Beaches and canyons in Uvita!

At our next stop we were hoping to be lucky seeing the Humpback Whales, but unfortunately we were a little late and the season had just ended. There were still things to do and new places to see :)

Uvita is well known for having a beach that looks like the tail of a whale at low tide. This picture is taken from the tail. Later, when we were walking back, the high tide was coming and this part was getting covered by the ocean.

Along the beach were some shells I had never seen before, and it was natural art!

At the tip of the tail I found a spot to try some more gymnastics. The people below me thought I was crazy to try something like that!

The next day we decided to visit Playa Ballena. When we got there we were suggested to visit Playa Arco while it still was low tide. We walked the long beach and a short trail through a forest.

When we got out of the forest this beautiful and lonely beach was waiting for us!

There are rocky cliffs surrounding the beach, and also there is a cave to pass through during the low tide.

On our way back the high tide was on it's way, so we had to walk on the rocks to get back.

Since the season for the whales was over we had to find something else to do. A quick search on the web and we found something that looked really cool, Costa Canyoining. I asked my mother if she wanted to go canyoning, and explained that we would rapell and jump down waterfalls! "That sounds like fun" she said, and of course she wanted to join. We started out by jumping the first waterfall :)

My mother was the first to start rapelling the second waterfall. Our guide asked me if I wanted to jump this watefall as well. It looked like a nice challenge, so I said "why not?". Afterwards they told me that I was the only one who had jumped the waterfall except the guides.

It was also possible to do some gymnastics in the pool of this waterfall :)

This was an amazing Christmas gift from my family! Thank you so much!

Relaxing at the beach in San Juan del Sur!

When arriving San Juan del Sur we found a hotel just a few blocks from the beach. This is the road to the beach.

On the way to the beach I saw a nice little house with a matching car outside ;)

My mother got her first taste of the Pacific coast of Central America!

San Juan del Sur also has a little top with a statue of El Cristo de la Misericordia that is 26 meters tall.

Along the beach are restaurants side by side. We found a nice place to eat a tasty lunch with a relaxing view of the beach ;)

After lunch we stayed at the beach to swim and relax until sunset!

For the sunset we found a bar with some seats on the beach. Of course we had to try out some new drinks :)

They had happy hour, 2 for 1, so why not try some more different drinks?

The sun was just so big and round that evening!

After the sunset we went back to the hotel to freshen up and get ready for dinner. I did not bring my camera for dinner, but we had an amazing dinner with entertainment. The restaurant had a cultural nicaraguan night where we got to hear live music and watch traditional nicaraguan dances.

Hiking on Isla de Ometepe in Nicaragua :D

For my mothers stay we are planning to travel around as much as we can! Since Troels needed a new stamp in his passport, and I want to see as much of the world as I can, we decided to make a trip to Nicaragua. We took a bus from San José to Rivas in Nicaragua. This was an 8 hour bus ride, but the bus was comfortable and it almost felt like a flight. We got a taxi to San Jorge where we cought the ferry over Lago Nicaragua for Isla de Ometepe! Isla de Ometepe has two volcanoes, Volcán Concepción and Volcán Maderas.

We arrived Isla de Ometepe when it was dark so we just found a hostel to stay at for the night. Plans were made for our stay on the island, and the next morning we went to Charco Verde, a lagoon in the middle of the two volcanoes. From the lagoon you can see Volcán Concepción.

While walking around the lagoon there is a little trail leading to a beach where we could swim in the lake. Here we could also get a view of Volcán Maderas.

Continuing around the lagoon there was a viewpoint where we could get a view of the lagoon form higher grounds.

After our hike around the laggon we cought a bus for Moyogalpa, a city further north on the island.

This was the only city on the island where we could find an ATM. Walking down the street was nice and calm with few tourist. The people here were very kind and would just stop us and ask where we were from, and wish us a nice travel.

We also grabbed some good nicaraguan food here before we jumped on an even more crowded bus back to San José del Sur where we were living.

On the way we would pick up even more people!

So many that people would have to stand outside and hold on to the bus.

When we got back to our hostel we decided to stay in and relax because the next morning we would hike to the top of Volcán Concepción (1610 meters). The bottom of the volcano started out with a hike trough dense forest.

After ascending the first 1000 meters we reached the end of vegetation!

From here we had a great view of the western side of the volcano, and we could see across the lake.

We still had 610 meters to go, but before continuing we had a little rest, ate some cookies and fruit for extra energy up the rocks, and of course I had to do some gymnastics!

The last part was really challenging, steep and rocky. If we stepped wrong on a lose rock it would roll down and everybody behind would have to jump to the side. On the trip up we met another group hiking, and we ended up hiking together with them. We were a few that got separated from the guides, and at a point we had no idea where it was safe to ascent. Luckily there was another guide that cought up with us and followed us to the top. Finally we made it to the top!

It was a tough hike, but it was totally worth it! We got an amazing and unique experience and we met some great people from the other group that I ended up meeting again in San José (Costa Rica) at a later time.

More surf, different beach!

Troels was invited by his danish friend living in Costa Rica to go to Tamarindo, and since we had the week off before our first performance with Tempos, surf and relax on the beach would be the best warm up ;) In addition to the two danish guys already in Costa Rica Troels got a visit from another danish friend, so I was going to travel with 3 danish guys :)

Because of two different online bus schedules we arrived the bus station 3 hours before the bus was leaving. During our wait I showed our new danish guy, Martin, downtown San José. Obviously they started to celebrate the new year and they had a parade with a lot of their traditional carretas.

After several hours on a not so comfortable bus we finally arrived Tamarindo to see the sunset!

There were more people on the beach to watch the sunset :)

Christian is living in Costa Rica and he loves to go to the beach and surf. Every morning we would walk to another beach he knew, Playa Langosta, which was better to surf and with less people.

The first morning we got up to surf at about 6am! It was soo early, but soo worth it. When we were warming up on the beach we saw a huge whale jumping up from the water!!

There were a few good waves to practice my surfing ;)

When there were no waves we would just have fun in the water...

...or practice sitting on the board waiting for the waves :p

In the evenings we would make a bon fire on the beach and enjoy the sunset ;)

It was amazing, and to give you a sense of what I'm experiencing I made this time lapse.

Surf's up in Santa Teresa!!

After 3 days with gymnastics in Palmares Troels and I decided we wanted to relax at the beach. We drove to Puntarenas to catch the ferry for the Nicoya peninsula, and continued to Santa Teresa! 

Santa Teresa is newly known for its white-sand beaches and world class surf ;) Our first day we walked kilometers of the white beach from Playa Carmen all the way up Playa Santa Teresa, and it was so nice and relaxed!

Of course we had to do some gymnastics on the beach. Further up you find Playa Hermosa and Playa Manzanillo!

After a long walk we found a perfect spot to hang up my hammock and rest at the beach :)

Most of the days were spent on the beach relaxing and surfing, so we didn't bring valuables. That's why we don't have too many pictures from this trip. Never the less we met with some locals who invited us to dinner and a party. It was lots of fun, and the next day they invited us to Montezuma!! We walked into a jungle and found a nice waterhole where we could swing and jump. At the edge there was a waterfall where we could jump off and into the next waterhole 16 meters down!! :D Thank you so much Raquel and Berneth for taking us here!!

After some amazing days at the beach we had to return to San Jóse where a performance and a workshop was awaiting. On the ferry going to Santa Teresa I tried to do the plank, but the captain blew the horn. Going back I tried again, and a bit more discreet ;)

¡Vamos a la playa!

Some amazing days in Bocas del Toro :D

When Troels headed back to San Jóse I continued my trip and went to Bocas del Toro in Panama. I did not want to take my chance crossing the border with my motorcycle or parking it somewhere near, so I parked it at Marloes' and got a shuttle from Puerto Viejo to Bocas del Toro. A mini van took us to the border where we had to walk across this bridge to enter Panama.

When we got over to Panama there was another mini van waiting to take us to the water taxi for Bocas del Toro. When we arrived on Isla Colon, which is the main island of Bocas del Toro, I must say I was a bit surprised. After all the rumors I had heard about the place I was expecting just beaches and loads of tourists. Instead I got there for the low season and on the main island the coast is filled with houses.

I started out trying to find a place to stay for the 3 nights I was planning to be in Bocas. There are loads of hotels and hostels around, and while walking down the street people would just shout at me and telling me where I should stay. I had brought my own hammock so I just needed a hostel where I could hang it up. Coconut Hostel was the spot, and here is the view from my "room" ;)

After hanging up my hammock and dropping off my luggage I went for a little adventure over to the closest island. I cought a water taxi for $1 and just started walking. It was actually a long walk to find a beach, but I did find it :) A nice and calm beach with a nice reef break where people were surfing the nice waves.

When I was walking back from the beach I meet some of the people I took the shuttle with, and I joined them. Back on the main island we searched for a tour for the next morning. We wanted to go on a boat and see different spots on the different islands. We quickly found Captain Willy who was a nice guy, and had a good tour for us. So the next morning we went with Captain Willy on his boat. The first stop was Dolphine Bay :D There's supposed to be about 400 dolphines in the bay, and some of them came up to greet us!

And show off some of their tricks ;)

We drove the boat in circles and the dolphines would play in the waves we made. It was such an amazing experience!! I just wish I could jump in and swim with the dolphines, maybe some other time!

Next stop was Crawl Cay where we had time to eat lunch and snorkle around :) The water was so clear, and there was so much life under water! I could have stayed snorkeling the whole day, but our next stop was the islands in the background, Isla Zapatillas, which I have heard are unbelievable pretty.

And just as I heard they were like paradise!! So calm, so pretty, so clear and warm water. I would just bring my hammock and live there!!!

And there's always time for some gymnastics ;)

 Unfortunately I wasn't allowed to stay on the island, so we headed back to the main island for the evening. I had a little walk to look what they had around. This is their main street which by night gets crowded by people ready for a party.

I spent a lot of time with a couple from Germany, and we checked out what offers we could get for scuba diving the next day! As a perfect dinner for this day I tried my first lobster. It was a challeng trying to figure out how to eat it, but it was so delicious!

The next morning we decided to go to Playa Bluff on the main island before we would head out scuba diving.

Now I started to believe the rumors I had heard about all the perfect beaches they have here, and still there are so many I didn't even have time to see! I also had a funny experience in the taxi on the way to the beach. When I sat down in the taxi I could here the girls that were sitting there talking swedish. So I started talking to them, and believe it or not the one girl had a sister who went to Ollerup! As if that's not enough, she went there with Maja and Jorge who owns the club I'm teaching at in San Jóse!!

It's impossible to describe how much I am enjoying travelling around!!