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Costa Rica is said to be a great country for adrenaline junkies. We’ve had a few adrenaline rushes since we got to Costa Rica, and not all of them have been pleasant. The first one was during our border crossing from Nicaragua into Costa Rica. A few days before we crossed, we read about a guy who had overstayed his vehicle permit in Peru by one day - and the border officials impounded his motorcycle. He was in a mess trying to get it back; red tape, fines, lawyers, etc. I sa

The coast north and south of San Juan del Sur is undeveloped, wild and beautiful. Tiny villages spread out from the beaches, with cattle, pigs and chickens roaming the dirt roads. The town of San Juan del Sur has grown up from a small fishing village to ground zero for Nicaraguan surfing. It is has Victorian clapboard houses, a few decent restaurants and a steady stream of young international visitors. A cruise port is getting built on the edge of the crescent beach here so w

Like much of Central America, Nicaragua has a complicated history with the U.S. Most of us may remember the Iran Contra affair - the 1986 scandal in which the Reagan administration illegally sold weapons to Iran in order to fund the Nicaraguan soldiers trained by the U.S. to overthrow the Sandinista government under Daniel Ortega. I was in graduate school in the late 90’s, earning a Master’s degree in public policy, and Central America factored prominently in our foreign poli

Paula and I entered El Salvador on Saturday, July 18th. We had a smooth border crossing with our friends Janice and Gregor, and were thankful they advised us to take a less busy crossing with them on the CA 8 instead of the busy PanAmerican crossing. Our rigs at the border entering El Salvador...a little underwhelming which was just fine for us. Janice and Gregor were checked inside and out. Our guy only looked at our VIN. There is no rhyme or reason at these borders. And we

As in Antigua, volcanoes surround us in Lake Atitlan. The lake is set in a gigantic bowl of deep blue water, with little villages dotting the coastline. At night we fell asleep to the twinkling lights of these villages. The middle of the night often brought light shows put on by electrical storms shooting around in the clouds. The volcanoes seem to stand sentry around the lake; their lightening bolts warding off evil spirits. We felt protected and safe here, right on the wate

From our little house in Tulum, we moved at a faster pace the next couple of weeks, covering lots of ground. First, we headed for the ruins of Chichen Itza. Another very old pile of rocks but this one has been named one of the New 7 Wonders of the World, so we had to go. This time though, we hired a guide. The conversation of how many ruins to visit on this trip seems to fall into two camps. The, “I don’t want to miss any” and “I’m done after half an hour”. Most of the overl

Productivity, Relaxation, Yoga, Kiting, Reality vs Expectations. Basically, me....rambling. When we have the interweb, I love it with my whole heart. I love being informed with up to the minute updates on the markets and news and stock prices. I drink it in with the satisfaction of, of well, being up to date. Other than checking in with the finances and emails, I am really wasting a whole lot of time under the guise (my guise) that I am doing something productive or worthwhi

We found ourselves on a quiet road heading up a volcano on the way to Oaxaca. By the time we hit this particular road, we have been driving in Mexico for close to 4 months and every arrival feels like cause for celebration. The toll roads stop us every 30 or 40 kms for more pesos and the free roads through towns slow us every 3 or 4 kms because of the topes (speed bumps). The forks in the road all seem to have the same (or no) highway numbers to cities that are unpronounceabl

We left LoJo at the campground in Teotihuacan, and headed into Mexico City by bus and the surprisingly efficient Metro system. This is the second largest city in the world with over 20 million people, but it was a relatively easy journey in on public transit. Ben and Emma decided to go the same time as us, so the four of us rented an apartment in the trendy Roma neighborhood to experience Mexico City as locals…with the help of Anthony Bourdain. For those who don’t know Anthon

From San Miguel de Allende we headed about 4 hours south to witness the phenomenon of the monarch butterfly migration in the eastern-most corner of Michoacán. Every fall, millions of monarch butterflies flock to the Sierra Madre mountains for their winter hibernation, having flown all the way from the Great Lakes region of the US and Canada. These Monarch butterflies use the very same trees each and every year when they migrate, which is weird because they aren’t the same bu