The lizard

Last night we went to bed and there was a tiny little lizard sat on my pillow - I'm not afraid of lizards but don't particularly want to sleep with one on my pillow so Sam chased around the bedroom with a glass and a bit of paper until he was able to catch it for me... I would say that my Knight in shining armour caught it for me but that would be a lie, he said he was busy but I think he was scared (he does that with spiders too).

Today has been a bit rainy but we have had a lovely day - This morning we went for a walk and I bought a dress for $19 which is really nice and Sam got some stickers for his board. Then Will took Sam in the sea for an hour to surf and he got some really good waves. He thinks he pulled into a barrel (which is when the wave covers over you and is apparently really good.) Whilst they were surfing I sat in a cafe on the beach and ordered a coffee, completely forgetting that the whole town has no electric today, but the guy was lovely and managed to make me one, I think he boiled the water on the stove for me! So I sat in the cafe drinking coffee and reading Harry Potter, I have decided to read children's books now as it means we have to carry less books, and as I sat there I remembered how lucky I am to be doing this, It's easy to forget sometimes that we have this opportunity to be away for a year and that we were brave enough to do it and that so far it has all worked out brilliantly,

Now we are back at the house and have eaten tuna and sardine sandwiches (which were disgusting because the tuna and sardines are mixed with veg) and Sam is doing maths with Mr BC and I am writing this. In a while we will walk back to the sea and if there are no waves we will go in search of monkeys again.

I leave you with a picture of Sam's new physique, he has lost all his belly's and now has surfers shoulders.

I hope your not getting bored...

People keep saying that they really enjoy the blog and to keep updating it so here you go... I hope you're not getting bored though.

Today was a lovely day - we got up about 9:00 ish and had breakfast and then went for a walk along the coast to another beach about 1K away. On the way there we heard howler monkeys and went to find them in the woods (they sound like dogs barking), they were in the trees right above us but we couldn't see them because of all the foliage - Sam was reeeeally excited. As it's the wet season here there are sudden downpours, they don't last very long but you get soaked, but then the sun comes out again and you dry off in minutes. As we sheltered from the rain in a wooded area we found a massive iguana sat on a branch. It wasn't afraid of us and just sat there looking at us. When the rain stopped we walked back down to the beach and Sam got his flip flops stuck in the mud - it was like sinking sand and he had to stick his hand into the mud to pull them back out, he then managed to get himself, Will and me covered in mud too.

As we walked back along the beach we looked in the rock pools trying to find an octopus for tea, without much success.

When we got back we did some school work (and Sam had a little tantrum - probably necessary as he is a know- it- all and we need to be more patient with him when he gets things wrong. We now have an agreement that he will concentrate really hard and we will try not to get cross).

This afternoon we walked to the big supermarket out of town to get some supplies. It was a bit of a culture shock to be in an air conditioned super market full of people with money, and the funniest thing is it was only like an Aldi. Sam is good at budgeting now and so we wandered round checking the prices of everything and getting the best deals and then came home and had pasta, with steak, aubergine and cream sauce mmmm... this will shortly be followed with fresh water melon mmmmmmm (one problem with our kitchen is we only have a gas burner, no oven and not even a toaster!). We are not sure where we are heading next - probably down the Costa Rican coast or if it keeps on raining we might go to Ecuador.

Space

It's nice to have some space. We have been living in one room for 6 weeks and whilst this has been fun it's really nice to have some space to spread things around. For weeks Will has moaned at me for tidying up around him, but living in one room things get cluttered very quickly and if things have their place then it's easy for everyone to find the bite cream, or sam's school books etc etc... also when you live in one room by the beach, sand gets everywhere so it keeps everything from getting covered. But here we have a couple of bedrooms and a bathroom and a kitchen and a living area, in fact at this moment we are all in separate rooms!! It's also really nice to cook again, we have eaten out for 6 weeks and it's good to be able to just get up and have a bowl of cereal... Will is worried about how much we are spending on food so I try to ration things a bit but then he moans he's hungry...ho hum.

I'm pretty pleased with the packing (although I think Will is right and we brought too many clothes) but we have used pretty much everything else. Particularly useful items have been the head torch, for power cuts, night time reading and walking home in the dark, the little travel alarm clock, the ipod speakers and this little netbook and the sleeping bag sheets (for dodgy looking sheets),

Travelling with Sam is very easy. He doesn't stress about anything and is very happy in pretty much any situation (especially reversing through flooded rivers in the middle of nowhere). Only the really loud thunder has upset him so far and he can't be blamed for that. When we arrived at Tamarindo he was a bit put out by the fact that everyone speaks English and it's full of Americans and he is looking forward to heading to the 'real' Costa Rica where it's not so rich and we can stay in a place run by Costa Ricans!! His Spanish is coming on well and he is still learning by watching films with Spanish subtitles.

Tamarindo was a bit of a culture shock after leaving Nicaragua which is quite poor and under developed and living on a deserted beach for a week we are now in little America where there are people and shops and it's really expensive... but it's also nice to relax here for a bit, the waves are also really good for Sam, in fact I might hire a long board and have a go myself today.

Costa Rica

We have now said goodbye to Nicaragua and moved on to Costa Rica but as ever the journey was an interesting one. To be honest I wasn't that sad to leave Nicaragua and the day we left was super rainy. We had arranged for a guy to take us to Rivas, an hours drive through the pot holes and rivers and from there we were going to book our ticket to Costa Rica and head to the Isla Ometepe for a couple of days and then return to get the coach...but it was raining so hard that the guy who was driving us advised us to give the Isla a miss, there was a storm (tormenta) heading in from Mexico or somewhere which they thought would be quite strong and the ferry crossing may be a problem. Plus he thought it wouldn't be much fun in the rain and we agreed.

So we jumped in the pick up truck and tied the surfboards and the two backpacks on the back (it was literally pissing down!) Charles got in the front with the driver and me Will and Sam piled in the back with the three day packs. We set off at a leisurely place when suddenly we came across a river which looked pretty flooded, the guy checked it out and decided that we could make it through, put his foot to the throttle and we cruised through the first river. Shortly after we came across another river which was even more flooded and this one was surrounded by guys who were also debating whether to cross, they all watched as we drove down to the river and got out their cameras to film us when we got stuck... Will was telling us that if the truck tipped over not to panik, to be honest I wasn't too worried and after a few minutes of discussions we set off and made it through... It wasn't long until we reached another (even more flooded river) this time there were quite a few vehicles waiting to cross and even more people watching but once again our driver put his foot down and we got through to much cheering from the other side... the last river was the worst and believe it or not we ended up reversing our way through this one (who knows why) but we made it through. The whole journey was meant to take just an hour and ended up taking 3 hours! We filmed the reversing incident so I'll try and upload it.

We arrived in Rivas at 1:50 and decided that if we could make it we would try and get on the last bus to Costa Rica - we ran to the ticket office and arrived at the terminal almost as soon as the bus pulled up. The Tica bus took us from Nicaragua to Liberia an hour from the border where we jumped off and decided to get a taxi to Tamarindo - we got off in a petrol station (again) and tried to get a taxi - eventually a guy agreed to take us for $55 (way more expensive than Nicaragua).It was getting dark so we decided to look for a hostel when we arrived - the first place was very expensive $100 per night but the second place Will checked out and charged $30. Here we spent our worst night yet (yes, worse than charles's snoring). The hostel was hot and noisy, the room was lit by a street light outside and had the thinnest curtain so it was like sleeping in a disco with all the lights turned on... It was 2am when Sam finally got to sleep and me and Will were awake for even longer! We got up early and walked to find a place we liked and now we are staying in a nice apartment on a little complex, we have two rooms, a TV, a bathroom a kitchen, a pool, internet access and there is no-one else staying here. So thank goodness we should all sleep well tonight. (by the way, Sam was not effected by the night in the hostel, he said it was cool and we had a laugh - but that's not how i remember it)

Health wise all is well apart from Sam has a little ear infection so is banned from surfing for a couple of days - don't worry it's just a bit sore, no redness, swelling or smelly excretions. So all is well now (except Costa Rica's a bit pricey so we might not stay that long.)

Nicaragua is ... ok

Well, to be honest there's not a great deal to report from Nicaragua. We are still in Playa Guasacate - the beach is pretty beautiful (but not as beautiful as El Zonte). The waves are ok and there are a few other surfers here in search of waves... and that's it really, Nicaragua is ok! The food is reasonable, but there doesn't seem to be a main dish here, other than Galla Pinto which is rice and beans (and means painted rooster!). The majority of the food is fried and like I said it's...ok.

Because we had to travel an hour down the crappy road to get here we have stayed put and as a result we haven't seen much else other than the beach. There are a few other hostels along the beach and there are a group of us who go out for food on an evening which is nice, an Austrian, a couple of Aussies and another English bloke (there don't appear to be any girls here, just lots of surfing guys, which in another life would have been perfect!)

Charles arrived last night and so that's added a bit more sparkle to the day, he is staying in our room, so it's me, Sam and Will in a double and Charles in the single bed...all very cosy but he has been warned that he will be evicted if he farts and snores (he does both!) It's nice to see him though and hear about his filming in Nicaragua. For those of you who don't know he won a prize for architecture and is here to film sustainable living in Nicaragua but will be heading back home in a week.

It probably sounds like i'm moaning but actually it is very nice to just relax and do things we love doing like yoga and surfing, I actually have a few yoga recruits now who have joined me for a daily session on the beach (even sam gave it a go!) Sam's schooling is still going really well and he is voluntarily reading now which has NEVER happened before - here is a picture of him doing schooling just in case you don't believe me! His surfing is also coming on and he is losing his belly's, despite eating a massive chocolate pancake for breakfast every day.

The next plan is to go to Rivas (maybe on Monday) and book tickets on the Tica bus, maybe to San Jose in Costa Rica and then make our way to Santa Teresa, the problem is it's a long way and involves about 3 buses and a ferry...so we might get the Tica bus to Liberia in Costa Rica and then get to Tamarindo and make our way down the Nicoya peninsula to Santa Teresa. Anyway, before we leave we will probably visit Omatepe which is a beautiful volcanic Island and spend a couple of nights there as everyone has recommended it. It's actually really nice to not have a plan and say...what do we all want to do? Hmmm well let's just wait a few days and decide, all very laid back. Oh yeah and I have started to write a book - 1,500 words a day...you should all be very impressed!

1 month in...

1 month in and what have we learnt?

That we all have different needs which need to be met in each place we visit. For Will it's important that we have air con. and lots of food. For Sam we need a ping pong table, people to play with (kids or adults) he's not fussy, and for me - I like to know that we can get to our accommodation easily and that the accommodation is nice and clean with friendly people. We all want to be walking distance to the sea and none of us are too fussy about doing 'touristy' things.

Nicaragua is nice but really quiet, it's the largest country in Central America and doesn't seem nearly as populated as El Salvador. Our day consists of the following - Get up about 7:30 and Will has a surf if the waves are good. Then we have breakfast which is usually, rice and beans and scrambled eggs for Will, Fruit, yoghurt and honey for me and nutella pancakes with fruit for Sam. After food Sam has a surf or just plays in the waves with Will and anyone else who wants to join them and I do Yoga on the beach. Then a spot of lunch and a bit of school work, followed by reading in the hammock. Finally we head back into the sea for more swimming, surfing and then around 6:00 the sun goes down and so we head out for tea to a little cafe which sits on the river. Here we eat fish, or chicken and Will eats more rice and beans. Then we are in bed by 8:00!!

We have now met a new friend (the Chipping Sodbury guy) called Laurie. He is just having a drink with us on our terrace and Sam is watching his ipod in the hammock... it's a hard life. We are also planning our next move to Santa Teresa in Costa Rica and will probably go in the next 10 days. Hopefully we will rent a house with a kitchen here so we can chill for a bit and Sam can meet some more kids (as us grown ups are such a nightmare).

Check out the picture above, a log washed into shore and Sam and Will played on it - we realised it looks just like a viking longboat!!

I'm a mum get me out of here....

Well after a great deal of travelling we are in Nicaragua. The journey was an interesting one, what i didn’t tell you before was that the gangs in El Salvador had threatened to do things to the buses in protest to a new law which had been introduced recently. We heard various stories, from buses being burnt out to drivers being killed (which I think in one case was true) to everyone on the bus being shot. What I am starting to realise in Central America, is that they do like to exaggerate things slightly, still there was an element of truth to it. However, apparently they were targeting the Chicken Buses so the Tica Buses should be fine we were told. This is all very well but after a crap nights sleep at the Tica Bus hotel, waking up at 2am to get on the bus, it all seems a bit scary again...but you will be pleased to know that we weren’t shot and arrived in one piece.

The Tica bus is nice and big (but smells funny) the seats recline and when you travel at 2am they bring around a blanket and a pillow (which smell funny), they turn out the lights and you go back to sleep until 6am when you reach Honduras, that is if you are able to sleep on a rollercoaster in the dark, wondering if you might get shot! At the border you stay on the bus and a few important looking people check your passport and away you go, the guide on the bus then brings a Burger King breakfast bap around (which is just what you need after 3 hrs on a roller coaster) and away you go.

After 8 hrs we arrived at Managua in Nicaragua an hour early and played Monopoly cards on the floor of the station until our driver arrived. I had emailed a guy in Popoyo and asked if he had rooms free, the one we wanted was taken but he did have a dorm style room which we could rent for $12 per night. After 4 more hrs in the car we arrived at the top of the guys road. The roads in Popoyo have been pretty much washed away as they have had a really wet few months and we had to cross about 4 flooded rivers and ditches and navigate thousands of pot holes for the last hour (at one point the driver wasn’t even sure if we would get across one of the flooded areas). Mike is a lovely, softly spoken American guy who showed us the dorm...think I’m a celebrity get me out of here and you are on the right lines! It was basically a porch with 2 sets of bunk beds and mosquito netting tacked around the edges...open to the elements on all sides, with a tin roof and nothing else. We decided to stay one night and see how we felt as Mike had been so kind. His wife begrudgingly brought us dinner of tough leather and rice and beans and then we chatted to a couple of annoying Americans before bed who told us stories of the scorpion that they found in our room and the big spiders etc, we would have stayed up longer but the woman who ran the bar was glaring at us and the Americans were freaking us out so we headed for bed. It was an interesting night, none of us wanted the top bunk so me and sam shared the bottom bunk, then I moved in with Will, until there was a huge thunder storm overhead and Sam got scared as we were practically out in the elements so I moved back in with Sam. At 7am Mike came down to drive us to the surf and we all agreed we would look for another room that day. Mike understood and agreed to drive us to wherever we found.

So I am writing this from a nice room back on the beach with three beds and an en-suite (with hot water) Will is currently surfing with a guy from Chipping Sodbury, Sam is dozing and we are about to sample a Nicaraguan breakfast...it all turned out well in the end

Olas Permanantes...

We have just left Olas Permanates after 10 idyllic days on the beach. We are now back with James and Lysinea for a night and tomorrow we head to the Tica bus hotel for the night and get the bus at 2:30 am - arriving in Managua at 12:00 lunch time.

The last few days have been fun filled - we were woken a few nights ago by a massive thunder storm overhead which woke everyone in the hotel (apart from Sam of course). The next night I woke up and felt the room shaking, I thought I must be imaging it, but it happened a couple of times... I decided it was probably just a little earth tremor and as the ceiling hadn't fallen in I went back to sleep. The next morning we realised that it had been caused by waves crashing over the wall and landing about 5 metres from our bedroom! The same happened for the next few nights and although I didn't stay awake the whole night I did have a lot of water filled dreams. The good news is we weren't flooded.

In all we had an amazing time at the beach and really none of us wanted to leave at all. The place was so beautiful (check out the sunset) and the people were so kind and helpful, we felt really welcomed and very safe and I would highly recommend El Zonte and Olas Permenates to anyone travelling to El Salvador. The waves break just in front of the hotel (when they aren't coming over the wall) and both Sam and Will were able to surf all day ever day. I have been doing yoga, shiatsu and reading in a hammock, we have all returned to James's bronzed, tired and happy. There were also lots of great people staying at the hostel who Sam adored, they played ping pong with him, surfed with him, swam with him and generally made him a very happy boy. We hope to meet them in Popoyo in Nicaragua in a few weeks.

We have now officially started schooling and it's going very well. Sam has studied English, Maths and Science so far and has started reading his book (a chapter a day). We tend to study one subject a day and this seems to work well for us all. It's fun to learn science on the move and Sam actually seems to be learning.

So that's the latest - as I said El Salvador is brilliant and the land and the people we met are beeeautiful. More from Nicaragua in a few days.

Life's a beach!

Well the rain has stopped - in fact it only rained that first day and since then we have had glorious sunshine. In the sun this place is lovely - it backs right onto the beach - literally we open our door and there is the sea - brilliant. The people that run the place are very friendly and it also serves food - you sit at tables overlooking the sea (or in hammocks).

A couple of days ago we went to the beach, which has amazing black sand due to the volcanoes, the sand is very fine and shimmers in the sunlight, it also feels like it contains loads of energy, probably due to all the minerals. Anyway, we sat on the beach whilst Sam surfed and a local guy brought a tray of 12 fresh oysters with worcester sauce, salt and lime and we sat there and ate them for $5 (there was no-one else around) brilliant eh?

That evening we had a BBQ at a couple's house in El Zonte. They have a villa overlooking the sea and we BBQ'd Cuin fish (I've never heard of them but they were delicious). Sam ate the fish's eyeball!! The walk there was fun - it was pitch black and we had a little torch to light the way, but there were also hundreds of fire flies - like little sparks all around in the trees, We negotiated pot holes, puddles and dog poo to get there but all arrived in one piece and the way home was even more fun after a few beers!

A coupld of Americans stayed at out hotel a couple of nights ago and sat drinking all day, then around 6 (dusk) they went to the beach - they went to far into the sea and nearlly drowned and had to be rescued on a surf board by one of the locals...

Sam and Will have both done lots of surfing and Sam is learning more Spanish words and getting browner every day. Sam is currently still asleep as we stayed up and watched the Bourne Identity last night and Will is surfing. The only down side is I think we are spending way to much on food - the next place will have to have a kitchen.

Rain rain and more flippin rain....

So we are at the beach, staying in a beautiful place called Olas Permanentes. It's right on the beach and filled with hammocks and beautiful ornaments made from sea shells. It is absolutely idyllic...well it would be if it would stop sodding raining. Of course it's the rainy season here and it doesn't just rain it pours (but at least it's warm.)

We have a lovely room with two double beds a fan and air con and a bathroom with the obligatory cold shower and toilet paper bucket - but last night it rained so hard that the bathroom ceiling leaked so we are moving into another room tonight. We pay $200 for 7 nights here which is quite cheap compared to everywhere else, but food bumps the bill up a bit.

Because of the rain we are a bit stuck, El Zonte doesn't have any shops or taxis. We could get a chicken bus and may do tomorrow if it doesn't stop raining (and the locals say it wont!) Today we got up and had breakfast and then Sam did some school work (a bit of art) and Will is threatening to do some maths later! We watched Sherlock Holmes on the ipod and then went for a walk in the monsoon rain (and got soaked!) now will and sam are playing table tennis and i am writing this. There is another guy staing here called Jun he is Japanese and really lovely. He is a teacher in Japan and has taken 3 weeks to travel Central America, he has travelled a lot before and speaks great Spanish and English fortunately he also likes table tennis.

Will's itches have cleared up but Sam has got a few more bites which I hope will go down soon. No Benadryl cream Dad but he got some other stuff that seems to have done the trick.

So please everyone (especially you astrologers) pray for the rain to stop... it's such a beautiful location but we really need the sun because there is nothing to do in the rain :(

xxxx

To the beach

Thanks everyone for all your nice comments on the blog. Spoke to Mum yesterday and have been informed that my spelling is rubbish so apologies to anyone this offends but finding time to update it is not easy. We are heading to the beach tomorrow and that is both exciting and a bit scary because we are quite a long way from the city and we have had James and Lycinea as translators, tour guides and super hosts since we arrived.

Dad said he wanted a run down on what we have eaten since we arrived so here's a brief overview. One local dish is cevice which is raw fish cooked in lime juice and vinegar, eaten with biscuits (as you Bristolians might say' it's lush!') We also had Pupusas which are served all over and are a thick tortilla with any kind of filling you can think of, we had cheese and pork, these are about 30 cents and so a good cheap meal. Because El Salvador isn't geared for tourists it's difficult to find these places to eat unless you are shown them as we were. But the best thing is the fruit and the fruit shakes. The fruit here tastes so fresh it's difficult to describe, it's like fruit should taste but doesn't in England - anyway we have a fruit milk shake every day and it's lovely.

Health wise we are all ok but Will has been eaten alive by mosquitos and they have swollen up (it looks like he has shingles) and they are really itchy, but now we have some cream so hopefully he will feel better soon. Sam is very well and looks very healthy with his tan - he did find it hard to sleep last night though because it was sooo hot so we are a bit tired today as we all ended up in the same room bed swapping to get closer to the fan!

We are starting to plan the trip to Nicaragua now and may go down a week today - we get the Tica bus from San Salvador and cross Honduras and end up in Managua - it should take 10 hours! But the bus has air con, comfy seats, films etc so shouldn't be too bad, from here we head to Popoyo which is the surf beach so we are just looking for places to stay when we get there.

I'm not sure that there is internet at Horizonte (where we go tomorrow) so may not be able to update for a while. http://www.horizontesurfresort.com/ here's a link... see you laters and love you all x