Buenos Aires to Vegas - The Trek

Another overnight bus meant I wouldn `t miss out much Pacific coast beach action in Puerto Escondido. The bus was chilly again but I did have my hoodie so I got a few winks in. I arrived at the bus terminal around 7am. The Mayflower Hotel was just a short walk down the hill so I checked in and had a wake-up shower. The place was very quiet due to the early hour so I went to the local supermarket to stock up on supplies. For a large supermarket, they had a disturbing lack of basic things such as tomatoes and bananas! I took a brief stroll to the beach and watched all the fishing boats come in with their catch. The inner bay near the hostel was calm but as you walk around to Playa Marinero and Playa Zicatela , you get to see the large rough surf the area is famous for. Puerto Escondido is world renowned for being the "Mexican Pipeline" of surf spots. The best surf apparently comes in around November time and professional bodyboarders and surfers flock to ride some of th...

Having spent our obligatory days on the Costa Rican coastline, we moved on to play catchup with our elusive friends. Checking out of the Coral Reef to tearful goodbyes from all the "dudes" there, we got our bus to the town of Liberia. The guidebooks had good things to say about this place despite there not actually being much stuff to do. We considered staying one night but upon arrival, the hot dustbowl town was just not that appealing to us. We got on the next bus to the Nicaraguan border. On the bus we met Jen and Amy, some Aussies who were heading to the same town as us, San Juan del Sur . We agreed to share a cab through from the border into town and we all ended up camping down at the Casa Oro hostel... a place that seemed perfect for the surfer clientelle . After spending a short time there I noticed that just about everybody was either Australian or French Canadian. There were a few English and Scandinavians present too but I was surprised by the make-up of the t...

Again the group decided to split. Elaine, Helene and Irina had had enough of Costa Rica and wanted to make tracks to Nicaragua. Myself and Marie ( Helvete /Jeopardy) still wanted to explore a bit more of the country. We were both intent on spending a few days on the beach in Tamarindo . We had two options to get there from Monteverde . The first was to take a private shuttle door-to-door for $45 each or alternatively take public transport (a few changes along the way) which was up to 4 hours longer but only cost around $10 each. The staff at the hostel almost begged us to take the shuttle, mainly because they thought ...