Into Nicaragua

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Today was the day to say good bye to Costa Rica; we left the country and made our way into Nicaragua.

While getting into Nicaragua is a quick and easy thing for most nationalities, this is not the case for Ukrainians; it took the border officials roughly 2.5 hours to get their visa validated and finally stamping them (thus us) into the country; this was also giving us a hint of what was up to come at most of the upcoming borders on the trip.

Once in Nicaragua, we had some time to spare San Jorge before getting on the boat to Ometepe Island – this day’s destination.

Monteverde

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We left Fortuna in the early morning to catch a boat to get across Lake Arenal and then on to Monteverde, where we arrived in the early afternoon.

After a nice lunch, some of us decided to walk over to the butterfly farm to get an introduction to these animals – and insects in general.

La Fortuna

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We made it into Fortuna in the early afternoon of the 15th; after lunch most of us went for the jungle hike, volcano watching and hot spring option. The hike turned out to be a short walk for a person never been to the jungle before – the volcano was hardly visible due to clouds, meaning bad watching conditions (one cold not see more than a distant red glow in the clouds/ mist). Anyhow the hot springs were perfect – nice, warm, comfortable – a perfect place to end a day.

I spent the second day in La Fortuna going rafting – so good outdoor fun.

San Jose

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It was a cold mid-November day when I took a plane to fly over to Costa Rica to escape the November depression. I had two days to explore San Jose before my tour all the way up to Cancun started.

San Jose hosts a number of excellent museums displaying the history of the region.. Beside that, it is Costa Rica’s capital and center of administration without further big attractions.

New Dubai

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I dedicated my second day in Dubai to the modern Dubai. I took a taxi to Jumeirah – first to the waterpark Wild Wadi, located in front of the Burj Al Arab; later in the day I moved on to the Mall of the Emirates, home of the infamous Ski Dubai.

Old Dubai

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I had thrown in a stop-over in Dubai on the way home from South Africa. I made it into Dubai in the early morning, continued to my hotel and then into town for some exploration – first goal: the Creek.

More of Kruger National Park

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We had another full day in Kruger NP before heading back to Johannesburg and the starting (and end) point of our journey around Southern Africa.

Tofu

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The next stop on our itinerary was Tofu – another Mozambique beach town.

So – another day of driving – followed by some beach time – and probably the best excursion of the trip: we went out by boat to snorkel with a whale-shark, on top of that (awesome) experience we even saw mating hump-back whales (in the classic way – jumping out and into the water) and more – but – given the water – without a camera close-by …