Chris y Nikki

During our many hours of relaxation at Punta Mala we read through a local advertisment magazine and found a hotel that caught our eye. Timarai Bamboo Resort The ad had pictures of surfing, kiteboarding, paramotoring, wakeboarding, etc. Slightly more entertaining than raking, so we went to check it out on our "free day". There we met Kent and Pablo, who had just recently been hired to run the resort's activities. Kent is a pro kiteboarder, originally from Indiana. Pablo's expertise was paramotoring, and he came from Argentina. Side story: We were talking to Kent and Pablo in the office about kiteboarding for about an hour when we first got there (that's what I hoped to do). During the discussion I was describing where I'd learned to kiteboard and I realized I was wearing my "Iowa ... read more

Waterslide Picnic Central America Caribbean » Costa Rica » Quepos By Chris y Nikki March 18th 2007 Chris and Nikki Before we left for Playa Hermosa / Punta Mala, our Tico family decided to take everyone to another ranchero for the day. We spent the day playing washers, soccer, eating and of course sliding down the waterslide (tobogán en español). The highlight of the day was Jamie's head injury when he tried to do a front sommersault (sp?) off the slide. He put his head down at the last second and his forhead knicked a little bump on the slide and split open. Lots of blood, talk of stitc... read more

We decided it was finally time to see the park. We hired a guide so we'd actually have a chance to see some animals. Our guides name was Mauricio, and he knew his stuff. He also had a really nice telescope that gave us great views of the animals and some good pics too. That said, it was pretty freakin expensive for a 3 hr tour. Here are some photos from the walk. Hasta luego...... read more

Last Saturday we went on a canopy tour near Quepos with three other students from the school. You wear a harness similar to rock wall climbing and they hook you onto a wire cable that spans from one platform to another, anywhere from 50 meters to 400 meters. The longest on our tour was just over 400. If you can zoom in on one of the photos I think it says the length. So they hook you on to the line, you sit down, put one hand on the rope and one hand on the cable to slow down and keep yourself straight. On the longest line the guide said we were probably moving about 35 mph. It was a fun experience - not too many animals, but the guides were fun and we all enjoyed ... read more

We're playing catchup with photos here. We got back from the Arenal trip around 4 and shortly after our Tico family invited us out the Quepos Festival. There was some live music, rides (bumper cars was the best) junk food, and bull riding. I'll let the captions and the pictures tell most of the story. The next day we had a 3 hour surf lesson and local surf spot that took us through some pretty interesting neighborhoods to get too. The waves were bigger than in Manuel Antonio beach and there was no one else but Nikki, me and the three locals that came with us. Valentine's day was Juan's mother's 69th birthday and he surprized her with a party and mariachi singers. Juan also took Nikki for a spin on the dance floor. Friday night ... read more