Before making our way back to Canada we had a couple days to soak in the sun and rich history of Cartagena, both of which are nearly impossible to hide from.  Our days here were some of the hottest in our entire trip, with the sun constantly beating down on us as we explored the city.  Shade is definitely a premium here, with locals and tourists alike hopping from one sheltered sanctuary to the next.

Like in many of the cities we've visited, we quickly grew tired of the pushy street vendors hocking their wares (especially wide-brimmed hats for hiding from the sun), but were pleasantly surprised to find a clean, colourful and overall attractive city.  Although we stayed in a hostel in the touristy area around Calle Media Luna (half-moon street), we spent most of our time exploring inside the old city walls.

One of the first things that we noticed about Cartagena was its history: completely surrounded by walls, the old city's narrow streets and scattered plazas are packed with colonial buildings and statues.  Most of the attractions are within these walls, though some incredible views can be found if you're willing to brave the direct sunlight (and the hat vendors) and walk around atop the cannon-lined walls.  

Loving Colombia so far!  We arrived in Bogotá after a 16 hour journey, flying from Buenos Aires through Lima (and staying overnight in the airport).  We landed fairly early in the day and were settled into Hostel Sue Candeleria in the La Candelaria district (the more touristy and unfortunately more sketchy area).  It was federal election day and the day after Colombia's first World Cup win (and subsequent celebratory rioting) so Bogotá was a bit rowdy. We asked a couple of military guys at the airport if it was safe to hang out in Bogotá during the election and how things were going, and they just said “todo tranquilo, hay muchas policías en las calles, esta muy seguro” (everything is good, there are many police in the streets, it is very safe) – that sounded pretty good so we decided to go for a little walk around.  

We intended to try and get to Plaza Bolívar (the main square) but never made it that far because the police had put up barricades, likely to stop people from gathering in crowds. We just wandered around La Museo de Oro (the Gold Museum) listening to the street music, watching the vendors selling all kinds of delicious fried or sugar-coated snacks and, of course, giving trying some of them a try. I had a version of the delicious Alfajor from Argentina (Argentina's version is a bazillion times better) – this one was just some plain crispy wafers with a bunch of dulce de leche (thick caramel sauce) in between, mmmmm.  I had eaten most of it but had maybe three or four bites left when a happy looking (possibly homeless) guy asked me for some money.  Instead, I gave him the rest and he happily thanked me and wandered away, dancing and singing.  Things seemed OK in the streets; there were several police and military people just hanging around and patrolling everywhere, with their massive guns at their sides.  While some people may find that comforting, I found it unnerving.  

Our last stop in Argentina before heading to the highly anticipated Colombia was Buenos Aires.  We grabbed a colectivo from San Marcos Sierra to Córdoba and then a night bus to Buenos Aires.  The bus was amazing  - everyone basically had their own lazyboy chair, they played movies (though we listened to our Mysterious Universe podcast and an audiobook), served food and had blankets and pillows.  Not too bad.  We arrived in Buenos Aires in the morning and settled into our new home at Che Argentina Hostel in the San Telmo district.  The reception guy at the hostel was very friendly and told us about places we should check out while we’re there.  He advised that most places nearby were safe enough to walk around during the day, but that we should be very careful if carrying anything at all, like a camera.  We took the advice but didn’t have that feeling at all while we were out.  We took tons of photos and talked to people in the streets as they walked by.  The people in Argentina are very open and friendly.  We never had a sketchy vibe at all, but only later did we find out that Buenos Aires actually has one of the worst reputations for muggings in South America.  Makes sense when you think about the messed up economy, I suppose. 

As we’ve stressed many times before (with such claims as “La Paz Sucks”), we’re not city people, and so weren’t really looking forward to passing through Santiago.  In this case, however, we were pleasantly surprised!  I’m not saying we loved it, but we did spend a couple enjoyable days walking around the relatively clean and attractive city, wandering the parks and admiring the colourful street murals.

For me, the most enjoyable part by far was our afternoon at the huge and attraction-packed Metropolitan Park, located on atop a forested hill overlooking the city.  One of the largest urban parks in the world, within its over 700 hectares it contains multiple botanical gardens, a zoo, a religious sanctuary, and by far the best part, a long funicular saving you from the hour or more uphill walk.  Just what is a funicular, you ask?  Well, it’s something between an elevator and a trolley, using cables to pull cars along tracks up the side of a hill.  Why the absurd name, you ask?  Well, it’s because FUN + SPECTACULAR = FUNICULAR!!  Wouldn’t that make “funacular" or “funtacular”, you ask?  Well, why don’t you just shut up!

After our amazing ride up, we decided to make our way over to the botanical gardens in order to appease our nature cravings.  From atop the hill were some great views of the city skyline, and because we were lucky enough to be there on a relatively smog-free day we could actually see across the valley to the mountains behind (kind of).  Being located in a valley as it is, air pollution is a huge problem in Santiago.  We were both pretty disturbed by the brownish hue looming over the city, and to think that this was a good day is pretty disturbing.  While admiring the view at a lookout, we ran into Eleanor, a technical writer from Seattle who’s been solo-traveling her way through Chile.  We ended up hanging out with her for a few hours, sharing travel-stories and getting some great advice for our upcoming trip to Patagonia.  In the late afternoon we parted ways so Chelsea and I could make it to opera.  Yeah, we do stuff like go to the opera, because we’re fancy people.

After a couple days in Santiago, we were ready to move on to the much more highly-anticipated Valparaiso, a port city about an hour bus ride from Santiago.  A beautiful and hilly city made up of arsty-fartsy bohemian-types and sketchy port-workers, Valparaiso took all the things we liked about Santiago and somehow made them ten zillion times better; where Santiago has one funicular, for example, Valparaiso has FIFTEEN.  Booya!  We stayed in the cafe-packed neighbourhood atop Cerro Alegre (happy hill), and from the minute we arrived we were amazed by just how picturesque the city really is.  From atop the hill, everywhere we looked was packed full of colourful buildings, elaborate graffiti and murals, and it was almost impossible to walk anywhere without stopping every few steps to take another photo.

As luck would have it, our new friend Eleanor was staying at an hospedaje just down the street from us, so we met up with her the next day to explore.  In search of fun-icular times, we decided to try and tackle as many of the badboys as we could, an interesting goal that promised some scenic views of the city. We reviewed our maps, put together a rough route and hit the road with a skip in our steps.  Things quickly ground to a halt, however, when we reached the top of our first funicular, ascensor San Augustín, and were warned by the operator that it wasn't safe to leave the tiny building.  Apparently we were about to stroll into the sketchy neighbourhood atop Cerro Cordillera, where walking around as tourists with our day packs and cameras would surely get us mugged.  We asked if it was safe to at least pop our heads out for a look, but were warned that someone may catch a glimpse of us and end up following us down!  WTF?!  This caught us completely off guard, since we'd already walked around Cerro Alegre and the downtown core the previous night and felt completely comfortable.  To be safe, though, we resignedly rode back down and modified our plans.

Valparaiso is an awesome city to explore by foot (avoiding the sketchy parts...), guaranteed to bring out the photographer in anyone.  We wandered the streets taking in the breathtaking coastal views and admiring the variety of colourful graffiti, ranging from small but detailed characters to multi-storey murals on the sides of apartment buildings.  We wandered all over town, checked out the large cemetery overlooking the city (Eleanor seems to be fascinated by monuments to dead people), stopped for a delicious fish almuerzo (an affordable two or three-course lunch typical in Chile), and managed to ride four of the fun-tacular elevators (last time, I promise).  We wrapped up the day at our hostel, sharing some of Chelsea’s home-cooked Thai curry, a couple bottles of delicious Chilean wine, and an action-packed Jenga tournament.  Thanks, Eleanor, for the awesome day!

After stumbling on countless teenagers rolling and smoking doobies in the many secluded stairways and alleys on the previous day’s wanderings, temptation kicked in and we managed to score some of the good stuff from one of the guys working reception at our hostel. Needless to say, our second day in Valparaiso consisted of much more bein’ chili, relaxing, listening to music, watching movies... when in Rome!  

Our next stop is Puerto Montt, where we hope to rent a car and spend a couple weeks exploring Patagonia!  

Until then, keep eating your beans!
~Mandrew

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It started out as a very high fever.  I thought I was going to freeze to death but the thermometer said I was nearly 104°F.  In the middle of the night on day two of the fever we went to the hospital.  There were two nurses telling jokes to each other in the corner who were visibly annoyed that we showed up.  They woke up the pharmacist who took some blood, told us that I didn’t have dengue and sent us home.  No investigation into what it would have been. Just told us to go away.  Later we found out that you can’t test positive for Dengue until after 6 days of fever. 

The next day I went to a different pharmacist down the street from our hostel and asked for antibiotics because I thought maybe I had an infection or something.  They gave them to me without question or explanation of any side effects or anything.  I later found out that you can get as much of anything you want from any pharmacy here – for example a guy from our Spanish classes bought 20 or more vicodin, valium, oxycotin and some other mystery drugs that are apparently stronger than all of those.  He bought them all at once and took most of them in one day.  Apparently this is one reason that a lot of people come to Montañita.

The doctor recommended that I return for monitoring in a few days, however when we did return, no one there could find any record of me ever being there so after A LOT of persuasion we got them to run some new tests that we took with us and emailed to our health insurance providers in Canada. Luckily google gave us the heads up on my symptoms and nothing suggested the dangerous type of dengue (the one where you haemorrhage and your insides turn to mush) so I just had to wait it out. 

After 12 days of fever between 101-104°F I finally awoke without a fever.  For the next three days I had random full body hive flare-ups which google alerted us was normal for the recovery stage of Dengue.  It took another few days before I was able to eat a full meal again and about two weeks before the nausea finally left (now). 

Unfortunately my opinion of Montañita is not too good, likely in part based on the fact that I felt like crap the whole time we were there.  However I did manage to attend 20 hours of Spanish lessons at Montañita Spanish School, which were very good, and we did a couple of smaller day excursions as well.  I just had to get out of the hostel we were staying in.  

I can’t blame any of you for not knowing the proper way to celebrate New Year’s Eve, because until just a few days ago we too were in the dark.  But, now having lived through the festivities in Guayaquil, Ecuador’s biggest city, we feel we must share with you what is clearly the correct way to go about it.  Follow these five simple steps, and we're sure you, too, will agree.

¡Prospero Año!
Mandrew & Chelsea

As one would imagine, a reasonable amount of work needs to go into getting ready for a serious celebration like this.  On this front, I’m sure we’re all aware of the obvious: stock up on liquor, invite friends over, buy some snacks, etc.  What I will focus on, however, are the things that will transform the event from something like an afternoon tea with your grandmother to, well, something like an Ecuadorian-style New Year’s Eve celebration.  You will need to procure the following:

• Fireworks.  A ridiculous amount of fireworks.  Big ones, small ones, loud ones, bright ones – buy them all.  Buy out the entire store. 
• At least two litres of accelerant, gasoline will do the job.  If you don’t have an approved gas container, have no fear – a plastic soft drink bottle is perfect.
• A paper mache model of your favourite character.  Bonus points if you make your own.  Extra bonus points if it’s really huge or ridiculous.
• A reliable lighter … I think you know where this is going.

Alright, you’ve got everything ready nice and early, why not get out and enjoy the afternoon before the serious stuff starts?  Remember to bring along some dinero so you can buy treats from the many street vendors.  Popular choices are beer or sangria, and if you’re thinking, “but it’s too early to start drinking!” then I recommend you keep your thoughts to yourself.

We have finished another CHAM Studios Original Film.  I have been so excited to finish this one!  This past summer before leaving on our trip I talked Oma into teaching me her secret apple strudel recipe.  It was a lot of work and well worth it!  I have since made it twice and have improved each time.  When I am home I would like to make one for Oma using some tropical ingredients, which is what I've had to do here due to a lack of many of the ingredients in the recipe.  Turns out it works well with almost any fruit (well maybe not banana, yuck).

THANK YOU OMA!!!!

Love,
Chelsea

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Hola, 
Just a very quick note that we have made a couple of updates to our website including a new "Cool Things" tab where we are keeping track of some COOL THINGS!  

On the Video section we've uploaded a couple new films that we made, described below, and you can check out the other pages when you like.

That is all!
-Chelsea

COSTA RICA WITH MARCOS
Marcos Garcia, a local Costa Rican farmer and entrepreneur that we met in Mastatal, Costa Rica, was gracious to show us some of the most beautiful things about Costa Rica.  On a quick afternoon hike and while hanging out on his farm, Siempre Verde, we saw countless birds, lizards and insects.  This video is a summary of what we saw in a very short amount of time!

YOGI'S MURAL
Andrew and Chelsea paint a wall mural at Yogi's Hostel in Moyogalpa, Isle de Ometepe, Nicaragua

Hola amigos!  Buenos nachos?  (mmm nachos...)

 Just wanted to post a few photos from this past week and say hi!  We've been hanging out at Camino del Gigante, a gringo hostel on a surf beach in Nicaragua.  We meant to be here for just a couple of days but it looks like it has already been a week!  And I think we might leave tomorrow if we can get our shiz together. 

Our last few days on Ometepe were pretty cool!  We rented a scooter and spent a day checking out the Island on the brick roads (man that must have been a ton of work!).  And for our last 2 days we painted a wall mural in one of the bedrooms in exchange for a few nights free at the hostel.  We spent 11 hours total on the wall and I think it turned out quite well!  The bottom of it looks a little weird, but we ran out of white paint so we had to do something down there.  And our paint brushes were not the easiest to use, but we made do and had a blast!  Andrew took a bunch of pictures so we could make a time-lapse video (coming shortly!) so it was like a double-whammy art project.

When we decided to leave Ometepe, our friend Devon, who we met there, recommended Playa Gigante for our next stop.  It is near Rivas and is a quiet little town with amazing beaches and surfing!  We arrived by taxi (there are no busses to get here) which stopped in the middle of the town of Gigante.  There are two restaurants (very expensive compared to Ometepe!) and one little corner store.  When we got out of the taxi we saw a sign on a little building beside us that said hostel, so we went over and booked a room since we thought there was only one hostel in town.  The price was good ($15/night) and the room was nice (our own private room with bathroom).  But there was no hang out area, no table or chairs to use, no internet.  All this was ok, since we were mostly going surfing, but it made making food a challenge, and was a bit uncomfortable to hang out at.  Since it is so expensive here and we have all kinds of free time, we thought it would be nice to cook some of our own meals on our camping stove.  So behind our hostel we found a round cable spool to use as a table, and some broken chairs to sit on, and we set up our kitchen in an abandoned shack behind our room.  It was absolutely hilarious, but slightly uncomfortable.   Andrew said he is glad I'm not a "Princess", referring to my willingness to eat badly cooked rice and beans off of a cable spool in an abandoned shack.  But I'm pretty sure if that wasn't ok with it, that wouldn't make me a "Princess", so much as "a rational person"!  Haha, it was all good though, I didn't mind one bit.

After a couple of days we realized that there were no other people staying at our "hostel", and yet there were other backpackers in the area that we saw while surfing and wandering around town.  After talking to a few people (who hadn't even heard of the place we were staying at!) and when we decided to find some internet, we discovered Camino del Gigante, a gringo hostel at the end of the beach, where all the backpackers and locals hang out.  There's a bar, free internet, surfboards, slack lines, free coffee, hammocks, music all the time, comfy tables and chairs, directly on the beach, great food and more!  We immediately went back and packed up all of our things from the first hostel, and moved over to Camino's.  I admit, I feel a little bad about leaving the shack behind like that, but Camino's has been such a game changer!  All of a sudden everything is easier and more enjoyable!  And we got the exact same price as the other hostel.  We still chill with the locals, and go surfing and exploring, and now we have a sweet-ass bar to chill out at when we get back, fresh coffee in the morning and other people to watch and hang with.  A bunch of people that are staying here right now have been here for several months because every time they try to leave they just don't.  And I can totally see why!  Like I said earlier, we meant to leave a few times now but we keep putting it off for "just one more day"!

Surfing has been great!  At first, I was a little weary about it since I haven't done any surfing since Australia (2006) and I wasn't any good back then, so I knew it would be a steep and painful learning curve, again.  The first day was a little difficult for me, getting used to wading through the crashing waves that pull you backward 3 steps every time you take 1 forward, and getting tumbled around in the waves when you fall off the board, sometimes face-planting into the sand if it gets too shallow.  Andrew didn't show it, but I think he might have felt the same way, given a few comments he made after we showered off that day. The second day was much better!  Aside from the bruises and board rash, the waves were less intimidating, and we both actually caught a few decent (by our standard) waves, stood up, and carved a little!  Since then it has been something to look forward to.  We might even go again today since it is potentially our "last day" here, or we might rent a kayack and check out one of the other bays since we haven't done that yet!  Damn, as I write this I am saddened by the idea of leaving   :p


Our next stop will be Leon, Nicaragua.  It is north of here and we will have to take a few busses I think, and maybe a taxi to get there, but it shouldn't be more than a few hours total.  It is a fairly large city with some history and culture for us to learn about.  Also there is another volcano there that we can apparently board down!!!  There are some good nature hikes and outdoorsy things to do nearby, and the hostel we picked out looks really fun.  We hope the internet there is good because Harrison's first birthday is on Sunday and we would love to facetime with him!!!  Aparently he walked a few steps the other day!  And I thought he said "hello" to me a few days ago, and then I realized it was just Kim being a ventriloquist which is easy to do over facetime     :)   
We miss the little guy!!!  And Everyone else at home!  Any time any of you wants to come down, let us know!!!   We will find the best spot to hang, just get a place ticket, we will do the rest!   :D 

Love ya's!
-Chelsea 

Last batch of Isla de Ometepe photos

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Playa Gigante photos

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