Central America - Costa Rica

Hello year 2, 

Well this will be my last blog update from here in Central America, as Costa Rica  is our last country in this part of the world.

We left our guest house, in Nicaragua, at 5am in the morning to start our journey over to Costa Rica. We didn't realise how many modes of transport it would take to get us to our next destination.

Are you ready for this year 2? It took a whopping 13hrs of travelling in
1 ferry, 4 taxis, 3 buses. That's all in one day. Can you imagine doing that? It all went very smoothly and although we were tired we were happy to have arrived in Costa Rica in one piece.

One thing that we did notice over here is that like the rest of Central America, they speak spanish here in Costa Rica, they speak very fast indeed. It is very difficult to understand them so Mrs Maynard's constantly saying to anyone that speaks to her "despacio por favvor" which means slowly please. We are still 6hours behind you in England.

Costa Rica so far has been quite different from the other 3 Central America coutries that we have visited for 2 reasons.

1st - There are a lot more tourists here. It is a very popular holiday destination for people from America
2nd - Costa Rica is famous for it's wonderful forests and wildlife.

The first town we visited was in the north of the country and it was well known for being high up in the clouds and sometimes a little bit chilly, unlike the rest of costa Rica which is very sunny and hot.

Mrs Maynard and Tim did a very exciting activity called Ziplining. It was very high up as you whizzed between two different valleys. I wasn't able to join in on this activity though as I was a little too short. Mrs Maynard and Tim told me all about it and showed me their pictures.



Mrs Maynard explained to me that you have to wear a special harness that clips on to a wire, when you are ready, you sit down into the harness and away you go zipping across the valleys. 

The scariest line was called the Superman. This was different as instead of sitting down the harness was attached to you back, your legs tied up and you flew across the valley head first arms stretched out just like superman when he flys.

Here is a picture of the valley they went across.

This was the longest line and was 1,000 metres long. Mrs Maynard said she really enjoyed this as it was just like being a bird soaring high up in the air she was that high up.


The rest of our time here was spent visiting national parks and seeing the weird and wonderful wildlife they have. Here are some that we saw....
 

The spiders are HUGE and quite scary.

This yellow snake is poisonous so we had to stand back and take this picture.

Most of the animals were out in their natural environment but we did visit a special centre that rescues hurt, injured or very young babies who have lost their mummies.

My favorite along with Mrs M and Tim are the sloth bears. They are such wonderful creatures and nothing like we have in England. Don't you think they  look like they are smiling?

Here we saw a "Howler Monkey" called Goldie, who was only 1 year old and had been rescued. 

A very colourful parrott

A little gheko (lizard)

 A Toucan Bird 

 A Racoon

Costa Rica has some beautiful white long beaches. We didn't make any sand castles but I wonder how many it would take to fill the whole beach. What do you think?

We heard that on this beach it was very good for surfing so we hired some boards one morning for a little try.

Mrs Mayunard and Tim have done it a few times once in Australia and a couple of times in Devon and Cormwall.

Have any of you tried surfing or at least body boarding before? It always looks easier that it actually is.

I have to say when Mrs Maynard came out the water she looked like she had been put through the washing machine backwards. She was walking all wobbly, had lost her hair bands so her hair was all over the place and she told us she felt as though she had drunk half the sea-yuck!
The waves were a lot bigger than both her and Tim  were used to so had some fantastic wipe outs.

I'm glad to say that they both managed to stand up even for a few seconds. This with Mrs Maynard usually came with a joyous scream before she fell of sideways into the water legs and arms flying everywhere. She wasn't very lady like at all.

Tomorrow we leave Central America as we fly over to Cuba which is our very last country. We only have 2.5weeks there before our big adventure is over and we return to England.

We are all very much looking toward to Cuba for it's music and culture.

Look much forward to telling you all about it soon.

Buster

Central America - Nicaragua

Well we are half way through our Central America adventure. In total we will be visiting 4 countries here. We have been to 2 so far so are half way through.

Nicaragua again is quite like El Salvador and Honduras with the way of life, language, transport, and scenery.

While we were staying in one hostel Mrs Maynard met a girl called Ana who was from Spain. Mrs Maynard noticed that she was signing to somebody else in the hostel and realised that she was deaf. 


Mrs Maynard and Ana soon got chatting and Ana taught her and Tim all the signs for Central  America. Mrs Maynard has remembered them so she can come and show you when she gets back from her trip.

We also met a very nice young man called David on a bus to a new town called Granada. He spoke very good English as he taught it to children between the age of 12-13 years.
He was very kind and said that he would show us all around his town. It was so nice having a local person showing us around and telling us all about the area.

One shop we can across sold only hammocks.


Everyone there were really friendly, happy and very chatty. They showed us how they made the hammocks, what materials and threads they used. They had all different sizes and colours for sale.

Look there was even a hammock just the right size for me. I thought this was totally cool. A bear sized hammock. Perfect!

They even had a hammock that held 17 people, Yes that's right a whopping 17 adults would fit in here.

We think that it would be a great challenge to see if we could have fit the whole of Year 2 in here all in one go. What do you think? Mrs Maynard said there would be lots and lots of laughing and giggling going on.

Here is Mrs Maynard and Tim in it. Don't you think because the hammock is so big it makes them look tiny.

In the evening David took us out for some traditional Nicaraguan style food from a local market.

One thing that we did do which I know for a fact ALL of you would have enjoyed was we went to see how they make chocolate. In Nicaragua, like the rest of Central America, grow a lot of coffee bushes but also grow cocoa plants that produce cocoa beans that eventually turn into chocolate.

We all learnt a lot about this and got to make chocolate milk and our own chocolate bar at the end. Let me tell you it was yumm!


The stages that we went through to make chocolate milk drink were

1. The cocoa pod is plucked from the tree

2. The pod is broken open and the large seeds are removed. They are all sticky and covered in a white slimy gunk, that you can eat (it tastes yummy)

3. The seeds are left to dry out in the sun for 3 days, so that the slimey sweet gunk gets absorbed into the seed

4. Once the seeds are dry, the are then ready for roasting. The seeds are heated in a large clay pot until they crackle like popcorn being cooked. This only takes a few minutes.

5. The seeds then have their shells removed to reveal the inner raw bitter chocolate bean.

6. The bean is then crushed, by hand, for a very long time, until it turns into a paste. 

7. The paste is then mixed with warm milk, vanilla, cinamon and honey to make a delicious milk drink. 

8. Here i am with my finished chocolate bar. It had to be put into the fridge to cool down before i could eat it. It was yummy !

I hope that you have enjoyed leaning about the process of how to make chocolate. We learnt a lot and will definitly remember this day when we are back home munching on a bar.

Next stop is Costa Rica our 4th Central American country.

Take Care 

Buster

xx

Central America - Honduras

Buenes Dies Year 2

After leaving you in El Salvador we went over to Honduras which is east of EL Salvador. We took a mini bus that took us straight into the country. The 2 countries are so close so it only took 4 hours.

They also speak Spanish over here so Mrs Maynard and Tim's spanish lessons they had are coming in very handy. They are still carrying around a small phrase book with them so if they get stuck they can quickly look up a word.

We are still 6 hours behind you in England.

Honduras is similar to El Salvador with the streets, markets, and landscape. We are getting from town to town by local buses. They are a little different from the buses we get in England. Mrs Maynard said that at Trumps Green if you go on school trips you go in a bus like this. They are very old and very rickety over here but it is only a few pennies to get around which is good.

We had a very interesting day walking around some important ruins that play a big part in the Honduran history.

We saw some ruins that are VERY old. Back 1,100 years ago, there used to be a whole village that lived in this area. They had houses there, a central area where they used to gather for festivals, to play games or just to see and catch pup with each other.

In those days they didn't have paint or wallpaper like we did to decorate the stone walls so they carved patterns and symbols to make it look nicer and to tell stories.


For some reason and nobody knows why everyone that lived here up and left leaving all their houses behind. Because nobody was living there anyone the whole village became over grown with trees, bushes and plants.

One day 150 years later somebody discovered this hidden secret village and started uncovering all the tress and bushes. It was all a big mystery to them as nobody knew anything about these people or village.

Here I am with Mrs Maynard over looking the area that they played their games and had there parties in.
It's a big area to big covered up by bushes don't you think?

I think it's crazy to think that this whole village went unnoticed for so many years. Do you agree?




























These are some carvings that were made into the stone.

I am so excited to tell you about this next trip as it was one of Mrs Maynard and Tim's favorites adventures so far while being away.

We all wanted to do some horse riding and heard that there was a really nice man called Carlos who who takes you for a horse ride around his land. He shows you and explains all about the fruits that he grows. Perfect we thought. Plus we could stay over night in one of his houses on the land, even better.

Mrs Maynard has done it a few times before but this was Tim's first experience of being on the back of a horse. He was a little nervous to begin with but soon settled in.

The style of horse riding over here is called Western Riding. Which We think is different to the style of horse riding done in England by the way you hold the reins and also sit. Have any of you done horse riding before?

One thing that Mrs Maynard and Tim were a little unsure about is that the only hat you wear over here is a cowboy style hat rather than a sensible riding hat. Luckily we didn't fall off and our heads stayed safe....luckily.






On our first ride we went through fields and along gravel tracks, alongside coffee bushes. The track then took us between open fields which stretched either side into rolling hills. The views were AMAZING.

We were able to do some cantering which was great fun. It was so funny watching Tim bob up and down holding on for dear life as they hurtled down the track.

Carlos took us around his land giving us lots of weird and wonderful fruits that he had just picked and let us try it all. You can't get fruit fresher than just off the tree or bush.

That night we stayed in a very lovely big old house and some of the local people cooked us dinner.
We were all so tried after the days excitement that we were in bed very early that night.

When we woke the next morning our muscles in our legs and backs were all very sore from the previous days riding but we enjoyed it so much that we asked Carlos if we could go out again. He argreed that he would so we got ready jumped on our horses and we were off again.

This ride was a little different because it had rained really heavily during the night and the track we went along the day before turned into a huge mud pit. Some times the horses were up to their knees in puddles and mud slush. they really didn't seem to mind though. Rather them than me!

This is Carlos (on the Left in the Blue shirt) at the gates to Finca (which means House in Spanish)

´This is me with Carlos´s dog, called Chiquita

This track was more through forests and again over huge mountains. Really was quite 'off roading'. Mrs Maynard and I where a little worried that Luna (our horse´s name which means moon in Spanish) would slip and we'd go hurtling down the edge of the mountain. Luna knew what she was doing and we were fine thank goodness. With Tims broken collar bone neither Mrs Maynard or I didn't fancy a broken leg too. What a bunch we would make!

We had heard that over here in Honduras there are some small islands that were really good for scuba diving. Mrs Maynard and Tim enjoyed it when they did it back in Thailand so thought it would be fun to do again.

In our little hut that we had we had loads of geckos all running around on the walls and ceiling. Mrs Maynard said they were very friendly, don't bite and not to be scared if they can close to me. It was cool to see them running over the walls. Well I say cool, Tim wasn't too impressed when sitting on the verandah having some snacks one late afternoon when a cheeky one on the ceiling decided to do a poo. Where did it land. Yeap in his bowl of crisps. GROSS! Mrs Maynard and I laughed....alot!

The diving Mrs Maynard said was really good  they got to see 2 different turtles on both days. Have any of you seen the film "Finding Nemo"? Tim said the turtle character in that is EXACTLY how they are. Really slow moving, seemed to be all chilled and he said that if they had turned round to us and said in a surfer kind of way "Yo man, how's it hanging dude" he wouldn't have been at all surprised. It came soo close to us both days which was very exciting.

Mrs Maynard and Tim also went into some underwater caves which mrs Maynard said was a little scary as she isn't too brave in the dark. Once in and  her eyes had adjusted it was a pretty cool as there were holes in the ceiling meaning that you had rays of sunlight glisten down. She said she  was taking all this in when at the same time Tim and I saw the BIGGEST fish they have seen while diving. It was 2 meters away and his eye level was right at theirs.  Mrs Mayanrd said that she didn't know that screaming under water could be done. It can be trust apparently and loudly! It wasn't bothered by them at all. Just checked them both out then swam away.


Tim and mrs Maynard said they took a moment to recover then swam on out the cave ready and quite happy to see some smaller fish from further away.


Afterwards Mrs Maynard It was a great experience though seeing all the wonderful colours and sizes of so many different fish down there in the sea

The name of our dive boat

Central America - El Salvador

Hola All in Year 2

How are you all?

I hope you liked reading about my day in LA. Fun wasn't it.We are now in El Salvador which in a country in Central America. It is quite a small country and they don't get many tourists or foreign visitors here. We have just spent a wonderful 2 weeks exploring this lovely place. The time difference between here and England is that we are 6hrs behind you. The money is the same as America, dollars or this is the symbol $ it is like our £ sign.

After our mammoth journey here from NZ we stayed in a great hostel called El Robles. This was not only our home for 1 week but also our classroom as this is where we took our Spanish classes for 5 days from 8-12. 

Our classroom was a little different though as it wasn't in a building but under the trees in the garden. It was very pretty as we sat and learnt this new language in the shade with a small breeze blowing around us.

Our "Outside" Classroom

Here we are with our teacher Hannibal, they pronounce Annival. He was a really good teacher and very patient with Mrs Maynard who struggled a lot. Tim was a bit naughty and laughed a lot when she couldn't get the words right. That's not a nice thing to do is it when someones trying their best. What do you think?

After our daily lessons the rest of the day was spent relaxing in the sunshine, reading in a hammock, splashing around in the small pool or practicing our spanish with the local people that worked and lived in the hostel. 

I made a new friend called Gabi who was the owners niece and was staying at El Robles for her school holiday.  Gabi was 11 years old. She told me all about her school.

The school day over here starts at 7am but finishes at 12.30pm just in time for lunch. She explained that this was because it can get so hot in the middle of the day it is hard to concentrate so starting the day earlier means the air is cooler and they can do more work.

Here I am with Mrs Maynard and Gabi on one early evening as she helped Mrs Maynard do some homework. In return of Spanish lesson Mrs Maynard taught Gabi some BSL.

We were all very sad to leave this little place as we had a great weeks stay here.
 

Here we all our saying goodbye to the lovely family that own the place.

We had a small trip to the next town called Attco. Mrs Maynard was excited about going to this town as she had heard it was a very arty place. Check out the street and shop walls. They are really different and pretty aren't they.

Near this town was a coffee planation and processing factory. This is how and where coffee comes from in the different stages -

1 Hand picked from the bushes.









 

 

2 Depulped, which means taking off the red outer shell by putting it through a machine.

3 The sticky yellow bean is then washed and sits in a bath of water for 2days.

4 The beans are then washed again, separated by size and weight and are laid out to dry on large playground size patio in the sunshine. They are turned every few hours to make sure they dry evenly.

 

5 After the drying process the beans go into another big machines that rotates round like a big tumble dryer and takes the final thin shell off leaving the green coffee bean.

 

6 All the beans are then bagged up.

7 This green bean is then roasted in big ovens and at the end you get the coffe beans like we buy in England.

You can buy coffee in beans so you can crush them yourselves at home or when it is already done for you and all you need to do is add water.
 
Here I am with the final product and like what you see in the supermarkets.

 

Mrs Maynard and Tim then got to taste the coffee. I didn't want to as I prefer milk or orange juice than coffee. We all found this tour very interesting and learnt a lot. 

When we got back to town they had a big local food market or food fiesta in the town square. After all the walking around we decided to grab a snack and try some El Salvadorian tacos. They were really yummy.  In the small bag you see on the side is a chilli sauce. We don't like spice so decided not to pour any on.

On top of the taco was refined beans which is like a kidney bean in a paste form, lettuce, small bits of chicken and grated cheese a little bit like goats cheese. It was very yummy indeed.

The next town we stopped at was called Santa Ana and was a lot bigger, a little smelly and a real hustle and bustle feel to the place. We were only there so we could climb a big volcano called Volcan Santa Ana.When we climbed Volcan Santa Ana it also has a amazing views of another Volcano called Volcan Izalco. It's pretty cool isn't it. To walk up Volcan Santa Ana we had to go in a group and take a guide. When we nearly got the top it was very rocky and bleak. We all agreed that we can imagine this is what the moons looks like a little bit. What do you think?
 
When at the top looking down into the crater there was a bright aqua blue lake. 

Well, year 2 that is our adventures up to date for now. Next country is Honduras which is next to El Salvador on the map.
 

As they are next to each other this means that we can just jump on a bus and head over to Honduras rather than in a plane. Nice and easy.

Adios for now.
Lots of love to you all.
Xx