Afflicted with a severe form of nostalgia, we longingly looked at our pictures from the trip of our lifetimes, and noticed a lot of them which were worthy of publishing but did not have that luck. Here they are, in our third episode of Unpublished, spanning seven months of our life, from New Zealand to the USA to Central America.
The end of our journey inescapably looms on the horizon. The clock is ticking and becomes louder every day, as we make our way south through Chile. Only two weeks after our scorching explorations of the Atacama Desert, we could not find ourselves in a more different landscape: we had to unpack all our cold weather gear to snowshoe in the winter wonderland.
On our way down from Nicaragua to Panama, we stopped on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica to get some sun on the beach and explore the rainforest. Though we unfortunately had little sun — this time being the rainy season of Central America — we did enjoy a day of wildlife watching in Punta Cahuita.
Many a traveler has heard of the beauty of Ometepe Island with its two volcanos, lush hills and beautiful beaches. On our way back down to Costa Rica, we made it our last destination in Nicaragua, thinking that we would finish our stay in this country with its jewel. On the morning we set over to the island, the weather was rather friendly and we therefore got a glimpse of the island’s unique beauty from the deck of the ferry. However, the following days showed us what “rainy season” meant in Central America and we often had to take refuge from the downpours. Luckily we found a room in a nice homestay in Moyogalpa, the main town and port of the island, where Doña Chilo prepared tasty asados (grilled meat) and a vitamine bomb called tutti frutti (fruit juice with pieces of many different fruits in it) — so we did not mind to stay and wait for the rain to pass. In fact, we had some of our best meals of the whole country on this island; and, on top of that, the locals were very friendly and relaxed, more so than on the mainland, creating a laid back atmosphere and slow pace that suited well our days of rest.
“I hadn’t even mentioned Airbnb because I thought you already knew, what with you two being globe-trotters and all!”
Liza had been unable to host us, but had looked into a number of alternatives to help us, although without success. Fortunately, Madleina, Ladina’s cousin whom we had visited two weeks earlier in the Silicon Valley, had told us about Airbnb, a community-based platform for subletting and subrenting everything from a bed to a villa. We had ended up finding the cheapest bed we could possibly hope for, given New York’s crazy accomodation prices.
Liza (Elisabeth by her real name, but it’s damn too long!) was another old friend of mine, who happened to be in New York at the same time as us. She was greatly enjoying her stay, and, as an art lover, loved the fact that she was able to go to all the museums of the city for her work. We took the opportunity to spend a fabulous evening and make a few cultural visits together.
“So now you’re staying in Brooklyn?”
We were, de facto, Brooklynites for a week.
The Caltrain came to a halt and dozens of IT specialists from different companies located in the Silicon Valley spilled out of the suburban train. As we waited for them to clear the way before getting on, our backpacks shouldered and exhausted from the twelve-hour flight from Auckland to San Francisco, a man with Google Glasses caught my eyes. Was he screening me? Or just checking his emails while walking? I could not stop staring at him. It was surreal and frightening. The doors of the train beeped, calling me back to reality, and I swiftly got on the train before the doors closed behind me.
Oh brave new world; that is quite a change from the isolated, calm New Zealand to the heart of today’s technological development area. Hello Silicon Valley!
Intrigued by the pictures of Milford Sound that haunted us from tourist guidebooks and postcards, we set out to discover New Zealand’s most famous fjord on our own. The Milford Road, probably one of the most spectacular highways I ever drove on and which leads — as the name suggests — to the sound, invited us to stop at many sites to absorb the beauty of nature. Once arrived at Milford Sound, a two-hour cruise took us through the fjord and out to the open sea. The crisp air, the morning sun and the misty clouds hanging in the green mountains composed a serenity that brought deep pleasure to my heart. The pictures only convey a small impression of the whole scenery, but being there, living it, proved me once again how precious traveling is, allowing you to feel those places.
That is the reason why the blog has seen so few updates in the last three weeks. Not the cows: the beach. While we were declaring to everyone we were super ultra busy in our travel, we were actually shamelessly whiling the days away, basking in the golden sun, sipping fruity lassis or playing frisbee (admittedly at a terrible level). Well I guess that still made us a bit busy.
Oh God, I want to be back in Goa already. Why did we leave, again?
