To the Arctic Ocean via the Dalton Road

geovalue

Adventurer
It is such fun to meet up with fellow overlanders especially those we have been following and emailing in the hopes of meeting up. We finally met up with Espen and Malin in Nicaragua I am not sure who was more surprised when we bumped into each other at Laguana Apoyo and Tom yelled out, " You must be the Unurbans" as he recognized them from photos. We spent several great days together with them and Alex and Monica from Switzerland who had met several times.
Camping together on lake Apoyo
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Laguana Apoyo
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Route Planning together
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We camped together on the shores of Laguana Apoyo swimming, trading GPS coordinates and stories. We explored Volcano Masaya and the 6 of us stood gazing down into the volcano debating whether the thunder we were hearing was the volcano roaring into action or lightening. In fact at the parking lot you are told to park with the front of the vehicle pointing down hill in case one has to make a speedy escape. It was lightening.
On the Road
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Volcano Masaya
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Park Ready for Quick Get Away
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We said a sad to part ways but I am sure we will meet up again as we all travel south to South America.

Pointing to the Place on the Globe where we were 6 Overlanders
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Safe travels all

PS we videotaped a message to all at Expo from the top of the mountain, but with no internet access it could not be posted but will so just be patient
 

geovalue

Adventurer
We left Apoyo Lake and headed for the Pacific Ocean found a great campsite on the beach and were joined again by Espen and Malin (unurban), Monika and Alex and Frank and Isabel (Swiss overlanders) Had a great time swimming to cool off in the searing heat, Tom made us overlanders Apple Pie for desert in the evening.

Pacific Ocean Campite
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Sunset over Ocean
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Turtle Joins us all for a Swim
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We have updated our blog on Nicaragua and will be heading for Costa Rica soon where we are hoping to catch up with Sprinter.

We had a funny experience at a road block in Honduras, one of our funniest yet.

We have been through hundreds of police and military roadblocks on our travels. We have heard every excuse in the book as to why we need to pay the police officers. We have been arrested; threatened to have our car impounded, guns pointed at us, and blatant demands made for payments before we will be allowed to continue. We have never yet paid a bribe or given into a demand. However, we are always anxious heading out onto a road, which is known for corrupt police officials who demand payment for various reasons. The road between El Salvador and Nicaragua that passes through Honduras has a bad reputation, so bad that often travellers will make a several hundred km detour just to avoid facing the Honduran police. We knew there would be eight police roadblocks on that stretch of road and it is less than 100km, but we were ready. We had a fire extinguisher, red triangles, and reflective vests, red and white reflective tape on the truck and spare tape because we knew they would tell us that the tape was in the wrong place. No problem we have extra where would you like us to put it. We felt we were ready for anything they might demand to see. We also knew the oldest trick in the book was to ask to see our driver’s licence then refuse to give it back unless we pay them. We travel with several drivers’ licences and never ever hand over our originals.
When we know there will be police road blocks I always drive so Tom can focus on the negotiation, as it would never occur them that I could negotiate. It leaves me to focus on the driving and ready for a quick pull off.

Read more on our blog
http://www.adventurouspirits.com/nicaragua-volcanoes-lakes-and-wonderful-people/

Safe travels all
 

geovalue

Adventurer
Finally we have managed to post our video of our experiences with the Monarch Butterflies in Mexico. It is a nature miracle and we loved being surrounded by millions and millions of butterflies. To all the nature lovers enjoy

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHWaeEsixT0"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHWaeEsixT0[/ame]
 

targa88

Explorer
Janet & Tom,
The monarchs are awesome. Just another thing I want to do when I get down to MX.
Planning for 2012...
 

geovalue

Adventurer
Costa Rica has changed since we were last here in 1997. Then travel was difficult, mostly impossible without a 4X4. We stayed at a B&B on the beach at Tamarindo, a dusty little town and watched the leatherback turtles lay their eggs on the beach. Today the roads are tarred, Tamarindo is a fancy beach resort and the turtle long gone. This they call "progress"

We headed to the Rincon De la Vieja National Park and found a delightful campsite just minutes from the entrance to the park. We settled down for a few days of hiking and swimming in the nearby river. It was wonderful.
http://www.elsolverde.com/

The swimming pool in the river was an easy hike from the campsite and the most amazing colour of blue.
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It was so lovely to swim and cool off in the heat of the day. Tom in his element swimming in the pool
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I tried fishing but with no luck
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The Rincon de la Vieja is a delightful place for experiencing some thermally active areas,
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with mud bubbling in the ponds, steam shooting out of vents and water bubbling in the river.
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And little critters along the way
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We are most thrilled with the arrival of our son Derek who is joined us yesterday and will spend a week with us before returning to Canada. It is so wonderful to have family around again. Always the hardest part of overlanding is not having family and dear friends around. So we will make the most of our time together
 

geovalue

Adventurer
Happiness for every overlander is having family join you for a vacation. We are so happy to have our son Derek from Canada join us for week in Costa Rica. We actually booked into a hotel and OMG we are going to find it hard to go back to life on the road after CLEAN flushing toilets with doors, hot shower with water that is not a trickle, a real bed with real clean sheets. Life is good.

Tom and Derek our son kayaking in Costa Rica
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We have also updated our blog and our verdict is out. Central America border crossings have the most scam artists and are the most corrupt borders we have ever experienced. We spent a year overlanding in Europe and crossed 34 border crossing as overlanders in Africa and have never experienced such aggressive men trying to get us to pay for assistance to cross a border.

Logan and Brianna fellow overlanders and Expo Portal contributors from PanAmNotes may soon put these scam artist out of work with their excellent how to notes for borders crossing.
http://panamnotes.com/

There needs to be more resources available and sharing to overlanders in Central and North America. It seems surprising that there are actually more resources available to overlanders crossing Africa than there are resources for overlanders crossing Central America. I think Logan and Brianna have started an excellent trend. Great job you two. When we meet we will have to put our thinking caps on and get a resource system going for overlanders in Central and South America.

Our latest blog http://www.adventurouspirits.com/our-son-derek-arrives-in-costa-rica-to-visit-us/

Safe Travels All
 

geovalue

Adventurer
Today we say good bye to our son Derek who is flying back to Canada and we are heading south towards Panama, It has been wonderful to be with family, hiking, scuba diving, swimming in the ocean and kayaking and of course eating and drinking.

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Now it is back to reality and overlanding. However we missed sleeping in our camper, and are looking forward to exploring more of Costa Rica before Panama. We are also hoping to meet up with some fellow overlanders in Costa Rica which is always fun

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Safe travels all
 

geovalue

Adventurer
We are heading to see Volcano Arenal today and are hoping to meet up with Tree and Stevie from Sprinterlife. It is always fun to meet fellow overlanders especially those on the same route as us.

We loved Mexico and have finally finished our video of Mexico City Ancient to Modern. For anyone considering overlanding across this country this would be interesting, so hope you enjoy

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jnCKYevZLg"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jnCKYevZLg[/ame]

Safe travels
 

CanuckMariner/Nomad

Love having fun 😊 in the 🌞 by the ⛵ and the ⏳
There is a sky trek/tram at the south end of the Laguna, which is really fun. Hope you have to time to take it in. Also the Blue Mountain (?) coffee plantations on the way up from San Jose are great to tour and stop for a coffee along the way. Enjoy! :costumed-smiley-007
 

geovalue

Adventurer
Volcano Arenal did not disappoint, we saw the peak without clouds, the scarred sides of the volcano from repeated eruptions and lava flow. Will we ever tire of seeing the worlds best geological wonders.

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Costa Rica is stunningly beautiful and I especially love the vegetation and trees. We stopped for lunch at this site even had a little wooden table and chair under the tree

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We stopped at a campsite which is in a beautiful location but unfortunately Tom had a really bad fall down a well like hole and smashed his chest into a cement beam in across the hole. He is now in a lot of pain but there is not much one can do for a fractured or bruised ribs so we are now continuing slowly to Panama.

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We are leaving Costa Rica soon and have loved this country but it is time to move on so will be heading into Panama tomorrow.

We have updated our web. http://www.adventurouspirits.com/tom-injured-in-costa-rica/

Safe travels all
 

geovalue

Adventurer
Goodness, I hope he feels better soon.

Are you going to visit or stay at the Panama Passage when you are there?

www.panamapassage.com

Christian posted some pictures in another thread, it looks pretty cool.

Thanks for the comment. Yes we are staying in Panama Passage and Shaun has been extremely helpful especially as the orthopedic surgeon confirmed yesterday that Tom has fractured 2 ribs. So we have to lay low for a while so that healing can take place and Panama Passage makes for an excellent place to hang out. We get to meet some fellow travellers and hear about their adventures.

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Panama Passage
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We will use this down time to catch up on lots of stuff and researching the shipping of our truck to Colombia. We heard it can be challenging hope we are up to it.

Safe travels all
 
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geovalue

Adventurer
Shipping to Colombia

Our stay at Panama Passage in Panama City has been perfect. Tom is able to rest and heal those wonky ribs, Shaun is extremely helpful, and the guests lots of fun.
Tom, Shaun and Lucas
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Tom Relaxes and Catches up with Skyping with Family and Friends
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It has also been time to research and book our shipping from Panama to Colombia. As luck would have it Logan and Brianne (PanAmNotes) are here and we are sharing a 40' container. Time for measuring, will both vehicles fit into the container?

Will these 2 Camper Truck Fit into a Container
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We Measure
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And Remeasure
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We contact several agencies and get quotes and make the decision. The process will begin on Tuesday when we go to the Police to get clearance to take the trucks out the country and Wed we head for the ports and hopefully at that time the trucks and us will be separated, they go into a container and we find our way to Colombia

We also have taken sometime to see a bit of the city. What is amazing us is just how huge it it but lovely and very very hot.

Panama City
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Safe travels all
 
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