Merry Xmas

Hello Everyone...
Thank you for all the wonderful support and comments we´ve had on our blog in last year.
Angela and I have finally left the paridise of Santa Teresa. Thank you once again to Tomas & kristina for making us feel at home.
We will be in Fort Lauderdale Florida visiting my mom for the Holidays. Coming back to San Jose on New Years day. The plan is to hit then road on the 1st of 2009 to the Caribbean side of Costa Rica into Panama. We look forward to a new year with many new adventures into the unknown.

We will soon have new photos and stories... stay tuned!
Merry Xmas and best of 2009 to All!!

Tomas Bellander & Jorgen Kard playing in their Kayaks, Santa Teresa

Not only surfers are catching waves these days...

small waves but lots of sunshine

Angela enjoys the beach while Tomas and I play in the waves.

Surf school

I have now been in Santa Teresa for 3 months! Time goes by when you're having fun.
Calixte has gone home and my girlfriend Angela from Chile has join me for the South America's
journey.
Learning to surf was my main focus here... day after day of pounding waves on my head, getting scared,
drinking salt water, it all paid off at the end. After 2 months of hard work... I finally started to catch real waves...
no more white wash. Surfing has to be one of the hardest sports to learn... if not * The hardest!*
Like everything, you want to get better.... put in your time!
Thanks to Tomas Richie, I have learn from the best...

Here I am, on a sunset wave.

*Focus*

NAMASTE

Another day in Paradise.....

Life these days consists of... 5 am wake up call from Tomas - Surfing - Yoga - Eat - Sleep -

My alarm doesn't even get to go off before Tomas shows up to my shack. *WAKE UP!!!* Time for a power shake- the sound of the blender doesn't give me time for a secound snooze ... Surf looks good!
Lets go!...
I'm half asleep - trying to wake up while Tomas is playing a few notes on his *Bong* The day has started.
The question of the day.... * which board to use???* I'm living in Tom's board room - The Office -
a dozen of different boards fill's up the celling.
For me it's easy... one board is all I need, anything to keep me floating!! - my lifesaver.

Surf'n the morning while the ocean is shinning with the early sunlight rays. Few hours of trashing, washing machine rides,
water filling up my brain until it's time to come out...
have some food, nap in the hammock, check the waves, little yoga, more food, then off for the sunset washing machine ride....
ahhhhh
Life is Costa Rica,
Ya it's bed time again, and look forward to that alarm clock!

Santa Teresa ...

Santa Teresa Costa Rica

It's been almost a few weeks now in Costa Rica.
We spent a week in Tamarindo, Cal had to get some teeth worked on - cheap good dentisto!!
Bikes got new back wheel bearings, oil change - We have now traveled over 20 000 kms since Jasper Alberta.
Costa Rica was one of the mystery places I wanted to see. It's like they say, bad roads, green lush rain forest,
Perfect surf, beautiful beaches, friendly atmosphere, a good place to chill while the rainy season goes by. Usually the most rain comes in October. So the idea is to get as much surf in while relaxing under the palm trees.
Prepare for Panama then then to South America!!!

Calixte went home. It was time for him to visit his family. A long year went by, Long enough that days - time - dates - don't even matter anymore, it's just another beautiful day.
We drove from the Rocky Mountains in Canada, threw the beautiful valleys of Montana, Crazy red landscape of Utah, riding in snow storms to go Ice climbing in Colorado, Rock climbing in the desert of Utah, 2 months of rock climbing in Mexico, Summit on the highest peak of Mexico *Pico de Orizaba*
Going back in time with the Ruins of the Yucatan, threw Belize - More green lush dirts roads and amazing culture of Guatemala
to Surfing in El Salvador, crazy headache border crossings in Honduras - Muddy roads of Nicaragua - and Now, back to surfing in Costa Rica... yes, already a year went by! - NO flat tires - No bike problems!!! (keep fingers X !!!)

Unfortunately the Cal & Al mission will be no longer the Cal & Al....
Calixte is staying home in New Brunswick Canada, different plans for the future. His budget was running low so it is time for him to get back to work.
A year was enough for him. But it has been a good year! Many new friends, experience - memories.

I will be staying in Santa Teresa until end of November - the bikes have until dec to leave the country. A friend of mine from Chile
will be taking over the saddle and joining me to Tierra Del Fuego Chile.

The Blog will not change, ... new images and stories will be posted as we go.
So stay tuned for more adventures...

COSTA RICA!!!

Two little boys see us from miles away, running down the dusty road along with millions of truckers.
"COSTA RICA????" one says to me, "you want to go to Costa Rica??" The boyz were ready for business.
Every time we cross borders, it's business, Little Antonio was going to be our paper boy.
Photocopies, more photocopies, $20 here, $20 there.... more copies more money... hours go by and you wonder when you will
actually cross and get it over with.
Running in one office, then to another office, It's always an adventure on its own. The bikes are the most paper work.
3 hours later and $85 US cost... we were on our way into Costa Rica.
As we drove down the road, lined up truckers for over 2 KMs waiting to cross made me feel better that 3 hours of waiting was better then 3 days!!! We had never seen a border with that many trucks. All coming from Panama, making their way into the Americas.

The windy paved road, music blasting in my headphones, already it felt good, GREEN, VERY GREEN, as I always imaging Costa Rica, but an hour later down the road, we realized why they call it " THE RAIN FOREST " as the rain started to come down just after sunset. Then heavier rain hard enough to hurt you threw you jacket! It was getting a little scary driving with all the giant trucks zooming by at 120 kms / hr so we quickly started to look for shelter.

We spotted a some kind of restaurant with a big open terrace. Seems like a good spot! Lets check it out.
We pulled in, soak to the bones, the owner was sitting in front looking at us confused. " Hay Comida aqui?" we asked the guy.
"si - si - claro " So we took our wet layers off and ordered a couple of cold beers and some warm food. Already the food was better then Nicaragua. It felt good to eat something tasty. We asked the guy if we could stay under his porch in our hammocks and told him we would be gone in the morning. The men accepted us with open arms, so we set up camp, had a few more beers and fell asleep under the roof listening to the sound of poring rain.

Adios Nicaragua...

Leaving San Juan Del Sur at our usual *crack of noon* we decided to check out the lake site of Isla De Ometepe were 2 beautiful volcanoes- Maderas (1394 m) and Concepcion (1610 m) create this island of lush green pristine forest, culture, wildlife. Sitting in the middle of Lake Nicaragua.
We had plan to go to the island and drive around for a few days then the possibility of crossing to the other side and make our way to Costa Rica threw very remote road and border crossing of San Carlos.
But since we are in the middle of rainy season and due to Hurricanes on the Caribbean side. Heavy rain made us think about it twice. Dengue fever is at high risk right now on the island, also chances of malaria.
The road on the other side is BAD as locals say...* mucho Lodo!! * puddles of mud. I was ready for an adventure, but with our visa expiring a week later, we could afford having any Epic and the border is also only open several days a week.
Plan B - drive straight to Costa Rica on the Panamerican highway.

Nicargua was nice, very remote places to discover, dirt roads all over the place, makes it adventurous in the rainy season!!! But after getting a little sick in San Juan ( got some kind of Parasite from food) I was ready to be in a new country.

We've been looking forward to Costa Rica since day one of this trip. I've travelled all over the world in the past decade but Costa Rica
was a place I always wanted to see. Travelers have told me about all these great surf spots, Rain forests, crazy wild life.
Costa Rica..... Here we come!

Sweet beach of Marsella

Angela and I went on a mission to find some quiet beaches. And found what we were looking for.....
Playa Marsella, a short dirt road north of San Juan Del Sur.

Surf Mission to Papoyo

It was more fun driving down the road to Papoyo, then the surf!!!
Our friend Benjamin and JB drove all the way down from El Zonte Salvador. They were psyked on some big surfing time.
cal and I were excited to shoot good footage and pics, we had plan this trip together when we were in El Zonte.
Papoyo was the Surf Spot to hit in Nicaragua.... Big Waves, barrels, OFFshore wind 360 days a year, low crowds.
But not this week! Winds were onshore, NO waves, rain. I guess we hit the 5 days of ONSHORE winds!
Driving there was a mission on its own. Ben had the little mini van, impressive!!! going threw puddles up to his door frame,
we were ready for an epic to happen all the way that 30 kms dirt track.
But the mini bus mad it, and Cal and I had more fun driving threw the puddles with the girls behind us than anything.
After all, thats what our bikes are for and we sure road them until we couldn't see color!

Papoyo is very secluded, just North of San Juan Del Sur, the most touristy destination in Nicaragua and also surf spot. Papoyo keeps the crowd away... we see why after seeing the road!
Not much to be found there, few places to stay, a beach that stretches for a KM long.
Rain was coming down everyday... (after all we are in rainy season! )
Ben started to get worried about the drive back. They say in October, when the REAL rain comes, you can't even get out!!! the rivers get so high, even Jeeps won't make it ( our DR's would ...hahaha .. I think!! )

So we left, ... another mission out, but the rivers were lower, so mini had no problems. Ben and JB went back to El Zonte... were the waves are always good. Cal and I went to San Juan Del Sur with the girls ( Yvonne and Angela ) the sun came out a bit
more.

It's now time for a new country, Cal and I are excited for Costa Rica, it's been a long time since I wanted to check it out, we are 40 minutes away, winds are blowing, rain comes down hard once in a while... it will be an adventure.
Lets just hope the sun will fallow us down the road.

Costa Rica... here we come!!!

Two Border Crossings in a day

We finally left El Zonte, it was hard but we had too because of our bike permits, El Salvador only gave us two months of road travel with are bikes, although our tourist visas were still good, we were forced to leave because of the bike permit situation.
I have to say El Dorado is like Hotel California, " You can check in but you can never leave" hahah That place was a little paradise. We wanted to stay and work more but thats what traveling is all about, seeing new places and venturing off in to the unknown.

We left with hugs and kisses to all the staff, said our fare wells and off we went to the border. We wanted to try and exit El Salvador, cross the Honduras border as well as enter Nicaragua all in one day but we didn't even make it to the Salvador border.

30 minutes after we left, my bike started to act a little weird. We pulled over and Al the mechanic fixed her up real nice. It took a little tender love and care but he figured out the problem. Because we spent so much time on the coast, the humidity created a little water in my gas line and we had to drain all the water so the bike would run normally again. An hour later we're back on the road and riding through beautiful inland landscapes of El salvador. We never made it to the border that day but we did make it close. We found a nice sleezy motel and spent the night. Most likely the dirtiest place we've seen but hey " you can't always get 5 star service while traveling through different zones.

The next morning we left early and headed to the border. We knew it was gonna be a pain in the ass but my god was it ever worse than we expected. Three hours of paper work,$85 each!!! finally we crossed in to Honduras. There is only 125 km between the Honduras and Nicaragua border so we didn't waste any time and headed straight for the Nicaragua border. We arrived around 5 pm and started the paper work once again. This time it was a little easier but still no piece of cake. Finally around 7 pm we were ready to enter Nicaragua. The policeman told us to stay at a hotel right after the border because the road was dangerous at night so we took his advice and checked in to another dump for the night. It' s funny how this trip has been from one extreme to the other over the course of a day.........As Alain always says the more extreme the better..Hahaha..
Now we're in Leon Nicaragua, a beautiful little town north west of the Capital of Managua. We're staying in nice hostel which is cheaper than the last two #$%^ holes we stayed in. I'm sipping a nice local beer with a beautiful waitress serving me. Life is back the way it should be Haha.....Tomorrow we go to Managua as my Friend Yvonne from Ottawa is coming to visit for a week. Alain's friend from Chile, Angela is here and she has been traveling with us from El Salvador to here. It's time to relax with the ladies for a week......