29 and counting

Megan:
After spending time in two of Nicaragua's more impressive cities, we found our way into some more remote lake regions of the southern part of the country. The first of these was the peaceful Laguna Apoyo just outside of Granada. The crystal clear water and floating dock were great for swimming and kayaking during the day and even better for swimming and stargazing at night.

From there we crossed the largest lake in Central America, Lago Nicaragua, to arrive at the twin volcano island of Ometepe. The larger of the two, Volcán Concepción, is still active, and Volcán Maderas has a misty crater lake nestled at the top. Our first full day on the island, we decided to tackle the rough and muddy 4,000ft hike up to the summit of Maderas. Surrounded by howler and white-faced monkeys, we passed through abundant cloud forests that kept our focus on the rich wildlife of the jungle.

After resting our legs for a few days, we decided it was time to make our way into Costa Rica. A rigorous day of traveling and border crossing would not seem like a very exciting way to spend my 29th birthday, but I now have a stamp from my birthday in my passport.

I woke up at 4:15am to the sound of Jon wishing me a happy birthday. We caught the first ferry of the day back to the mainland, and as we looked out over the peaceful water, we were able to catch our first glimpse of the peak of Volcán Concepción which had been enveloped in clouds all three days prior. We were met at the ferry dock by an accommodating taxi driver who drove us all the way to the border, conveniently eliminating two buses we thought we were going to have to take. We passed through immigration early enough to avoid the long lines that we had heard horror stories about, and got our first good currency exchange rate of the trip. We then discovered that there was in fact a direct bus from the border to our final destination of the day, eliminating another three buses we were expecting to take. The only catch...it didn't leave till 2pm, so we had six hours to kill at the little diner at the border. Jon took this opportunity to buy me a birthday present...a deck of Costa Rica playing cards (since I lost our previous deck last week).

After hanging out there long enough to outlast two shifts of waitresses, we took off on the five hour bus ride through Costa Rica. And it was beautiful...lush landscape, unfamiliar flowers and a little bit of rain to cool things down. As I stared out the bus window, I was amazed how happy I felt on my birthday this year. This was one of the least glamorous days we've had in four months, but that didn't seem to matter. Yesterday had a flow and ease to it and turned out to be quite a wonderful day.

We arrived in the small town of La Fortuna last night with enough time to go out to a very nice dinner. Jon somehow managed to inform the restaurant that it was my birthday, so our waiter brought out a dessert - complete with a candle, 'Feliz Cumpleaños' written in chocolate sauce on the plate, and the whole restaurant singing happy birthday.

...not a bad way to begin my 29th year. We'll see what the rest of the year brings.