Gasping for Air (ruins at Pisac, Peru)

We walked down to Pisac from the ruins above the city, with the sun warming the thin mountain air. The smell of juniper rose up, mingling with golden wheat grass and sweet wild flowers.

View overlooking the Inka citadel at Pisac

Inka terraces

View down the Sacred Valley from just above the modern village of Pisac

The Real Capital of Corn (Sorry, Iowa)

Touchdown in South America (Cuzco, Peru)

Is it the altitude or am I seeing colors?

The crowning variety, Choclo (otherwise known as Giant White Corn)

Look at those pearly whites!

Sunset on Bastimentos (Bocas del Toro, Panama)

Zapatilla Keys, Panama

Crabby McCrabby Pants (Bocas del Toro, Panama)

The beach looked innocent enough...

But as soon as we were sitting silently on the beach, these little yellow crustacean friends popped out of holes all around us.

Life´s a beach.

Hey, no eating sand.

Borders (it´s not just a book store anymore)

Hola compañeros! We wanted to give you a taste (or smell rather) of two recent border crossings. These were not any ordinary ´stamp the passport and move along´ affairs. After our trip down the Rio San Juan, in Nicaragua we headed south through Costa Rica on our way to visit our Guaymi friends in Bocas del Toro, Panama.
Our first crossing of the journey was a water route via the Rio Frio which flows from the mountains of northern Costa Rica into Lake Cocibolca (aka Lake Nicaragua). After passing through immigration on a dock in San Carlos, Nicaragua, we boarded the lancha out back for the hour journey up the river to CR. Along the way, we watched herons and various other water birds while the occasional crew of howler monkeys suspiciously watched us.
Two days later, we passed into Panama amongst the banana plantations of the Carribean coast. The crossing here involves negotiating an old quarter mile trellised railroad bridge that we can only imagine was built to shuttle loads of freshly cut green bananas to the United Fruit Co.´s docks on the Panamanian side. In any case, the walk along the bridge made for some fun ´Stand By Me´ jokes. Thankfully no train came through.

Our lancha driver gives us a briefing before setting off (just kidding!)

Leaving Nicaraguan shores in San Carlos, headed to Costa Rica

Traffic $%#!

Crossing into Panama

Rio San Juan

Last week we started our trip south from Esteli, Nicaragua, where we´d been living for two months. Though we were sad to leave the friends we made, we enjoyed the week of Semana Santa, Central America´s spring break, on the Rio San Juan, before exiting Nicaragua by boat. Here are a few images of this beautiful region. (By the way, this post starts a new and serious effort to post more often on the blog)

One of the numerous rain storms that move upriver from it´s outlet in the Carribean to it´s source, Lake Cocibolca.

A view of the Rio San Juan upriver from Refugio Bartola, a laidback hotel.

Stephen paddling down the river Bartola, a tributary to the river San Juan.

El Castillo


Rainbow seen from the top of El Castillo, looking down river.