Road Trip: Costa Rica to Wisconsin, April 2009

Greetings from Miami!

I hope you are enjoying your summer and taking plenty of time to relax, enjoy the weather, and perhaps even travel a bit! As many of you already know, I returned from Costa Rica in April. However, rather than simply taking a quick flight to Wisconsin, my dad agreed to take the adventurous route with me, embarking on a 2-week road trip from Costa Rica to Wisconsin. Here are the highlights from our trip:

My dad flew down to San Jose, where we spent a day exploring the city, the neighborhood where I lived, and touring a coffee plantation, ending the day with dinner at a restaurant high in the mountains south of the city. We then departed the city at 3am for a whirlwind bus trip through Central America and Mexico, traveling via TicaBus to:
1) Nicaragua - where we visited Masaya Volcano National Park & the oldest city in Central America, Granada;
2) Honduras;
3) El Salvador - our favorite, or at least most memorable!, taxi ride was in the capital city of San Salvador;
4) Guatemala; and
5) Tapachula, Mexico.

In Tapachula, we caught the first of 4 overnight buses as we traveled through Mexico:
*first to Mexico City;
*then to Mazatlan [on the Pacific coast, north of Puerto Vallarta], where we enjoyed a day of relaxing in the city and at the beach before departing at midnight for the
*town of Los Mochis, where we boarded the CHEPE train - after waiting in a crowded room for over an hour and then stampeding toward the train at 7am - and then headed east across the Copper Canyon, which is 4 times larger than the Grand Canyon. After a quick stop (and we mean QUICK! just 15 minutes to shop for souvenirs, eat gorditas, and snap pictures of the canyon) stop at the canyon's highest point [Divisadero], we continued a bit further on to the
*mountain town of Creel, where we enjoyed an adorable hotel for a mere $30 and were loving our first night of sleep NOT in a bus in 4 days.
*The next day, after 2 more bus trips [to Chihuahua & Juarez], we walked across the Bridge of the Americas in Juarez and
*entered the U.S. at El Paso, Texas. We then rented a car and drove to
*southeast New Mexico to start the state-side half of our journey.

In New Mexico, we stayed with a wonderful couple [courtesy of couchsurfing.org!] and enjoyed visiting
~White Sands National Monument,
~White Sands Missile Range [army base], and
~Holloman air force base (where our host worked).

We then continued northeast to meet up with the old Route 66 highway, which we followed through the
1) Texas panhandle,
2) Oklahoma - we stayed a night in Oklahoma City and toured the moving Oklahoma City bombing memorial at night,
3) Missouri - we spent Easter Sunday in St. Louis at the arch and enjoying a dinner of the city's famed toasted ravioli in the Little Italy district, and
4) Illinois.

In Illinois, we headed off the Route 66 trail to head west into Iowa, where we visited the little town of Dyersville - home of the "Field of Dreams" movie site! Then, finally, it was on to Wisconsin and home, after a wonderfully exciting journey:
*7 countries
*6 borders - 4 crossed on foot
*86 total hours on buses
*3 nights attempting to sleep on Mexican buses
*6+ passport checks by Mexican officials - all done in the middle of the night on the buses
*riding in many different styles of taxis - only one of which made us wonder if we might make it!
*"mingling" with the locals in Central America & Mexico -
~in express buses [translate: overly-crowded mini-van] in Nicaragua
~on the street with friendly Nicaraguans who, after visiting their home, we had to wonder about their "profession"...
~in restaurants
~on hours-long bus rides
~by waking up sleeping bus drivers to get help in looking for lost items - that's one experience I wish not to repeat!
~asking for directions - only had to do this once...haha...
*driving along over half of the historic Route 66 highway, enjoying countless unique - and often downright strange... - roadside attractions, including:
~Mid-Point Cafe [Adrian, TX]
~Cadillac Ranch [near Amarillo, TX]
~the world's largest cross [TX]
~the Blue Whale [Catoosa, OK]
~the Round Barn [east of Oklahoma City, OK] - this was definitely the strangest attraction.....
~gigantic caves [Rolla, MO]
~Scott Joplin's childhood home [St. Louis, MO]


After returning home to Wisconsin, I spent time catching up with friends in the Fox Cities, Milwaukee, and even traveling to South Florida (including a day-cruise to the Bahamas!); job-hunting (initially just for part-time work and later for permanent work in a non-profit organization); and thinking about my next move - both career-wise and literally. After visiting the Miami/Ft. Lauderdale area and job-searching in the area, I decided to focus my job-hunt on the greater Miami area. I moved down to Miami on July 1st, and I'm currently at the final stage of the interview process for a job I'm very eager to start.