Ometepe and beyond!

Hola amigos! I've been too busy hanging out with my momma to update my blog, but now as I sit here by the pool on my last day in Central America I figured it would be a good time to recount my adventures! 

After San Juan del Sur, Siw and I headed to isla de ometepe home of two spectacular volcanoes. Most people climb one or both of the volcanoes, but the hikes are between 8 and 12 hours in 40 degree heat aka not my idea of fun! We chose to look up at the beauty from the beach haha our experience of ometepe wasn't bad, the scenery was spectacular, the waters of lake nicaragua were warm and soothing and we met some lovely people. There were just all of these small things that didn't work out too well, which when compounded, seemed like the end of the world haha needless to say, we were pretty relieved to take the ferry back to the mainland. I'm glad that I went to ometepe but I think that a bit more research and planning would have helped us immensely! 

Once we reached the mainland, we were going to spend the night in Rivas and head to Costa Rica the next morning. Well, the taxi driver told us that the border would be closed the next day because of semana Santa, the week leading up to Easter that everyone has as holidays. So, off to the border we went! We left Nicaragua and headed into Costa Rica, had one last street food meal eaten at the bus station and within an hour, it was time to say bye to my travel buddy Siw as I was headed to Liberia and she continued on to San Jose and then Panama. The trip wouldn't have been the same without her and I am so lucky we crossed paths! It was sad saying bye, but as soon as I got off the bus I had to deal with the fact that it dropped me off on the side of the highway. SO RANDOM! I found my way to the hostel I had booked and settled in. The plan was to stay in Liberia for the week until my mum arrived on Saturday. There isn't much going on in liberia so I took the public bus to Tamarindo for two days and checked into a hostel there!

Those two days I had chillin in tamagringo, as it is affectionately known, were really awesome because I got to check out everything before my mum got here and got readjusted to being in a touristy area with shops and restaurants that aren't overrun with chickens! Haha 

I met two cool people from Toronto, Steph and Aurimas and we rented a surfboard one day (which I waxed with PINK wax!) and hit the waves. It was so much fun! Then we had sushi and they continued on their trip. I'm heading back toToronto this weekend and I think we will meet up. 

One thing about costa rica is that everything is super expensive!  It was such a shock coming from Nicaragua so I'm glad I ended my trip here! Since tamarindo was so busy for semana santa I wasn't able to book a room Thursday night so I headed back to Liberia until Saturday when my momma came!!!

We checked into our beautiful hotel and have been relaxing and eating great food and hangin out together! It's so nice o get to spend some time with her since I haven't seen her in two months! And it's nice to not be in hostels anymore haha

One day I went diving with pacific coast dive centre which was awesome! It was great to be diving again and although I didn't see a manta ray, we saw some beautiful fish and eagle Rays it was amazing! 

We also went one night to a beach to watch pacific green sea turtles nesting. It was such a magical experience, out there with the bright stars and no lights to see these four foot long turtles come out of the ocean, find a good spot to dig their nest, and then watch them dig through the sand and lay the eggs. It was just so cool and something I will never forget in my whole life! So special that i got to see it with my mum! 

Today is our last day in paradise, we are hanging out by the pool, going to have one last dip in the ocean and having our "Friday night pizza" tradition at the Italian restaurant at our hotel. Tomorrow we are on the same flight at 1:30 but I'm getting off in Toronto and she is headed home to Ottawa.

Central America has been so good to me, and a piece of my heart will always be here, in every wave, piña and beautiful sunset! I definitely recommend travelling in Honduras and Nicaragua for backpacking and Costa Rica if it is in your budget is so beautiful! 

Now on to a new adventure as I look for my first "real" job in advertising, and hopefully a big move to Vancouver or back to trusty T.O!!! 

on the road again...

hello my friends! it's been a while since i've dusted off the ol' blogger login and written a post. i've been home for about 4.5 months now, working at a cafe, coming home and looking up random flights on skyscanner to see where i should go next. and finally, the research has paid off. my itchy feet are finally gonna get scratched! i'm off to central america! 

the first little while i was home, i was super bummed, not knowing what my next move was. i couldn't find a job, i had no money, and the mean visa man kept saying i owed them my first born child. so i finally got my current job, where i learned to make delicious lattes (today i had an eggnog latte and it seriously changed my life and appreciation for christmas :P) and i decided that when i had enough money saved up, i was going to go to new zealand for a year. 

hmmm... have you looked at the price of a flight to nz?! not cheap man. so i decided maybe not. meanwhile, my good pal sarah, you may remember her as one of my trailer park sistas from margs, was cooking up a plan to go do her divemaster training in utila, an island off the coast of honduras. i never really thought about travelling in central america before, but one google image search of utila, a mention of the massive whale shark population, and i was in. 

so i booked my flight! leaving ottawa on february 7th for san pedro sula, honduras. i will stay one night in this *ahem* ...fairly dangerous town from what i've read, and then take a bus to la ceiba and then a ferry to utila, which will be my island home for a month! i'm stoked to get my dive ticket, work on freediving, see wicked sea creatures, and obvssss to be reunited with my lovely mermaid! after that month, no plan really, but i definitely am going to head to the pacific side for some surfing. no return ticket yet, but upon googling, we found that it is around $200 to fly home from cancun, mexico.. so i'm thinking i will try to head up that way :)

if anyone has travelled in central before, hit me up with some suggestions. i am excited to have a really open plan, basically i'm just going to come home when i run out of money lol. so ya i'd love to hear anyone's advice, what they liked, what they didn't etc. etc. and maybe some tips on where i can buy pepper spray bahaha 

anyways, that's it for now! looking forward to updating my blog while on the road again :) 
¡Hasta luego!

soph xx

surfin' WA

we made it to margaret river!!!! yesterday, we picked up my car steve, whom we named after our awesome mechanic. the repairs cost almost 800 so it was a bit shocking but it had to be done, and to get a car for 1900 i still feel pretty good about it. 

we packed up, removed those ridiculous stickers from the windows so i could see my blind spots and had one more lunch at the old shanghai food court in fremantle. indian food, of course! then we hit the road to margs 

took about 4 hours and we got there! it is so so lovely here, i think im staying forever! even the roads, they are sort of red and the trees grow so big and bend in so they cover the road. i felt like i was in jurassic park lol 

as soon as we parked, bryanna took me for a little drive to show me some surf beaches and OMG i have never seen anything more gorgeous in my life! i was speechless. just google some pictures and you will go nuts. i took a few with my iphone but it doesn't really give it justice. 

then we went for a drive around the town and i saw a field of kangaroos in the distance! i actually cried i was so excited lol!!! the town is so small and cute and i'm really excited to explore! there are a ton of surf shops and cool health food stores and an awesome library. i'm so stoookeddd!!!

then we went back to sue's (the lady we are staying with, she is so rad) and had some thai veggies and rice YUM! had a little singing time with patch her adorable dog, and a snuggle with tiger her kitty :) hit the hay! 

today we woke up, had some brekkie and went to see a few more beaches, and meet up with a guy who had a board for sale on gumtree (basically like craigslist in aus) he lived a bit out of town near a bunch of vineyards. we pull up to his house and there is this massive bright yellow board. 7 ft, super wide, lots of foam for buoyancy. i'm like dude, this thing is amazing. AND I BOUGHT IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YESSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i had been wanting to decorate whatever board i ended up buying with some pineapple designs, and this really suits my vision! i named the board "the big pineapple" and i am literally so stoked i jumped up and down when i got him! the back has some ugly paint on it but i'm just going to sand it off and make it wicked somehow. YAAAA so tomorrow we are going surfing for sure. its probably going to be super windy/rainy/cold but we have our wetsuits so who cares!!!! and i got it for $200 so altogether with my wetsuit i paid $300 to start surfing. YESSSS!!!!!

the big pineapple in bry's car

beyond excited! then we went into town, did some groceries for lunch/dinner tonight and i got some wax for tomorrow for my board. when we got home we all rearranged a bunch of stuff in our room so there is more storage etc and it is very cozy and homey now! i love it :) now just doing some laundry and vegging out and stuffing our faces because tomorrow bry and i are both starting a cleanse where we only drink green smoothies. im going for 3 days and she is doing a week. i think this will be a really good start and then i'll get back into gluten free and vegan diet, eventually trying to eat mostly raw. ahhh so excited! 

tomorrow we are going surfing in the morning, then going to the market to buy lots of veggies and then i'll probably work on my resume a lot. going to start looking for jobs next week, after we go on a little daytrip with sue on tuesday :) 

everything is sooooo great! i'm looking forward to surfing, getting back eating healthy, finding a job in the vines and doing lots of gardening! i'm going to go read my book and have a cuddle in my bed with tiger and our electric blanket  WHOOO (its still winter here and its freezing lol) 

miss everyone lots!!! we'll get some good pics surfing tomorrow for sure!

xoxo soph

first full day in aus!

wednesday i got everything all sorted out. i didn't set my alarm and i didn't need to because i woke up at 1am, 5am, 7am and finally 930am. i ended up going to bed at 745 the night before, so i basically got 14 hours sleep! obviously i needed it!

i decided to set up my bank account and cell phone today. i headed over to commonwealth bank, and a super nice gal helped me get my accounts figured out. then i went to telstra, picked up a mobile SIM card from the convenience store right next door. it's pretty weird how the pay as you go plans work here. i got a $30 card which gives you $250 in credit to use for phone calls and texts. and 400 mb of data which really isnt a lot at all! i've been trying to use the wifi i found in this park and i pretty much sat there for a long time today figuring stuff out on the phone and posting my blog from yesterday! 

i went back to the hostel to have some lunch (ramen noodles lol) and to charge my phone and laptop. i got some reading in, and then this guy came over and started talking to me. he was from morocco, and then his friend from france came over and my two italian friends joined as well. it was super interesting, they were talking about the different political situations and stuff and how it was in their countries. i felt sort of dumb because i am so out of the loop with all that stuff! 

then i decided to walk to the beach. it is about a half an hour walk but i wanted to go anyway! the walk was really nice, it was cool to see all of the different styles of houses, they all looked so different! i'm pretty sure it was the rich area of town, and there were a lot of yacht clubs and things along the way. the trees and plants are all really cool too. two houses i passed along the way had lemon trees! and one had a little orange tree :) so cute! 

the beach was lovely! white sand, seaweed on the shore, it looked and smelled pretty much like nova scotia haha and the water was cold enough to be nova scotia almost! definitely not swimming time for me. the weather was very cold and cloudy today, but it actually got warmer in the evening and the sun came out. this made my walk home very enjoyable! i got pretty warm so i took off my sweatshirt and just had a tshirt and scarf. the looks people were giving me were so funny! here they were in puffy down jackets looking at this girl walking around in a tie dyed tshirt LOL! it must have been 16 or 17 degrees out in the sun and they were all bundled up.

at this point, all i had eaten was a cliff bar and a cup a soup, so i was really starting to get hungry. all i wanted was pizza... i couldnt find it anywhere! it seems like there are a ton of sit down type restaurants here, but no fast food. all i wanted was pizza pizza lmao! i ended up getting subway nooooo!!! here i am halfway around the world, and i end up getting something i could have eaten at home?! ugh. i went with my classic veggie (although they had no pickles, which was a cryin' shame!) so i scarfed that down and headed back to my hostel. i met up with julia and chiara, who were about to head to the grocery store to get something for dinner. i went with them and shopped at coles for the first time (last time i went to woolworth's) i'm super happy i went, because julia ended up finding hello kitty pasta! i got really excited and explained to her my love of hello kitty and all of my hk things i have at home :) i also bought some pasta sauce and some tim tams! can't believe i have been in australia for a whole day and hadn't bought them yet! 

then we sat outside with a bunch of people in the back patio area just chatting, most people were smoking and drinking, which is the standard (it is a hostel here! haha) everyone was really confused when i told them i don't drink much. i got the whole "you're canadian though, you guys love drinking!" too funny. met some cool guys from the uk, and julia and chiara met some more italians, so they were chatting it up. what a beautiful language. i told julia to say something really mean to me, or to swear at me, and even that sounded so lovely! lol
then i went back in the hostel to check out some wall postings of cars for sale. i found one good one, but its from june so i doubt it's still there. i might text them tomorrow to double check. then i was looking on gumtree and found a few options. i sent some links to my mum to show wayne, so hopefully he will be able to point me in the right direction :) 

now im just sitting on my bed writing this, and was talking to another girl who lives in this room. she's from belgium and has been living in this hostel for one year! this whole lifestyle is just so new to me, it is crazy and overwhelming and intriguing! i've been here for one day and i've already met people from italy, morocco, france, the uk and belgium! that would never happen at home! i feel like i've learned so much already :) she was saying that this place is like a trap, once you stay here you never want to leave and a lot of people don't! there are a lot of long term residents here it seems, so everyone knows everyone which is cool. i think it would definitely take me a while to get used to this lifestyle, especially because i don't party a lot so i feel like i don't fit in as well as most people. it's still very neat, but i am looking forward to having a room to myself and putting my clothes into drawers in margaret river :) 

as for right now, i think i'm going to get ready for bed, eat some tim tams and read a bit, like the nonna i am haha (i practised some italian today!) 
xoxo soph