This is it, friends! As the semester progressed I found it harder to publish, but this is very good because I really took advantage of my time here, AND you have to hang out with me if you want more details from my adventures. I'll give a sort of one-photo-per-adventure finale here, and the rest will be shared in person, because I come home in two days! So as it came out, this really is one photo per adventure, and covers every weekend between now and right after Chirripó! I hope you all enjoyed these as much as I have enjoyed [View Full Entry]

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This wraps up our incredible adventure. We descended, celebrated, and took off for Puntarenas so Katie could meet my family. That Saturday I took katie to the airport in Alejuela and she made it back safe and sound, and with a way cooler story for she did over spring break! [View Full Entry]

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Before I start this blog--which will be awesome--I should note that I completed the blog from my trip with Mom, even though you all didn't get an email. I added about 6 or 7 photos to finish it out, and they're pretty cool! Ok, so I took about 50% of my photos from this trip within the two days we spent climbing Cerro Chirripó. The first day we started out early in the morning, around 5 maybe, and after about 15 minutes of hiking groggily, I remembered our hiking sticks, dropped my pack, ran down, and ran back up. I felt [View Full Entry]

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The sub-subtitle--or the overarching title, not sure which--would be: An Account An Three Parts of the Best Week of My Life. Really, I couldn't call it anything else. Katie graciously forfeited her spring break to come and spend with me one amazing week in Costa Rica! I literally had the best time of my whole life, and am very grateful for all the experiences we had. Katie and I traveled from the Airport to San José, to San Isidro de General, where we were picked up by our amazing hostel owner, John, in his 4X4 to take us up the slightly [View Full Entry]

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Contrary to my previous messages, this blog is now complete, containing all of the photos I wanted to include for this adventure. Cheers! This, my friends, although it is the largest of all my previous entries, is but a taste of the many adventures my Mum and I had traveling around Nicaragua and Costa Rica. Choosing the photos was a difficult task, and I omitted about 90% of all that I took, so if you want to see more, track me down once I’m State-side. Mommo and I, upon the early morning after her delayed arrival to San José, made for [View Full Entry]

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I don't have classes on Wednesdays, so I went to see a bit of the city. This was my first time in San José since my flight to Costa Rica in the beginning of January, so everything was very new for me. As much as I try to hold myself back from having expectations before I visit a place, but I can't help admitting that San José was actually smaller than I thought! In my mind the capital of this country was to be a sprawling metropolis like our Big Apple or the Windy City--but San José was all of the [View Full Entry]

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I hope this to be the first of many entries that include this new part of my family. This is the family of Rogelio, the son of my host mother (who is actually a great grandmother, or bisabuela), and I can´t say enough great things about these people. I met them in the typical way I meet everyone in Costa Rica: I came home in the middle of a party (there´s almost always a party going on during the weekends), and they knew exactly who I was and I had no idea who they were. This family is slightly different, though, [View Full Entry]

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Hitting the open road on my own! Friday 23 to Saturday 24 de Febrero I had spent lots of time traveling with peers or with family friends around Costa Rica, but I knew it was time to discover some of the country for myself. I chose Parque Nacional Manuel Antonio because I had heard that it was basically an incredibly beautiful park that has been turned into one of the top five tourist spots in the country. Some one wrote that it was to Costa Rica as Main Street USA is to Disney World, just with more animal life, forest, and [View Full Entry]

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Hey friends, This entry is a little more me-specific, instead of the more-general previous two entries. I traveled with a friend, Rafa, to Mal Pais to give my surfing legs a go, and it went...pretty great! I got up at least twice, and only got another surfer angry for "swiping his wave" once! Well, at least I learned a lot with my twenty four hours of rented board. I learned why I don't surf, mainly, but gosh was it fun! That weekend, I surfed Saturday in the afternoon until the sun set (a very cool effect out on the water), and [View Full Entry]

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Hey, so I'm back. I've been doing a lot, and have a lot to catch you up on! First, I wanted to add a small entry on gringo culture in Costa Rica. Unfortunately, Costa Rica is becoming something like a small piece of the United States. The country is packed with American tourists, but more recently, droves of wealthy Americans who have decided to retire here, and the affects are, in my opinion, less than desirable. Clothing, name brands, food, and yes, even walmart, have all come to CR, and within the past two years, the cell phone fad has crashed [View Full Entry]

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