Rica. We took a cab to our hostel Casa Ridgeway. It was a super nice hostel, considering the world of hostels.  We had our own room with a shared bathroom. (Always be prepared with shower flip flops while staying in hostels.) It had a nice commons area where we cooked a few meals with a guy from the Caribbean (blond hair, blue eyes, go figure).  Casa Ridgeway was a very safe place, but like our other experiences in Latin countries, they just do things a little...different down there.  One day we locked our keys in our room so we told the front desk guy. "Ok, no problema." He grabbed a huge butcher knife from the kitchen and we followed him to our locked door. He stuck the knife in the lock, gave it a little jiggle, and popped the door open. "Ok....gracias...." we hesitantly said. We were grateful that we had our door open, maybe not so excited about the method and the ease of it.

Front entrance to Casa Ridgeway

We had a few days in San José before we were to catch our bus to Nicaragua. We found a really delicious crepe café that we ate breakfast at every morning. We enjoyed the hustle and bustle of the city but by day three we were ready for a change of scenery. We decided to take a trip to Volcán Poás. We hopped on the bus at the bus station in San José. The bus ride was about an hour or so there. We left the city center and gradually emerged into the lush, coffee plant filled country side. We made a stop at a little rest stop half way up where we bought some bread and coffee. Mmmmm...

People would sell candy and knicknacks in the middle of the lanes during traffic.

Luscious coffee plants.

Pit stop.

On our way, the bus driver pulled over and not until we saw what everyone was taking pictures of did we see it - a little sloth hanging from the tree. It was so cute!!! And so slow!!!

Sloth in Spanish is "perezoso" which means "lazy."

Volcán Poás is a national park in a cloud forest with trails that lead to a crater of a volcano. The trails were amazing with so much vegetation to look at. When we made it to the crater, we looked down and saw...fog. I think the fog cleared for 3.7 seconds, just enough time to see the little lake in the center. Apparently fog is a frequent problem for Volcán Poás so they have some great photos in the travel brochure, so we just looked at those and got the idea. 

This is what we saw.

This is what we could have seen.

The ride home was not exactly restful and relaxing. We were sitting right behind the driver's seat. Anyone who has been in Latin American knows that driving is often similar to that of New York, minus the lanes and abiding by traffic rules like stop signs and red lights. There we were, with a front row view of what we thought would be the last few minutes of our lives. The bus driver was doing about 60 mph (though I couldn't be sure since it said 100kph) through residential streets, weaving around pedestrians walking on the road, children playing jumprope, and dogs napping in the street. We were sure that there was going to be certain death - either ours or someone else's - and we had the front seat.  However, we finally  made it back to San José in one piece with no casualties.

The local movie theater.

This was a coffee shop/internet cafe that we liked to go to. It was on the second story so we'd sit on the deck outside and look down on the busy street and shops. There was a big thunderstorm on this day.

The next day we left San José and took the bus to a border town called Libería. Like most buses in Central America, this was no Greyhound. This was what people often refer to as a "chicken bus." They're old school buses, reverted to public transportation often including cargo like poultry, hence the name. Old school buses are now no more comfortable than when you were in elementary school, and definitely not comfortable when you are crammed three adults to a seat and then standing room only.  This is where Jace and I ended up - standing in the middle of the aisle. 

A classic "chicken bus."

Five hours is a long time to stand like this.

This was not our bus but I really wish it had been!  
This sums up the "anything goes" attitude on.

The bus ride to Libería was a five hour bus ride with no scheduled stops along the way (ie bathroom stops). If you know me, this presented a problem.  So I wisely planned ahead and drank no water that morning nor did we have time to eat breakfast.  So there we were, crammed like sardines in the chicken bus, and around the 2nd or 3rd hour of sharp curves, 95 degree temps, and similar percentage of humidity, the dehydration began to set in.  I'm not sure what did it - maybe it was looking out the window and seeing the shear dropoffs that we barely avoided or maybe it was when I looked back and saw a mother holding her small child out the window so she could puke (no scheduled stops, remember?) - but somewhere around there I began to see little white spots. The spots became bigger and more frequent. There was an armrest that I sat on with one cheek as I began to slowly fade away. As I passed out, I slumped against the poor woman beside me who had no idea what this crazy gringa was doing. Luckily, Jace revived me by shoving sweet bread in my mouth that we had quickly bought before we left. We also had a little Gatorade that I slurped down. I think not too long after that enough people got off so we got to get a seat. It made for an extra exciting trip!

We finally made it to Libería where we found a hostel and rented a room. It was a pretty nice one (but it's all relative, right?) and walked around the town. We ate outside and ate dinner. Across from the restaurant was a big field where there were hundreds of lighting bugs lighting up the sky as the sun was setting. It was pretty neat.

Niños playing in Libería.

Imagine hundreds of lightning bugs in the sky.

The next morning we got up really early and caught the bus to Nicaragua. (This was a nicer bus, thank goodness.)  We got to the border and had to unload in a torrential downpour. We had to walk about a 1/4 mile to the border where, promptly after crossing, we got scammed with money exchange. I guess we had "Stupid Americans" written on our foreheads and of course we fell for it. Learned our lesson there.... 

We caught a cab to make the hour and a half drive to the town we'd be staying in called San Juan del Sur. It was an amazing town with a great surfing/backpacking/relaxed tourists vibe. We found our Spanish school called Playa del Sur. They led us to meet our host family. Their house was right in the middle of the town which was a great location. We had our own room and bathroom.

Our wonderful host family.

An elementary school classroom in San Juan del Sur. We are so fortunate!

The wonderful colors of Latin America.

Streets of San Juan del Sur.

Fishing in the bay.

A big rainstorm.

We took our clothes to a laundry service. They told us to pick up our clothes later that day. While walking around the town a little bit later, we passed the laudry service, only to see our skivvies blowing in the wind.

Our schedule was Spanish tutoring Monday through Friday 8am - 12pm, a break for lunch, and activities from 2pm - 5pm. It was GREAT! Playa del Sur was located in a big yellow building with a big porch (come to find out it was actually the headquarters of the Sandanistan political party - yikes!). Out on the porch were half a dozen tables. This is where we did our tutoring. My teacher's name was Flor and we had a great time. Across the street was the beach. We'd sit on the porch, watch the people go by, and watch the waves and the fishermen out in the water. Not bad, not bad at all.  For one-on-one Spanish tutoring, our homestay, three meals a day, and the afternoon activities, I think it was $200 for both Jace and I. Our family got $60 of that which was quite a bit.

Our daily view from the porch of our Spanish school.

Clase de danza

In the mornings our host mom had our breakfast all ready for us and when we'd come home at noon she'd have our lunch all ready. We felt like we were little kids. It was great! The food was delicious and everything was made from scratch. The only food that I was not able to eat was fried cheese. It was so salty it would hurt your mouth and make your eyes water. Much to Jace's chagrin, when our host mom wasn't looking I'd scrape it onto his plate. Then he'd kick me under the table. I think we had fried cheese a few times so I had a few good bruises on my shins.


Living with a family is the best and fastest way to get to know the culture. There were many occasions where I had to keep my reactions to myself so as not to seem offensive. The best example was one morning we woke up and as we got out of bed, I looked up and saw the biggest spider I have ever seen in my life. Jace had also apparently seen it because just as I inhaled to prepare for my scream, he slapped his hand over my mouth and said, "Shhhh...." I've never gotten dressed so quickly, never taking my eyes off of it for a second. We went out and sat down for breakfast and very casually asked our host mom, "Ummmm..... ¿tienes muchas arañas aquí?"  She shrugged and asked us if we'd seen one. "Sí, en nuestro cuarto. Es muy grande." We didn't want to make it a big deal because we didn't want her to think we were grossed out with something in her house. She grabbed a big aerosol can, went into our room while we followed  her in there. There it was, still in the corner, waiting to get me when I wasn't looking. She marched over to it, sprayed the can directly on it, and with horror, I watch it scramble down the wall and disappeared into the bathroom. She clapped her hands together and nodded her head with a sense of completion, and went back into the kitchen. I whispered to Jace, "Well I think this is worse because now we don't know where it is!" But we never saw it again.  Needless to say, between that spider and the cockroaches, we put our shoes in the bed with us while we slept and ALWAYS kept our bags zipped.

The diameter was probably about six inches.

This was another little friend we found in our room. Our host mom grabbed it with a plastic bag and chucked it into the middle of the street - bag and all. Ribbit.

Nicaraguans have a way of using all their resources. The power would frequently go out at night. One night, we were sitting at the table talking to our host dad when the power went out. The grandma came in the room, got a stick candle, and lit it. She also grabbed a plate and poured some wax on the plate, sticking the candle into the wax since she didn't have a candle holder. I remember being wowed over something so simple, but I also thought, how many Americans would have no clue what to do it they didn't have their generators, flashlights, or cute candle holders? We'd probably all just sit in the dark.

Water is very expensive. This portion of the house did not have a roof. They set up tents and buckets to catch the water. Then they would use that water for all their cleaning. It was quite an amazing system.

Our plan was to return to Costa Rica after one week in Nicaragua. However, we decided to stay in San Juan del Sur for another week since our Spanish school was so wonderful. We had heard about Isla de Ometepe, an island in the middle of Lake Nicaragua that has two volcanoes on it. We decided to go there for the weekend. I went to the bank and got out about 500 cordóbas. We took a taxi to the lake and bought our ferry tickets. As the ferry took us to the center of the lake (the lake is really really big), I think the feeling in the pit of our stomachs began. As the ferry got closer and closer, the island looked more and more ominous and intimidating. Large storm clouds covered the island. We got off the ferry and someone said that the ferry returning to the mainland was the last of the day. (The feeling grew a little more.) The ferry dock was really crowded and it began to rain and was getting dark. I had looked up a hotel on the Internet before we left. We heard this group of American hippies talking and they were going the same direction so we all decided to share a taxi van. This is when I realized that 500 cordóbas was only about $15.00. Oops.  "Ummm.... Jace, we only have about $15 in cash." "What?! I thought you went to the bank!" "I did. 500 cordóbas sounded like a lot when I was there...." The feeling in our stomach got a little stronger. We drove on, by this time it was totally dark and pouring down rain. The taxi dropped us off at our hotel (in the middle of the jungle). "Bye!!" called all our hippie friends. We walked into the hotel and that's when we saw it. "No Vacancy." Uh oh. (Feeling growing really strong by this point.) We double checked with the front desk guy to make sure that "No Vacancy" actually meant "No Vacancy." It did. He told us there was a hotel down the road that might have rooms available. So we went out into the dark and pouring rain and walked down the road, praying really hard that there was a room.  Luckily for us, there was a room. Actually, pretty much all the rooms were available. Weird. (Stomach feeling really strong.) We were told that a big group of people were out on a day trip and hadn't returned yet. (Turns out we never saw another single soul the whole time we were there - really weird.)  We hung out and got dinner in the hotel restaurant. (We would soon learn this was the worst idea of all time.) We went back to our room (see pictures) and as we were laying in bed, we said to each other, "What are we doing?!?! We are on a freaking island with two active volcanoes. If they explode we are gonners!" It was at that point we decided to leave first thing in the morning.

Honeymoon suite?

Such an elegant touch.

Our hotel. Don't let the looks deceive you.

In the morning, we got up and the first bus didn't come until around 11am so we decided to take a walk along the beach. The beach was just as creepy as the hotel. We were very ready to hightail it out of there. We went to pay (luckily they accepted credit cards because we didn't have enough cash) however the power was out, so we would have to wait until the power came back on before they could run our credit card. "When will that be?" we asked. "Who knows?" shrugged the worker. We anxiously waited and about 5 minutes before 11am the power was restored, they charged our card, and we were out the door waiting in the road for the bus.

We could deal with the vultures eating dead fish heads all over the beach, but finding this skeletal remains of a horse was too much to handle. It was time to go.

The bus ride back was interesting as we had missed all the scenery the night before. An image that will stay with me forever was we crossed over this small creek where we saw women washing their clothes in the water. I took a mental picture and every time I complain about our old washing machine I think of it, and then I stop complaining.

We made it back onto the ferry and met a girl who was going back to San Juan del Sur so we split a cab (about an hour drive). Of course with our luck, the taxi got a flat tire so we had to wait on the side of the road for awhile until someone brought a spare. We finally made it back to San Juan del Sur - home sweet home!!!!  It was July 16th, our 1st anniversary. :)

Happy 1st Anniversary!

That night, there were really loud explosions and we learned it was the day before a huge festival. The next day we walked with the whole towns people in the parade, following the Virgin of Guadalupe statue and watched as they put her in a boat and set her sailing into the bay to bless the fishing.

Parade taking the Virgin of Guadalupe down to the water. 

During the parade, Jace said, "I don't feel very well" and it pretty much went down hill from there. To spare you the juicy details, let's just say he eventually got two shots in the butt - one in each cheek - to help stop the vomiting. It didn't help. We decided it was best to go to the hospital in Managua. My dear teacher Flor's husband was a cab driver so he drove us two hours to the hospital in Managua.  Even though we had just met him, I think saying good-bye to him was one of the scariest parts of the whole ordeal because he was the last tie to the only people we knew in Nicaragua.  He didn't leave right away; he stayed around the hospital until we checked in. I was crying when I hugged him good-bye.

If you are ever sick, it might be worth flying down to Managua because it was the best, cleanest, nicest hospital I have ever been in. The doctor was so good to us and the nurses wore white skirts with the white hats. The cleaning lady came in every hour to sweep and dust. And it all cost about $100 for an overnight stay, I.V., and medication!  Jace had contracted amoebas in his intestines. We are pretty sure it was from the terrible Isla de Ometepe, or Satan's Island as we started calling it. After much deliberation, we decided it was best to cut our trip short and head home. It was a bittersweet departure; sad that our trip ended on such a bad note and not being able to return to Costa Rica, but anxious to get to the U.S. (As it turns out, we went to Emmanual when we got home and they said they would have prescribed Jace the same medicine and he should finish taking what they gave him down there.)

Always trying to have fun, even in the hospital.

Nicaragua will always hold a dear place in our hearts and Costa Rica is still pretty much undiscovered land for us. We will go back and we will conquer, it's just a matter of time.....