Financial Updates: Central (and some of South) America

Time to share our last batch of country expenditure averages! Mostly, Central America was very cheap, and the last few countries in South America were pretty easy on the wallet as well. We left off last time with Peru, so here goes with…

Ecuador: $78.50/day. Not bad at all, though our average was definitely lowered by Andy spending 24 hours in bed with food poisoning in Quito, which meant we had to skip a possibly expensive birding excursion…and, of course, we didn’t go to the Galapagos, which would have blown our budget sky-high. Bus quality was not the highest in Ecuador, but hotel rooms (in the $15-$25 range with private bath) were very decent, and both street food and restaurant food was cheap.

Colombia: $56/day without flight to Panama; $83/day with. Our flight from Colombia to Panama was more expensive than we anticipated—about $250 each with taxes, etc., and we weren’t sure which country to count it against, so in the end we just split it between Colombia and Panama. But even with the flight, Colombia ended up cheaper on paper than we’d anticipated. It doesn’t feel so cheap when you’re there! But Andy and I have noticed that sometimes in countries that seem expensive to us, we compensate by eating out less and doing fewer packaged tours, so it ends up being cheap.

Anyway, accommodation ranged from $10 a night in Santa Marta to $40 a night in Cartagena; and we recommend that you visit Bogota on a Tuesday (half-price movie night) and Wednesday (half-price day at the Salt Cathedral) and stay at the Hostal Platypus (where we got a whole apartment with kitchen for $25 a night) in the old city.

Panama: $98/day without flight from Colombia; $144/day with flight. Yeah, Panama, not so cheap, mainly because excursions are really expensive. And that’s because you usually end up hiring a private guide to take you around. But our trip would not have been the same without birding at Pipeline Road, the train trip along the Panama Canal, and our tour of the Gatun Locks—all worth the money. Hotel room with bath was $20 a night, and restaurants were affordable enough.

Costa Rica: $50/day. This is really skewed, because we only spent two days in CR, and did no excursions except for one trip to the beach (which cost us $13 because it was a national park—we didn’t know about the free beach up the road). We avoided restaurants and stayed in the very cheapest rooms we could find ($20 a night). So that average is really just for rooms, bus, and groceries…if you take a real trip to Costa Rica, expect to pay a lot more (as we did in 2007!).

Nicaragua: $60/day. Nicaragua is the poorest country in Latin America, and definitely one of the cheapest to be a tourist in. We never paid more than $12 a night for a room (but don’t expect high quality at those prices), and tours and Internet were very affordable. We found food to be a little expensive compared to everything else, but, clearly, we got by.

El Salvador: $60/day. El Salvador is definitely wealthier than Nicaragua, but somehow we ended up spending the same amount of money there. Probably because, once again, we did no packaged tours, but just figured out the bus system and went places on our own. Also managed to hit the capital on half-price movie night (it’s Wednesdays in ES). Food is pretty cheap (and tasty!), and our $20/night room in San Salvador was decent. El Salvador is high value.

Honduras: $64/day. We only spent one night in Honduras, so this is pretty skewed, but we hear it’s a pretty cheap country to travel in overall. We stayed in Copan, near the big Mayan ruins ($10 a night for hotel room with bath—cheap; $15 each to visit the ruins—kind of expensive, but very nice ruins). I wouldn’t mind going back sometime and exploring when it’s more stable politically.

Guatemala: $57/day. I think that this makes Guatemala officially the cheapest country we spent any real length of time in. Lodging was around $10 a night (and nicer than the rooms in Nicaragua), and some excursions were quite cheap ($3 each to climb Pacaya Volcano). We thought restaurants were overpriced in some places (like touristy Antigua), so we just ate street food or made sandwiches or cooked. Annoyingly, Guatemala practices “tourist pricing” on some boat and bus routes, meaning that foreigners officially have to pay three times the rate that the locals pay for the same transportation.

Belize: $124/day, strongly skewed by SCUBA diving. (It would have been $78/day without the dives.) Basically, diving is expensive, but the rest of Belize—even touristy Caye Caulker Island—doesn’t have to be. Our rooms ranged from $12.50 to $25 a night, bus transport wasn’t too bad, and with a little sleuthing, we managed to find cheap places to eat out in most towns. The ATM caving tour was a little expensive ($75 per person) but totally worth it. And diving off the Cayes was quite expensive, but also worth it. (There is apparently much cheaper diving off the Bay Islands in Honduras—maybe next time!)

We’ll do another financial update soon, in which we calculate our average daily expenditure for the whole South and Central American trip, working in extra costs like flights, insurance, and camera repair and replacement that we didn’t count against any one country. Until then, adios!

Obsessed: Central America (and the rest of South America)!

If you check out the labels, or tags, on this blog, you will see that Andy has written 52 entries so far and I have only done 45. Maybe that’s because he writes all the obsessions and finance posts. Well, no more—it’s my turn to tell you with what things the countries we visited on the last leg of our trip were obsessed!

South America:

Peru – Coca leaves. Old men chewing them, breakfaster-eaters brewing them…the dried leaves of the coca plant (which, after a whole lot of processing, can become cocaine) are everywhere in Peru (and Bolivia) and illegal to grow or possess in most other South American countries. In their “natural” state, they’re supposed to be stimulating and help fight altitude sickness. I did try a cup of coca tea one morning—not bad, it tasted like green tea, but it had no noticeable effects on me.

Ecuador – The Galapagos. Based on the number of posters you see at travel agencies for Galapagos trips, you’d think that Ecuador has nothing else cool to visit. That is definitely not true—we didn’t make it to the Galapagos, and Ecuador was still one of my favorite countries!

Colombia – Cheese bread! Or maybe that’s just my obsession when in Colombia. Still, there were many different varieties, and you could find it just about anywhere. There were even people baking it in a hut in the middle of Tayrona National Park!

Central America:

Panama – The United States. With US dollars, English-speakers, and Dairy Queens galore, Panama felt more like America than anywhere else we went on the trip. The canal may be in their hands now, but let’s just say that our cultural presence is still felt.

Costa Rica – Not being like the rest of Central America. The government? Stable. The volcanoes? Quiet. The hotels? Expensive. The public buses? Not school buses, and definitely not blasting salsa music, either. Does this place even still qualify as part of Central America?

Nicaragua – The Virgin Mary. Nicaraguans actually invented a whole new holiday that consists of carrying a giant doll of Maria around town and lining up to sing songs to her. Need we say more?

El Salvador – Malls. San Salvador, the capital of El Salvador, has more fancy shopping malls than we have ever seen before in one place. We have no idea how they all stay in business, because the last time we checked, El Salvador wasn’t such a big country, it’s populace wasn’t exactly the richest in the world, and it didn’t have a whole lot of tourists! Still trying to figure this one out…

Guatemala – Volcanoes. They’re everywhere, and they’re erupting RIGHT NOW.

Honduras – Throwing trash out the window of a moving bus (arrrgh!). OK, that’s kind of unfair—I think that every country in Central America is obsessed with doing this. It gave me and Andy little strokes each time we saw it happen (and, even worse, when we saw people encouraging their young children to treat the road like it was a garbage can). But I feel like people did it even more than usual on the buses we took across southern Honduras, and I can’t really think of anything else that country seemed obsessed with (no one was talking about the whole election/coup thing in the more rural areas where we were), so Honduras gets the rap for this one.

Belize – Cruise ships. Apparently, cruise ships have started docking in Belize, and no one can decide whether this is good or bad for the country. Belize City seems pro, as it has set up a whole tourist village in which to sell expensive souvenirs to cruisers, while the people who run the awesome ATM caving tour in the west of the country are con, since they think that cruise excursions there would ruin the delicate artifacts in the cave. The folks at the jaguar reserve seemed conflicted—they’d like the extra revenues, but will more people disturb the jaguars? No, because there aren’t actually any jaguars in the part of the park where people can go!

That’s it for obsessions! If you’ve been to any of these countries, what do you think of our choices?

A Thanksgiving non-feast, and other foods of Nicaragua

Nicaragua is hot, so we eat a lot of ice cream here. Eskimo is the brand that is widely available in scoop shops and supermarkets. It's not amazing ice cream, but it is usually fairly cheap and, as you can see here, brightly colored.

Even cheaper were the "helados castillo" we found for sale in Rivas, our first stop in southern Nicaragua--little plastic bags of homemade ice cream. As you can see from the sign, just 3 cordobas each, or 15 cents. Andy is holding up mani (peanut) and a coco (coconut) ones.

The funnest helado castillo was the tutifruti flavor, which turned out to be basically frozen fruit salad. Can you see the banana and papaya chunks?

Another treat I found at a local bakery in Rivas--"dedos de queso," or cheese fingers. Hooray for cheese bread in Central America!

Something else we like to eat in Nicaragua is homemade candy, which is often coconut-based. That same bakery sold assorted candies for 10 cents each, and we thought we had hit the jackpot!

But the next night, we learned that people out in the street were selling even bigger versions of the same candies for the same price! The pink one in Andy's mouth is coconut and the orange one in my mouth papaya. (Also, note the horse cart in the street to our left! Lots of these in Nicaragua.)

Next to the candy-sellers was a woman selling little sweet breads in the street. They turned out to be made with squash, or at least tasted like it. That seemed rather Thanksgiving-appropriate to us, though it was not yet Thanksgiving.

The only yogurt I could find that was actually made in Nicaragua was Parmalat brand, but it turned out to be really tasty. This drinkable one had huge chunks of real pineapple in it. Delicious!

Andy bought this tamale on the bus to Masaya. (Which was an old school bus, retired to serve public transport needs in Nicaragua after its years of ferrying about American schoolchildren, by the way.)

In Nicaragua, sno cones are called "raspados," and the syrup is thick with chunks of fruit in it, kind of like pie topping. That probably sounds delicious, but hang on. There seem to be two versions--the cheap (20 cent), streetside versions, with day-glo colored toppings, and the more expensive, "traditional" versions, which cost a dollar or more in shops and whose toppings seem to be naturally flavored/colored with molasses.

Sadly, we went for the more expensive version first, and it was vile. The molasses taste was so strong that Andy quit after two bites (I think that the one sugary thing in the world he does not like is molasses) and even I couldn't finish it. We almost never throw food away, but part of this pineapple raspado ended up in the trash. (Luckily, we were brave enough to try the cheap street version several times later in the trip and we loved it!)
Andy had to buy this peanut-brittle-like candy on the street in Masaya to wash the bad raspado taste out of his mouth.

And this gingery candy, which at 1 cordoba (5 cents US) may be the cheapest single piece of street food we have ever bought. Nice to know you can still get something for a nickle in Nicaragua.
Lunch in Masaya was "baho," a stew-like dish of flavorful beef, yucca, and sweet plantains, covered with salad and onions and served on a banana leaf. Oh look, I found a recipe for it. Delicious! (Not so cheap, though--1 portion cost almost $3 US. Luckily, it was big enough to share.)

Masaya is Nicaragua's "capital of culture," and is famous for its handicrafts market. Andy and I visited, and of course did not buy handicrafts, but food! Here is Andy enjoying his giant triangle pastry with pineapple jam in the center (better known as a hammentaschen to you fellow Jews out there).

Whereas I found...more cheese bread! Yaaaay!

Back to ice cream. Banana splits are a popular menu item at Eskimo ice cream shops in Nicaragua. Or at least popular with us. Note how melty this one is--Nicaragua is HOT.

Something else I had never had in my life was Fanta, and I thought that I should probably try some in Latin America. Andy said that the orange kind is really good, so why shouldn't the red kind be good as well? Well, he was wrong, and we both agreed that it was pretty gross.

We were in Masaya for Thanksgiving, but short of one frozen turkey in the case at the supermarket, we saw no signs that anyone was celebrating it anywhere. So we went to a folkloric dance show that night instead, and decided to "splurge" on a dinner at the overpriced venue restaurant. The dancing was great, but the food was boring, not hot, and the service was crappy. Boo!

But here are the promised pictures of our Thanksgiving non-feast. Andy got the "Hawaiian" beef, which turned out to be beef with pineapple on top...

And I got chicken in mushroom sauce. If you see any mushrooms in this picture, please let me know.

So much for Thanksgiving. I did have one piece of that squash bread left over back at our hotel, so we shared it for dessert. Family, we are so looking forward to turkey, mash, pies, etc. at Christmas!

OK, on to the colonial, lakeside city of Granada, the next stop in our culinary tour of Nicaragua. The food I have here is called a quesillo, and it is actually more typical of northern Nicaragua than of Granada, but that's where I got one.

It is a hot tortilla filled with mozzarella cheese, onions, and sour cream. (Yes, I relaxed my no-melted-cheese rule to try this specialty.) It wasn't bad, but I never felt the need to get another.

Donuts!!

I went for size (left), Andy went for filling. We found them a little dense, but fairly tasty.

Granada had its own fair share of tasty meals served in banana leaves. This plate had a bit of everything--rice and beans, plantain chips, sweet plantains, chicken, and salad. The sweet plantains were especially amazing.

The real local specialty of Granada, though, is called "vigoron." It's a rather filling dish of yucca, fried pork skins (or "cracklings"), and salad (served in a banana leaf, natch). Not a combination Andy or I would ever rustle up at home, but I guess it was worth trying once.

Here's a close-up of the vigoron.

Remember that naranjilla we took a picture of in Panama? Well, we bought one in the supermarket in Grananda to try. It was so gross that we pitched it after one bite each. Definitely consistency of a tomato, but I think it may have been underripe...

The baby watermelon we shared was better than the naranjilla, though would have been improved if it had been refrigerated and if it had had about 1 million fewer seeds.

The hot dogs in Nicaragua are really, really long! Andy's was served with a cabbage salad, ketchup, and mayo.

Another tasty combo plate we got from a street griller, this time at the festival in Managua. Rice and beans, plantain chips, sweet plantain, salad, and "mongo," which was some sort of patty with rice and sausage bits and we're not sure what else. We don't really want to know, because we both thought it was tasty, but we also both suspect that it is closely related to black pudding...

Also at the fiesta in Managua--grill-blackened corn cobs. Very popular, and they looked fun, but they sort of tasted like I imagine a decorative Christmas corncob tastes (i.e., dry).

Then, of course, I couldn't find anywhere to throw away my cob for a few hours. ("Is that a corncob in your pocket, Tara, or are you just happy to see me?")

Breakfast at a panaderia in Managua around the corner from our hostel: pineapple-filled empanadas, large and small; a cinnamon roll and a pineappley roll; and two rugaluch-type pastries (called "misterios" for some reason), all for $1.50. They were OK, I guess, but looked better than they tasted.

Terre Haute, Indiana, residents will appreciate that this product is available in fine supermarkets Nicaragua-wide!

Another drinkable yogurt I tried at our last destination in the country, Leon. Yoplait brand, frutas mixtas. Eh, shoulda stuck with the Parmalat.

In conclusion, most of the foods in Nicaragua are similar to what you might find in other nearby countries, with a few rather strange, but interesting national specialties (like quesillos and vigoron). Restaurants here are surprisingly expensive considering how cheap lodging and transport are, so we found ourselves sharing meals a fair amount, hitting up the grocery stores, and (shockingly!) eating a lot of street food.

On to the pupusas of El Salvador next!

Managua and more virgins in Nicaragua

Managua doesn't feel very urban. Maybe it is spread out, but it barely feels like a city. We arrived in Managua, the capital city of Nicaragua, on a religious festival day honoring the conception of Christ. Not many people were around until we found the center of the celebration (including tons of street food). Apparently, this holiday began in Leon, Nicaragua, and has become a lot like Christmas carolling. People go door to door with giant virgin Marys singing a song that sounds to me a lot like "It's a Small World". Also, Virgin Marys get set up all over the city and people can instead come to her to sing. So, here are some pictures.

One of the Marys on the street with people singing. The line to sing to her was about a block long and later it got even longer.
Daniel in this message is Daniel Ortega, president of the country and strong socialist. He is very, very popular and messages like this are scrawled nearly everywhere. It may be that those of other parties are removed while his are not, but my bet is that he wins reelection in 2011.

Our first night in Managua, we got sucked into the big performance outside the old cathedral (the interior was destroyed by earthquakes and is not open, but it still looks nice). They repeatedly sang two songs about the Virgin Mary and were apparently awaiting the arrival of one of the traveling statues of her. However, after two hours we gave up and left. What we realized only at that point was that no one cared about the staute. They had only come because they were giving away free buckets of staple foods like corn, rice, and beans. As soon as people got their buckets, they were running for the exits.

They had built a lovely Christmas tree out of lights and had a lot of fireworks all night long. They also had the fireworks that simply explode with no pretty lights that went off about every 10 seconds for the whole two hours. Apparently that is how they honor Mary.

In Nicaragua, Tara and I both got haircuts. For $1.50 each. Here is Tara's, which looks good for $1.50.

The Honduras coup is covered a lot in the news here. We saw a few signs on the topic. (Zelaya is the ousted president of Honduras.)

This is the new cathedral in Managua, paid for by the founder of Domino's Pizza, who now devotes his fortune to Catholic causes. Inside, it feels like a cross of a high school gym and a bomb shelter. Outside, it at least looks cool.

From Managua, we went to Leon. Leon is the other major colonial center and is most famous because it has nearly a one-to-one colonial church to person ratio. Here is one such church. Because I don't remember the names, I'll call this the pink one.

Leon is near the Cerro Negro Volcano, which is one of the most active in the world. However, when it erupts, it just spews out lava bombs (small bits of lava that harden in the air and are rock before they hit the ground). They have tours here in which you hike to the top with a piece of plywood nailed to a piece of metal and then sled down the volcano on it. We first read about this in the New York Times about a year ago and have known we had to do it ever since. Here is the truck to take us to the volcano.

Here is the volcano. We climbed up the right side in this picture and then slid down at almost the left side.

Looking down from the top, you can clearly see where the small lava flow and rocks from previous eruptions stop. Lots of volcanoes in the area, but this is the only active one.

Looking down into the crater of the volcano. We actually got to hike around in the crater as the guide was telling us about how they are really bad at predicting when it will erupt.

Now, for the main event. Here we are in our jump suites getting ready for the sledding. On the ground in the background, you can see a couple of the sleds.

This isn't either of us, but here is roughly what you look like sledding down. The incline is 41 degrees, which may not sound like a lot, but is really steep. While you are sledding down, these tiny black rocks are flying at your face. And they have a radar gun to clock your speed. It was great! We have video of Tara going down.

Here is Tara upon completion of her run. She fell a couple times, but did a great job. In the end, I was clocked at 65km/hour (40mph) and Tara was clocked at a slightly slower 20km/h (though she was going faster at one point before the radar gun). The record is 50mph, so I wasn't even close to that.

Back in town, we ran into this woman. Not sure who she was supposed to be, but I'll guess that it has something to do with the Virgin Mary.

We'll call this the Yellow Colonial Church of Leon.

This one is the main cathedral of Leon. It is huge for a city this size. Apparently, there are stories that the plans for Lima were accidentally sent here instead, so now they have a huge cathedral.

We don't know what kind of store this is, but we have seen it in two different cities and we like the logo. I think they sell clothing. Or maybe execution equipment.

That ends our travels in Nicaragua. After this, we head to El Salvador, passing through Honduras on the way. Nicaragua has been a good experience. To any thinking about visiting, it is worth the trip and definitely go volcano boarding.