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John has a friend, Sam, who owns a home down here on the central coast of Costa Rica, close to Uvita. Before we left the States we had lunch with Sam in L.A., and told him it would be great to meet down here if the timing worked. Once we got close to crossing the border, we emailed Sam and told him we would probaby be here in October. Sam said October is the ONE month he never comes to Costa Rica. October is the hottest and most humid month, with the most rain. And here we ar

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

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

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 came to Puerto Escondido on a bit of a mission. Before we left home a friend of ours in Petaluma, Michael "Bug" Deacon, asked us if we would deliver a book he had written to a friend of his down here. The friend, Dan Clemons, owns a little hotel on Zicatela Beach in Puerto Escondido called Hotel Casa Dan, and he's been down here for 25 years. It is a cute, cheap & chill place. We decided to check in for a few days. It was long and roundabout delivery, but the book made it

We haven't moved much in the last two weeks. Although we planned on spending an extended period of time in Sayulita, there wasn't any camping available when we rolled into town. So we turned around and headed back up the coast to a sleepy little town called Lo de Marcos. There are a surprising number of RV parks there, so we picked the last one at the end of a road called La Parota, and moved in. It's full of retirees down here (mostly Canadians), as there were in Baja. They

We ended up spending most of our time on the East Cape in Los Frailes. We met a couple, Monica and Jeff, in Los Barriles and caravanned there with them. We had met before at the Overland Expo in Flagstaff, AZ last May. It really is a very small overlanding world we are discovering. Los Frailes is a long sandy beach with a small fishing camp on one end, and a row of palapas on the other. As soon as we turned off the road, we passed lots of big RV’s camped in the bushes of the

Life on the road is all about balance. It is for us anyway. Busy town life needs to be balanced with nature. Roughing it complimented by a little comfort. That's how we rationalized our next stop anyway. After we left Todos Santos, we rolled into Cabo San Lucas for a quick stop at Walmart for supplies. Then we saw all those nice hotels on the beach, and well…we checked in. We both had rumbling stomachs; and the call of a really good shower was just too strong. Plus, it was

(by paula. photos by John) Today marks one month on the road for us. It seems like we just left; yet we have seen so much. After Playa Coco, we spent 3 nights in Loreto at the Riviera Del Mar campground. It was a perfect place in town to camp. I had been on a kayaking trip out of Loreto 15 years ago and while it has grown, it is still a quaint overgrown fishing town with good restaurants and a clean, pretty waterfront. We did laundry, shopped for groceries and spent practical