Costa Rica

Sunday August 10 

Caroline and I made it to Costa Rica. We stayed in Alajuela for two nights. The first day we just hung out and tried to go to a volcano but it was not open. Pretty much Carrie and I were hungry all day and ate!! Yes ate and it was awesome. A a cafe called the Coffee Dreams Cafe! Unbelievable food. We had 3 incredible vegetarian meals with fresh fruit smoothies and cafe.

Monday August 11

Carrie and I woke up and had a wonderful breakfast at a small restaurant on our way to a 2.5 hour hike. Unfortunately the hiking was OK. A bit on the foggy side. All we were able to see was a beautiful lake. After our hike we went to our favorite restaurant and met a guy from Seattle, WA named Matt. He told us all about his crazy experience, including his passport story, of losing his passport then finding it and about Boca Del Toro in Panama. He gave us a lot of great advice. Unfortunately, both Carrie and I had lots of Coffee and were up almost the whole night.

Tuesday August 12

Carrie and I woke up and got our new friend Matt in the car to go to attempt to see the volcano again. After an hours ride to the volcano and a 15 minute walk we made it! But wait there was fog and we could not see the volcano, darn!! We did get to see, another absolutely beautiful lake :) After the volcano we drove back, drop off Matt and checked out of our hotel. It was time to pick up my friend Andy from the airport. We picked up Andy and went straight to our favorite restaurant. We reminisced and decided to make the 3 hour drive to beautiful Manuel AntonioWe had a great car ride and made it just in time to find a good hotel with breakfast in the morning and go get drinks. We got a hotel room at the Cabinas Piscis. When we all went inside our room there was a huge fruit bat that flew in. Yes we got rid of the bat. Thank the lord,we did not want to get rabies. After the bat situation we went to the pilot to get drinks and food! Yummy seafood soup. Oh yes I must of had like five drinks. Way to go Car getting drunk right away! Carrie and I defiantly wanted to show our new friend a good time!
One of the coolest parts of the night is Carrie saw Julie Stiles, yes the actress in the the bathroom. She came and told Andy and I and we were like "Yay right Carrie, drunky." But Carrie was right she was their! I decided to go up to her and her boyfriend of three months and I said this "Yes I was drunk but not that drunk" Anyways this is what I said: "You know we are celebrating tonight cause on August 20th will be may 8 years of being Cancer Free, will you come take a shot with us to celebrate my rebirth." No joke they did. I have amazing pictures of the while night. Beginning, middle and end of me passed out and Carrie having to take off my shoes. Yes mom Carrie made sure my hips did not dislocate. Carrie's quote of the night "Andy, Darci is going to kill me if Carly falls."
Good times I must say. Lots of memory making moments. Actress Julie is a really awesome person I must say. Yes Ryan I gave them Hill Family Estate business cards and invited them to our tasting room in Yountville. We will see if they come!!!

August 13 Wednesday 

Well I pretty much woke up feeling like I was going to throw up, but I didn't. We had breakfast, still hungry then another breakfast, sort of full. Then went on a two hour tour to see insects and animals at the national park, incredible great photos. Then lunch and lots of fun swimming in the waves with team CAC, no shark attacks or accidents good!! Then we all watched four hours of TV. YAY! we finally had like 70 channels. We all felt like little kids in a toy store, looking at the TV. Then dinner and dessert! All meals were at the same restaurant, because everything closes early. At least the food was super good, the fish incredible!! We also decided to rode trip it to Monteverde the next day to stay with Carrie's friends brother and to do some more tours and adventures. I will keep you up dated soon!! Still having an incredible time and creating lots and lots of memories. Thank god we have Andy with us, who knows how to speak fluent spanish!!

August 14 Thursday

Team CAC woke us early and made the rode trip to monteverde. We stayed the night at Issac and Tracy's house. All together the rode trip took about 4 hours. When we reached the house, we freshened up and went straight to get some food at an Italian restaurant. We got a delicious bottle of wine, a malbec from Argentina. Both Carrie and I got seafood salads and Andy got the seafood pasta. We all got dessert and afterwards met a family from bevely hills. One of the daughters went to SDSU. We had a great time talking with them and got some good advice on what to do and where to eat in Arenal. After our get conversation we went back to Tracy and Issac's house and went to bed.

August 15 Friday               Team CAC woke up and had an amazing breakfast. After breakfast we went and did the jungle canopy tour. I have always been very fearful of heights but got through my fear. We all zip lined above the jungle. We went on 12 zip lines total and a Tarzan swing. My family would be proud of me since I have two hip replacements and zip lined it above the trees. "Yes mom and dad I was safe!" After our incredible adventure we went and grabbed the buffet, which was amazing! After lunch we checked our emails and went back to the house. It started to rain really hard but managed to take Tracy and Issac to a Mediterranean dinner to see their friend play.
We all order Mediterranean dishes but the server brought out tortillas and gross, untoasted bread. I guess they had run out of Pita bread. What a joke right. I cannot believe the server did not tell us that they had run out. Well I guess the dessert of chocolate cake, pina smoothie and chocolate soffle made up for the pita. After dinner we were all so tried from our adventurous day that we all went to bed.

August 16, Saturday

Carrie, Issac, Tracy, and I all went to the farmers market early in the morning to pick up fruits, veggies, and breakfast supplies. We made a great breakfast and Andy, Caroline and I made our way to the butterfly farm. We got to play with all these crazy insects and got to take lots of pictures of beautiful butterflies. After the farm we had lunch with Tracy and Issac at a delicious bakery. Then off to the frog farm. We had a English tour guide. TIP 6, DO NOT TOUCH ANY FROGS ESPECIALLY THE COLORED ONES ALL ARE POISONOUS! The funny part about the tour was the whole time the tour guide kept saying this word which I thought was pollution or repollution. He would say something like the repollution generates 50 tadpoles. He obviously meant they reproduce 50 tadpoles. It was so funny that Andy, Caroline and I were bitting our lips. You guys would have had to have been their in order to understand. After the frog farm it began to rain so we went back to tracy and issac's house. There we played three games of Yatzee! First game Caroline got third place, Carly four and Andy fifth. I guess I got some karma after letting Andy know in the first game that he was pretty good at getting zeros, cause the second game he got 6 yatzee's and came out with 613 points which is unheard of. He maybe writing to the game asking if you gets a prize or anything. Yes, he still has the winning sheet. It will be most likely posted on this facebook and refrigerator. Plus, I will probably be hearing about it for the next six months. The third game ended with me in last and Caroline in first. I think at that point everyone felt really bad for me, including myself, cause I kept rolling 2 pairs which equal no points. Sad I know. Issac said I should come up with a game called Two Pairs.After the game we found earlier during the day that my other friend Carrie Flack would be randomly coming to Costa.
We went to the internet cafe and interbus shuttle service to figure out how she would be meeting up with us. We talk to our new friend sergio for about an hour and decided we would pick her up on our way to Montezuma the next day at around 9pm. After all the solution making we got some dinner and went to bed.

Sunday, August 17

  

We went and met up with Sergio, who helped team CAC with our decision process of picking up Carrie Flack. Sergio told Caroline and I that "we both smelt very delicious" and he tol

d me that "I looked really special." Sergio helped us

out a lot. We then went and got breakfast and began our rode trip to montezuma. Tip # 456: there are a lot of unpaved bummy rodes in costa rica.... FYI watch out for canyons/pot holes. Andy was really good at hitting every single one. Not to mention this huge canyon where of course I was in the back sit without my seat belt on and when we hit the canyon we all flew up in the air and hit our heads and I got bruised and scrapped up but luckily nothing broken!

   After four hours of drivin

g we made it to montezuma! We stayed at Las Mangos. We were all ravenously starving like usual so we went to dinner and got the Island 

meal of grilled fish, vegetables, and brown rice. After dinner and a little relaxation time on our hotel porch it was time to go pick up Carrie Flack from the ferry station. We drove about 45 minutes each way. Unfortunately  her ferry came in at 10pm instead of 9pm. The ferry station was in an extremely ghetto location so we made sure to stay in the car. Flack finally arrived! We then made the 45 minute ride back to our hotel in the dark.... I mine dark without street lights. Quote of the day by Andy while we were driving back to the hotel "black dog....fuck....black dog...why are you black?" Words cannot explain how funny this was!

Monday, August 18

We all ate breakfast...our favorite the Cansado tipico. This was a new experience for Carrie Flack... We all had fried banana, rice, eggs, beans, tortilla, fruit and out new favorite smootie Guavana... "orgasmic if you ask me." The rest of

 the day was left with beach and swimming in the pool action.... and a nice bit of internet too. For the evening festivities Caroline and I decided to pull out the vanilla flavored vodka with some coke light "our favorite." We figured it was Flacks first night out on the town... "meaning get Flack as drunk as possible!" We all pre-drinked and made our way to see August Rush while eating dinner. FYI... they had frozen yogurt at the restaurant for dessert. Caroline and Andy took up the fro yo and chocolate cake. After dinner we hit up the only bar open. Flack got super drunk and made out with the bartender! Caroline got some boy action too. Andy and I decided to go near the beach and some how hurt our feet. The feeling of fiber glass, needles, or a poisonous dart frog temporarily stung our feet... ouch... so Andy and I walked back to our hotel room to take care of our feet. Crazy lightening and thunder hit around 12 am. Andy and I decided it would be a good idea to go and pick up Caroline and Flack from the bar since it started to rain. Caroline insisted her and flack would  walk back to the hotel room in the rain... crazy ass girl... Night ended with a bang.... Flack fell and cut up her leg. Both Flack and Caroline came back soaking wet and passed out. Both Andy and I were frustrated with Caroline for not getting into the car and walking nome in the rain (they would have gotten rapped or something... we were worried). Eventually we all got over the nights situation and laughed at it later!

Last two days in Bay Islands

Friday August 7

Care and I woke up late and went to our favorite restuarant Mavis and Dikie to have the fish special. After lunch we went and snorkeled. I saw a crab and sea snake... pretty scary. After our snorkeling we took a long walk to flower bay. The rode was not that safe so we were offered a ride by a dad and brother, who were locals on the island from Canada. We took the offer and went. We had an incredible time with them. They even gave us beer and took us to the dolphin show.

After that weird adventure, we ate dinner with our California boys. After dinner we had lots of drinks, dancing and other crazy adventures with crabs walking in the streets until around 4am.

Saturaday August 8

Carrie and I woke up late. We went and had lunch. Then around 3pm we went by taxi to the Roatan airport to catch our plane from Roatan Island to El Salvador. Then El Salvador to Costa Rica. We were going to catch a 6 hour bus ride to Bocas Del Toro, Panama, but found out that Carrie{s friends are leaving on the 12th. We decided is would be best if we rented a car and stuck around Costa Rica until my friend Andy arrives on Tuesday, around noon. This way both Carrie and I can relax more and stll go to Panama more slowly not having to rush anything.

We found it to be cheaper in the long run to spilt the cost of a 4 wheel drive car then constantly taking the buses and not getting much rest. After arriving in Costa Rica, we got our car and stayed the night at a great hostel-bed and breakfast. Both Carrie and I got a good nights sleep and look forward to exploring Costa Rica.

We will be careful driving the car around. Carrie is going to be navigator and I will be driving. Costa Rica is a bit cooler. Right now it is the high season so we will see what budget adventures we can pull! I must say so far our trip has been full of gnarlyness and chaos. It was so nice to be able to relax on Roatan and now to be able to explore Costa Rica without Crazy bus rides and people. I will write more when we figure out what we are going to be doing.

San Pedro Sula, La Celba, and the Bay Islands

Tuesday August 5
Carrie and I woke up early and got on a shuttle headed for San Pedro around 2pm. There were a couple kids on the bus and the rodes were making the young kids car sick. Before we knew it one of the kids threw up all over the window. Carrie said to me "Car do not look now but their is a bag near us with throw up in it. Luckily Carrie and I do not get car sick. We made it to San Pedro Sula or should I say "San Pedro Sucio" after 3 hours on the bus. Carrie and I wanted to take another bus ride to La Celba the port city where we would get on a 2 hour ferry ride to roatoan where we are now. Unforunately, all the tickets for the bus where sold on.

Two latio men, whom were behind us asked if we wanted to take a taxi to a different bus station to see if they had tickets avalible. Carrie and I were careful with our decision but went with it. The taxi took us to two different stations and still no luck. We were stranded in San Pedro, which must I say is probably one of the gnarliest, dirtiest citiest I have ever been in. Supposively there is a lot of gang violence. "Oh great Carrie and I were thinking." The two men that we were with asked if we wanted to get a hotel. At this point we just wanted to be off the streets. We got a hotel but paid without checking the rooms first. Tip 4, ALWAYS CHECK THE ROOMS AND THE BEDS FOR BED BUGS FIRST THEN PAY. Of course Care and I were so tried and over it that we didn't and when we got to our room their where bugs in Carries bed. OK, we are out of here. The strangers that we came with knocked on our door. Weird we thought, "how did they know where are room was." "Now we are really out of here!!" We tried to get our $10 back, but failed. We looked in our bible "the lonely planet book" got some help from a women on the street, a taxi and stayed the night in a much better hotel, still in a gnarly part of town. The garbage picture I took will completely sum up what I am talking about.

Carrie and I still did not feel all that comfortable at the new hotel. But we set our watchs for 5 am to catch the bus to La Celba.

Wednesday August 6
Carrie and I woke up early and caught the bus that left at 8 am. Three hours later we were is La Celba. We paid a $25 ferry ticket and got our sits on the top of the ferry. We sat next to two gentlemen that told us about how the ferry that we were on was supposed to be a really rough ride and a girl that they had talked to said almost all the passengers threw up from the boat ride. They hinted that we may want to go down to the bottom and take some motion sickness medience. I was all for it. Before we got up the employee's were handing out "barf bags." We got some medience in us. From the medience I thought I was druged. I was so incredibly sleepy. We watched a movie on the ferry, fell asleep and woke up after about an hour and a half.

Come to find out about half of the passengers threw up, what a ride! Carrie and I finally made it to the island. Roatoan is the largest out of the three Bay Islands. Crystal clear waters surround the island. We took a taxi to the west end, which is cheaper to stay. The island is pretty expensive, almost the same in american dollars. We reached our hotel The dolphin and got an amazing beach view room with ac for $40 a night. We got our bathing suits on and beached it the rest of the day. After a few hours at the beach we freshened up and noticed that we had gotten at least 30/40 sand fly bites. Should have worn bug spray. Care and I went to use the interent and met a guy named Jess who went just graduated from SDSU. Crazy the people that you find on such small islands. He told us of a good place for dinner and a good bar for after dinner.

Carrie and I had the most amazing dinner of fresh mahi mahi, salad, coconut bread, rice, and vegetables. We met a guy while eatting from Alabama. Carrie and I were so hungry from all our traveling that the guy offered us the rest of his food. We took up his offer and ate his meal. While we ate his meal he secretly paid for our meals and left. "WOW THANKS AURTHER. " We did write him a thank you note.

After dinner Carrie and I went a bar called "Sundowners." We got alot of drinks "pineapple juice and rum was our favorite." We met Captin Ken our bar tender and Captin Ron, who said he was in some movie on the island. Our new friend Jess was also their with some more California boys, one named Nick who went to SDSU and knows my big sis Emily Parker. Also their friend Dino, who went to USC. Pretty much the night ended with a bang! All of us drunk, swimming in the ocean, me getting sting by something in the water and a crazy hangover in the morning. *Oh how was brother and roommates would be so proud of me!

Thursday August 7
Care and I woke up and met up with the CA boys for breakfast.we took a water taxi to the most beautiful beach on the island. We hungout at the beach all day and snorkeled and talked about life! The coral and fish are incredible. I recommend Roatan Island to all. It is a very low key island, very laid back and relaxing, with gorgeous sunsets, beaches and fabulous people. After our day at the beach and me finally overcoming my hangover we all got dinner and went to sleep listening to the lightening and rain coming down over the Dolphin Hotel.

August 3rd and August 4th Tikal to Guatemala City to Copan Honduras

Sunday August 3rd
Carrie and I woke up after a great nights sleep and looked out the window to a beautiful view of the flores lake. We walked around for about 30 minutes then got on our shuttle for what we thought was Honduras, Copan. Some how the travel agency thought we said Coban, Guatemala. After 2 hours, both Care and I realized where we were going. I guess everything happens for a reason, right. It took us 5 hours to get to Coban, which was having one of the biggest festivals of the year and lots of rain. Luckily we were with a woman whom spoke fluent Spanish. We took a taxi to the bus station with 5 minutes to spare, we got on a $5 bus for another 5 hours to Guatemala City.

Oh our bus! Pretty much we sat next to our new friend Oscar who slept most of the time. Obviously everyone was latio and we were the only white girls on the bus. Some how we were crammed in with 3 other men, pretty much on top of each other for 5 hours. Super exciting. I got great movie footage of the event. Cannot wait to post our experience. Carrie and I were laughing I think for about 20 minutes, because we could not believe the situation we had just got in.

We finally arrived in Guatemala City at 6pm. We were going to take a over night bus to Honduras but we could not find one that left on a Sunday night. We finally gave up and decided to go on the Internet to find a bus station that would leave early in the morning. We found one that left at 9 am so we decided to get a hotel in one of the most dangerous parts on Guatemala City and go to sleep. Hey at least we got a goods nights sleep, did not hear any gun shots, and got to take a nice hot shower!!

Monday August 4th
Carrie and I got on the bus at 9am for Copan, Honduras. Yes Copan not Coban! The bus was probably one of the nicest we have taken. Plus super cheap to buy tickets. Good thing Carrie and I wore lots of clothing cause the AC was on again and it was probably 40 degrees inside. After 5 hours we arrived in Copan. Such a beautiful place. Less humid and lots of sun. Honduras is not as dirty as Guatemala and super laid back. Care and I talked to a local whom spoke fluent English. He totally helped us out on which buses to take to get to the Bay islands which we will be in tomorrow. We are also staying in his families hotel. Care and I went to the hotel to put our backpacks down and then went to the Copan Ruins. Completely different then Tikal but incredible. The scenery reminds both Carrie and I of Napa in the summer time but tropical. While being at the ruins we got bite by a lot of mosquito's. Should have put on some spray, were in too much of a hurry. After the ruins we walked back into town to get money at the ATM, which of course has guards out holding M16s. Pretty normal to us now. After the ATM we had a delicious dinner of tortillas with cheese,avocado, roasted veggies and different sauces!

Carrie and I plan on taking a bus at 7am from Copan to San Pedro Sula to La Celba. Should take us from 7am to 1pm then a boat at 5pm to 7pm to Roatan, which is in the Caribbean. Supposed to be super nice. Hopefully we will get some snorkeling, waterfalls, and relaxing time! We saw pictures of the beaches and they look like Tahiti!! Cannot wait for the beach and jungle.

August 2 Flores and Tikal

August 2
After our crazy bus ride we arrived 10 hours later at 5 am. Sleep deprived Carrie and I got into a shuttle to take us to a hostel with 3 other people. We picked a spot in Flores out of our bible the lonely planet. A family run hotel for about $10 per person a night. Extremely nice place with a balcony and view of the gorgoues lake. Yes another lake. We decided to put our luggage into the room and pay later. Care and I hurried to get ready for Tikal Mayan Ruins for a day of hiking and seeing the architure.
The man who took us to the Ruins said 100 Q each round trip. Of course Carrie and I fell for the round trip and paid. On our way to the ruins we met a guy from Cal Poly and a girl from Germany. Both were students in Antigua, GUA studying spanish. We all instantly bonded and spent the day together. We were all dropped off and told by the man that took us in the shuttle that he would be back for Carrie and I at 2 pm. we had breakfast (of course the famous beans, corn tortillas and coffee) and went to the ruins. We paid 150 Q each, which is about $25, which is a lot. normally that is a oneway bus fare. Since the ruins are a once and a lifetime event we paid and so incredibly happy that we did. The ruins were extremely hot and humid. My whole back was full of sweat. From around 8:30am to 1:30 pm, we all climbed the stairs of the ancient, amazing ruins. The ruins are so historic and gorgeous! You feel like you are apart of a movie or a dream. Wait until I post pictures. I randomly ran into a friend from highschools friend that goes to UCSD on top of one of the temples. She told us where to go in Panama. Crazy, such a small world. She said that she wishes she could travel back to Panama with us, but is all out of money. We also saw monkey´s in the trees which was so cool.
After a few hours in the sun, Carrie and I got lunch and waited for our ride. Again, we where ripped off. Never, never pay round trip for anything in Guatemala. Lesson well learned for a second time. After cusing at all the shuttle people in Spanish, we were able to take a shuttle ride back to our hotel for 50Q which is a lot. At least we did not get all our money stolen or passports stolen. We were mad at the time, but laughed it off later.
Our friends rode with us and came back to our hotel. They freshened up and went to dinner with us. Even though we had a few problems during the day, we still had a great time and established some new friendships. Care and I are going to take a hot shower tonight and finally get some good rest. Tomorrow we plan on taking a 5 hour shuttle ride to Coban, Hondoras to experience some more fun. Maybe some islands or more ruins. Guatemala is a pretty awesome place and I recommend it to all of you, but be careful of bargining. It is so beautiful. It is also the rainy season in Guatemala right now. Good thing Care and I brought only one sweater, thinking it was going to be super hot and humit. Tip 2, check weather and season before going.

July 29-31st LAX to Guatemala and August 1

l
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Tuesday July 29th.
My roommate Kristen took me to the airport. I found Caroline right away and we were able to get to our flight with some time to spare. Our flight left on time and we reached North Carolina at 3 am our time.

Wednesday July 30th.
Caroline and I had a layover at North Carolina airport 6 hours. I know pretty much sucked. We tried to sleep on the ground until we were asked to move. Sleep deprived we got on our next flight at 11:30am and reached Costa Rica at 1:30 pm. Then it was another layover to Guatemala City where we took a shuttle to Antigua. It is beautiful here. We are surrounded by mountains and volcano´s. On our way to Antigua we met 3 girls from Spain and a boy from Israel. One of the girls has lived in the area for 6 months so she was able to tell us some good places to go. Care and I found a hostel for the night for about $7. We had an ¨Orgasmic¨ dinner. The food is sooooo incredibly delicious here. After dinner we hit the hay.

Thursday July 31st.
Care and I woke up, had another amazing Guatemalan meal or should I say breakfast of eggs, re fried beans, fried banana´s, salsa and bread. We made a decision to take a bus to Lago De Atitlan in Panajachel and take a boat ride to (San Pedro) to stay the night at the Mikaso hotel. Then we will come back to Antigua around 3:30pm. At 6:30pm, we will be taking a bus to Tikal, Mayan Ruins, which takes 10 hours over night. This way we will not have to pay for a hotel. On our way to purchase tickets we saw men with M16 guns protecting soda trucks. Yes crazy!! We are safe so far. I will try to post pictures sometime soon and will be taking mucho. I will update soon. Mom, by the way the Guatemalan women are so tiny and short. You would love it here, probably just like Oaxaca when you stayed with your host madre. We are having a blast. Defiantly an adventure and completely different then anywhere I have traveled thus far.
Carrie and I took a shuttle to Lake Atitlan. It took about 2.5 hours. We met an incredible family from Britian. When we reached the lake we took a boat ride to San Pedro which took about a half an hour. After reaching the lake we got a hostel and paid about $4. I asked for towel and the guy said ¨sure would you like yo buy weed?¨ Yes drugs are all around. It is interesting that people at restaurants do not know what salsa is but they know what cocine is. Care and I met some great people at the hostel, even one from SD. We went to bed late.

Friday August 1, 2008
Carrie and I woke up to this beautiful view of the lake. We went to the mercado and got bananas and breakfast. Then went kayaking, so muy lindo. Then we left for the boat and a lady was supposed to pick us up but didnt. We got ripped off. We had to rebuy a ticket to Tikal and we are about to get on a 14 hour bus ride to Tikal Mayan ruins. We took a shuttle from the lake to Antigua to Guatemala City. At 9 pm we got on the bus, supposively firt class. The bus ride was really bumpy and it was really hard to sleep, due to the fact they had the AC on us and all I had on was a sweater and capri´s. I guess you could say Carrie and I got about 4 hours of sleep.

July 24, 2008 more Flight info after we reach COSTA to GUATEMALA

From San Jose (SJO) to Guatemala City (GUA)
Mexicana Flight 378 Depart: (SJO) Wednesday July 30th at 4:05 Arrive: Guatemala City, GT (GUA) Wednesday, July 30 5:40