The kayaking in Costa Rica treated us just right. We hooked up with a bunch of the local boys like Ferdinan, Mauricio and Jorge, the Irish boys, and Scottish Greg to get on some great virgin runs. The San Pedro was a first descent.
The local boys found the Costa Rican classic The San Raphel the year before. Both these rivers are near San Isidro and join to combine the Rio Union.
Baby has officially crested 60,000 kms. That is a long way from the 17,000 she had when we started this crazy escapade over 7 months ago!
Thats not to say we don´t still have to constantly modify and problem solve as we drive down the road.
As we cross into Panama, we now have South America on the brain. But we have Panamanian style coming our way! Stay tuned.
Anna and Anika are here for a visit, so we all went out to spend Thanksgiving on the beach.
Mal Pais is a world famous surf spot, and about as laid back as it gets.
It is over-run by gringos and travelers, but it makes for a fun time.
It is kind of wierd, Costa Rica is so much different then any other Central American country. We haven’t even spoken spanish since we’ve gotten here. We met up with some kids from this school in San Jose, and they invited us by for a presentation.
Talking to people like this can be super positive, because they are experiencing other countries first hand, and realize how lucky they are to have opportunities like going traveling and going to school abroad. This can be a great motivating factor to do something more and give back to the world.
Well, I didn’t think I was gonna make it at one point. Feeling lucky to finally be in good health, I am sitting in downtown San Jose, cooking dinner with a bunch of other traveling folks, and happy to be alive. Looking forward to slowly working back into reality (and hopefully some surf!). We are headed to the beach on Tuesday! I just want to make a special big Thanks to my Brother, Damien and my other brother Tyler…..They took such good care of me at my weakest most vulnerable moments ever. Sorry that your trip turned into a Seth rehabilitation clinic, Damien…..It was great to have family around. Love ya! Sether
The fun never ends when you have Malaria it seems. I finished my blistering cold sweats through the entire matress followed by the most brutal hypothermic shaking 5 minutes after. That only lasted 7 days. I´m now done with the main part of the medication, and I keep thinking to myself….When is the hell going to end??? I´ve had this throbing headache (it feels like someone is hitting me in the head with a hammer every other second) for 3 days. The worst part is that when I lay down it hurts the worst, but I don´t have the energy to stand up. Sorry for the lack of posts lately, I can´t really think or focus on anything. Will keep you posted. Seth
Well folks; I am sorry to say Sethers has come down with a strong bout of Malaria. After just sqeeking through the Costa Rican boarder he was feeling quite ill and fevorish. We found out yesterday morning and we were able to get him the proper medication that has him feeling better today. We are in La Cruz just south of the boarder waiting for him to weather the storm so we can move on. Tyler
Si a la vida is a school dedicated to taking kids off the street in Nicaragua, giving them a home and an education. We found the program very inspiring, which could be used as a model for places around the world.
This was a no-nonsense group. They were all very well seasoned, and had way more experience then normal kids from having to fend for themselves on the street. They were all so happy to be involved with a program like this.
It was a ultra-competititve, super athletic bunch.
We spent almost two days in their community, and got to know each kid. They had some great questions for us when we finally did our demonstration, and we had their total attention.
We feel that kids like this have even more opportunity to excel in life. They know what it is like to grow up and have nothing. Now they have been given this amazing opportunity, and I didn’t get the feeling that any of them were taking advanatage of it. It seems like kids like this can really funnel the problems they’ve had in life, and turn it into super positve motivation. That is what we saw at this school, and the project was a good way to show them some alternative ways of thinking.
We picked Seth’s brother up at the airport and drove straight to the Isla Ometepe on Lake Nicaragua to visit the Si La Vida school.
We had to load Baby on this little Banana boat to get her out there. It was a bit of a mission. The isla Ometepe is the highest altitude island in the world. We slashed and burned the lonely planet rumor that fresh water sharks exist in this lake. The locals concur that there is no such thing.
Sorry the digital images for these schools bit the dust….bummer.
Seth woke up really really sick this morning (it took us 4 more days to figure out he had Malaria).
Our first presentation was in the morning at Central America University, (UCA). It was a big wake-up call talking in front of hundreds of college level students in Spanish. Much more overwhelming then we are used to with all of other presentations. We really stick together in these presentations, and pass it back and forth to get it done. All these kids were Environment, Sciences and Technology students, and they had very good questions for us. It was great to be able to demonstrate for them something that they hadn’t ever seen, but most had studied.
It was great to work with Lizzet Gonzalez and Benjamin East from the US Embassy. They formulated a full college level curriculum in Spanish that went with our presentation. It was Brilliant.
Our next presentation was at the Instituto Nacional Tecnológico CECNA. This was an all male technical school teaching 16-19 year old specific trades. We had a great group at this, and they were all psyched. We demonstrated the availability of jobs in the up and coming petroleum free world.