Well, what a great way to end my holiday in Costa Rica. On Saturday we got the bus down to Puerto Viejo on the caribbean coast. It is every bit how you think it should be, palm trees, beautiful weather, people riding on bikes and a general relaxed and non hurried vibe going on. We stayed at the infamous ¨"Rocking J´s" hostel on our first night in a tent and although cheap and hassle free we both decided that we weren´t 18 anymore and wanted to live it up a little for our last few nights. The next day we found [View Full Entry]

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After coming back to San Jose on Tuesday night we set off on Wednesday morning to the pacific coast to the Tortuguero National Park. We had opted for a 2 nights/3days tour and ended up on a tour with 20 Spanish! Good for me as I got to practise some of spanish but still hard work. We got there in the afternoon and set off to see the village of Tortuguero. We could only reach our hotel by boat so everywhere we went had to be in this mode of transport. Tortuguero has a different vibe to the Pacific coast because [View Full Entry]

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This morning we set off in the morning for a jeep boat jeep ride to the next door town of La Fortuna. I say next door, we went the quick way which took about 3.5 hours and is the favoured tourist route. If we had taken the local bus it would have been 8 hours because instead of going over the lake you have to go round it. While we were in La Fortuna we went to Volcan Arenal where we saw lava spilling out of it, as it was dark it was a spectacular sight, like fireworks on a mountain [View Full Entry]

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After Montezuma we made our way up the gravel road that the locals have refused paving for (to keep the tourism down) to Monteverde (Green Mountain). This place is beautiful and is just rolling hills for miles. We stayed in a farm stay which was great, yesterday we did a canopy zip wire through the forest in the cloud which was amazing followed by suspension bridges, butterfly gardens and a humming bird garden. A proper day out with nature! Photos attached are of me down the Tarzan swing! [View Full Entry]

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On Thursday 9th August I left Antigua in Guatemala and made my 2 day journey down to Costa Rica. The journey was fine and over pretty quickly considering the distance. After spending a day in the capital San Jose and looking for my friends lost luggage we set off the next day to the little village of Montezuma on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. We got the bus to a place called Puntareanas where we then got a ferry then back on the bus the other side for the 2 hour drive to Montezuma. Montezuma is a tiny village consisting [View Full Entry]

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So this weekend Elizabeth, Catherine and I made our way to Semuc Champey, just past Coban. Although it was only supposed to take about 5 hours to get there it was more like 8. We arrived on Saturday around lunchtime after waking up and finding the quetzal (national bird of Guatemala) in the morning. It is very hard to spot as it is very rare so we were lucky to see it. Once we had arrived in Lanquin it was off to Semuc which was another 2 hours drive along very bumpy gravel roads. After an hours hike up to the [View Full Entry]

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Attached are some more photos of school and some of the rain we had today.... [View Full Entry]

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Weekend in El Salvador Central America Caribbean » El Salvador By Sallys Travels July 22nd 2007 Sally Hickson This weekend I ventured out of Guatemala down to El Salvador for another beach! I went with another volunteer called Elizabeth (see photo). We left Antigua at 1pm and arrived in Tunco Beach, El Salvador at 5.30pm. The beach is mainly a surfing bea [View Full Entry]

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Last weekend I spent just over 24 hours in the beach resort of Monterico. We left on our shuttle at 8am and in just over 2 hours arrived in the tiny place of Monterico. It is known for its "playa negro" and huge waves. And they are HUGE! Within half hour of arriving and booking in at the hotel I was on the beach in the beautiful boiling hot sunshine, it was lovely. After relaxing all day with some of the other volunteers we then meandered down to a great restuarant called "Pelican" which actually had 2 real pelicans in [View Full Entry]

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Setting off at 4am on a Friday morning is no easy task and this morning was no easier. But it was for a good cause so I didn´t mind one bit. We were off to the Northeastern part of Guatemala to Rio Dulce and Livingston. We got a shuttle from Antigua to Guatemala City where we then got a coach for 6 hours up to Rio Dulce. As it was such an early start I managed to sleep most of the way and when we did stop to get out the difference in climate was amazing. Rio Dulce is really hot [View Full Entry]

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