Fun Fact: In Buenos Aires the double L, "ll", does not make a "y" sound like I learned, oh no, it makes a "sh" sound. We learned this yesterday when we went to purchase empanadas. According to the sign there were three kinds to choose from, jamon y queso, carne and pollo. I ordered 2 jamon y queso and 1 "poy-yo" (the way I had been taught to pronounce pollo and have used successfully many times). The man at the counter [...] Continue Reading
Exchanging money has been a straightforward process everywhere we have been so far. Most places we have just used our credit cards in order to acquire airline miles (thanks Chase for the free flight to Europe!) although we have visited the ATMs in most countries to carry a little cash. Either way, there has been an official exchange rate so it hasn't mattered whether we used our credit cards or cash for purchases. Things are a bit different here in Argentina where cash is king [...] Continue Reading
Its winter!-While that was technically true in Rio as well, it was not the same. Rio's winter meant shorts and t-shirts and swimming. That's not real winter! Buenos Aires has a much colder winter- there are still palm trees but at least I get to wear my coat and occasionally my hat! Actually, its better then winter, it feels like late fall here- the air is crisp and cool but the afternoon sun [...] Continue Reading
Rio is completely amazing, we had heard so many negative things prior to coming- how dangerous it is, how expensive it is- so we were a little apprehensive and not sure what to expect but we have found it to be a very friendly, relatively inexpensive place. We did go to dinner one night and after carefully scrutinizing the menu we decided to split a dish that we thought had some meat, beans and plantains. However, when our waiter came over he told us they were out of that dish- we panicked as we didn't have a backup plan and ordered [...] Continue Reading
Oh. My. Stars. Brazil for the World Cup final has been amazing! To be on Copacabana Beach watching the final with thousands of other fans at FIFA Fan Fest was completely surreal. It was the craziest thing I have ever seen- it was completely packed for blocks around the beach. Even our subway car on the ride over was packed. There were vendors up and sown the streets, offering to paint faces, selling flags, headbands, leis, beer, caipirinhas, t-shirts, flip flops- anything you could want representing your [...] Continue Reading
One thing that we have is time. One thing that we don't have is extra money. During the booking of this trip we had to factor that in. When you have time but no money you buy the cheapest flights possible. And then spend days regretting it. We flew to Rio from Panama City. Our flight left at 6:45am and landed in El Salvador at 8:00amlocal time (it was an hour and a half flight). We had a seven hour layover in El Salvador [...] Continue Reading
Bocas del Toro is absolutely amazing! And, our hotel has air-conditioning! Our hotel was on Isla Carenero- a short $1 water taxi ride away from Bocas Town. It was right over the water and the reception/lounge/restaurant area was completely open, making for incredible views and amazing ocean breezes. We spent the evenings sitting on the couches in the lounge looking out at the water, watching the boats [...] Continue Reading
What turns a hike from a long, boring walk into a great hike? The things that I think of, off the top of my head are: good scenery, lots of wildlife, and a good temperature. With these criteria in mind, we went on the world's best hike in Cahuita National Park. The trail through the park is free as long as you go in the side that is owned by the city, if you go in the side owned by the government it costs $10. They do ask for a donation, which we were happy to give. The trail is an easy 8km hike, we did it in flip flops [...] Continue Reading
We went to Bar Amigos to watch Costa Rica take on Greece. We got there almost an hour before the game started. We thought we had given ourselves plenty of time. All of the other Costa Rica games had been during the week, but this one was on a Sunday. It seemed as though everyone in the town had already shown up for this game, every seat was taken in the coveted, breezy upper section as well as the stuffy downstairs section. In fact, people had brought out plastic lawn chairs [...] Continue Reading
Sunday we finally made it to the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve! We got up early, packed a lunch and hiked into Santa Elena to catch the 7:30 bus to Monteverde. As we drove up into the clouds, the rain started. It rained for the majority of the hike, but it was still one of the most beautiful hikes [...]
