el fin

Well, it has finally come to the very last day of our 6 week adventure in Central America. Back in San Salvador for the next 24hours and then San Fran.
Our last leg of the trip took us through Granada, a very beautiful conservative city whose Spanish style colonial buildings are being restored by the foriegn dollar. Hard to resist though, very little trash, gorgeous homes with large botanical courtyards, and horse drawn carriages everywhere for a smallish price (we spoke with one guy who was looking to buy 5 acres+creek for $18,000. He said ¨Now thats an amount of money a man can stand to loose.¨ Don´t know if we agree as that loss would be devistating to us but...). Might be the first time I´ve ever seen someone parallel park a horse and cart before- looks more difficult than a car! There was alot in this area we didn´t get to see, funny how the time starts to sprint when the end is in sight, so we´ll have to come back some time.
Took a bus to Leon to meet up with my half-sister´s half-brother (does this make Olin my half-brother once removed?) who has been living in Nicaragua for 6 years. Olin, his wife Ofelia, and their 9 month old cutie Kenna are running a hostal called La Tortuga Booluda (the Lazy Turtle) which serves as a hub for folks creating social, environmental, and eco-tourism programs in Northwestern Nicaragua. Want to come down and do social work in Nicaragua, Olin and Ofelia are the ones to hook you up. Olin took us to the beach where we pretended to be surfers but the ocean saw right through us, so after getting our asses served, we relocated and pretended to be sunbathers. I got tumbled pretty roughly and later had my first back spasms in which I was literally unable to get up off the bed. Hata had to help me negotiate this painful transition so, in many ways it will be good to come home and seek out a chiropractor. Aren´t we too young for this kind of stuff?
Since my back was hurt, we decided to head back to Managua instead of going to the Gulfo de Fonseca on the way to El Salvador. In Managua we caught an 11 hour luxury bus to San Salvador loaded to the gills with Advil and Vicodin. And my back is feeling much better thank you!
Today-the last day- we will walk around the city trying to eat as many pupusas as possible and then fly home in the morning. This trip has been great, giving life to all sorts of other travel plans, and expanding our acceptance of trying moments or perceived imperfections.
Although I would have to say, we have a major problem with plastic. It is everywhere and after all the plastic trash we have seen on the roads, clogging rivers, covering beaches, fueling people´s cooking fires, I would like to urge everyone to reduce their own consumption of plastic. When biologist cut open the stomach of the first dead dolphin whale that washed up on Utila, they found she had eaten large amounts of plastic which could have been what killed her.
Lets all do our best and then some more...
Love you guys, thanks for traveling with us, and we´ll see you guys soon!
xoxoxo maggie and hata

Nicaragua

We are currently on the Isla de Ometepe in the heart of the Lago de Nicaragua. The island is formed by two giant volcanos and inhabited by a collection of geckos, parrots, howler monkies, every tropical fruit you can think of, chickens, pigs, dogs, horses (one of the main forms of transport), and the nicest, happiest, friendlyist people you can imagine. Most of the farms here are organic as the soil is so fertile and life is relaxingly slow. How unfortunate it is the time in our travels where we are suddenly rushing about trying to cram as much as we can into our dwindling days of vacation.
The transition between Honduras to Nicaragua was incredible. Lush, mountainious, tropical jungles gave way to dry, flat, savanahs before descending to Managua. We spent two nights in the city to give Hata a chance to kick a cold, and left for San Juan del Sur on the day the Presidente was giving a speech. Toyed with the idea of sticking around to see him, but our Spanish wouldn't have been enough. Instead we headed for the Pacific to check out the surf scene. Hata and I had so much fun surfing we decided to stay a little longer and surf some more. Now we are torn between identies, are we river rats, scuba scum, or surf bums? This is a dilemma....
Somehow we managed to tear ourselves away from the ease of waking, eating, and surfing till the sun went down to head to the Isla. In the next week and a half we are going to try to see Granada, Masaya (rumors of excellent cheap market shopping- take a guess for who's pushing for this town), Leon, Esteli, and the Costa del Sol in El Salvador for more surf and possibly to finish our scuba cert. We'll see what happens.
Till we see you all- love, health, warmth,and happiness!
Maggie & Hata

Vamos a Nicaragua

Hola Friends and Fam,
Heard about the EPIC storms to hit the west coast. Hope y'all are safe and warm. Also very happy to learn of Obama's early victories!
We have made it off the very small island of Utila after beginning to feel the island-fever effects of not haveing any transportation options. They handed out barf bags and motion sickness pills on the ferry. It was rough but not too bad; definitely some greeen faces though. Once back on the mainland we headed up into the jungle along the Cangrejal River, with Terra and Randy.
We had hoped to run the river, but the recent heavy rains made it too high to run the upper section and we couldn't bring ourselves to pay 50 bucks apiece to run the class 3 section like a bunch of punters. So instead we took a zip line canopy tour though the Pico Bonito National Park. The jungle was amazing. we saw ocelot tracks, ate termites, Maggie got bit by ants, and we learned a bit about the flora and fauna, including some interesting traditional Mayan uses. Maggie got to do the "flying squirrel" across the river, about which more later.
Later that day, we said our goodbyes to Terra and Randy and headed back down into La Ceiba for more heavy rain. Apparently the "dry season" in most of Central America coincides with the wet season in the Caribbean.
Today we came by bus to Tegucigalpa, and tomorrow we will cross into Nicaragua. We are looking forward to some waves on the Pacific Coast, Lago de Nicaragua, maybe finishing our scuba cert., howler monkeys, and meeting up with the Cohans.
I would say we are happy and healthy, except we{re sad about Popop passing and Hata has the sniffles. But at least we have each other and all of you...
More later,
Luv H&M

PS Ed, there are some very creative bikes in this part of the world, wait til you see the pix.

stuck in the caribbean

Well, we are currently stuck on the island of Utila due to a massive storm that has been blowing through for the past 4 days. We're gonna try to leave today but there is major flooding on the mainland side as well and the harbor keeps closing. Keeping our fingers crossed for safe, non-puking passage.
We've had a great time on the island (minus the rain, hurricane force winds, 2 dead washed-up rare dolphin whales, and inablitiy to finish our scuba certification due to rough seas and zero visability) but are aching to move on. Maggie recieved sad news about her grandfathers passing on New Years Day and is really missing her family and sending her love (happy birthday Sonja!). It seems as though we're going to have to skip rafting the Cangreal in La Ceiba due to floods, so we're currently trying to get a plane to Nicaragua and hope for better weather.
On the plus side, we both love scuba diving and look forward to more. It's incredible breathing underwater and seeing that world close up. Best part about diving in Utila is no sharks!
Just got word the ferries running so a quick goodbye to you all!
Love,
M n H