My canoe trip went well...Rudy was a good guide. We paddled around the channels for 3 hours, a good workout! We say crocodiles, monkeys, and a sloth. Lots of birds, but I don't bother with them too much. I napped for a while and just hung out the rest of the day. Tried to do a night tour to see the turtles lay eggs, but that didn't quite pan out. No big deal, there is a place in Nicaragua where I can see that. Got up the next morning and climbed in a boat for the third day straight and headed [View Full Entry]

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Left San Jose (in the rain) and hopped on a bus to Cariari, where I hopped on another bus to La Pavona, where I caught a boat to bring me to Torteguero. Complicated, confusing, but I made it. While on the bus to La Pavona, an older, friendly woman sat beside me. After a minute or two she tapped me and was showing me her necklace (beaded with a wooden cross, I’ve seen a number like it around here) and then pointing to my necklace (a small wooden cross that I bought in Paris while at Notre Dame). She was smiling [View Full Entry]

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Today will be known as the day the surf world changed forever…because I entered the picture. Nate, from Oregon, was bunking in our room and Jerry and I discovered he was a surfer. We asked if he’d show us how and he said he would. Unfortunately, his bus left earlier than anticipated, so he couldn’t go to the beach with us, but determined, Jerry and I headed down to the beach and rented a board for ourselves. At first, it wasn’t pretty. I rode the board in a few times, as if it were a boogie board. The waves weren’t huge—but [View Full Entry]

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Said goodbye to Carolyn this morning and boarded a bus for Quepos. Arrived about 2 hours later, checked into the hostel, a very nice one I may add! Walked around town a bit, went to the super market where I scored a proper sized jar of peanut butter (weird things that appease you while backpacking). Spent the rest of the day lounging and reading in my room. The following morning I went to Manuel Antonio National Park, within minutes I spotted my first sloth! I walked down to a secluded white sand beach where I was going to take a rest [View Full Entry]

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In Domincal we had checked into a place without a kitchen, tired of this our last night in Domincal we decided to go down the road to Domincal Backpackers, a true hostel with bunk beds and a kitchen. Although we were the only people staying at the house things appeared to be fine and we continued with our daily routine of lying on the beach and walking to town. As the evening settled in so did we, or at least we tried...We discovered that the lights in the bathroom did not work (in additional to the fact that there were [View Full Entry]

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We woke up and headed towards the beach to find a bite to eat (not to swim because the word is the waters here are polluted). We find a decent place and both order fruit salads, I also order some sort of drink in which I suspect I’ll get a fancy coffee…wrong, wrong, wrong. My ‘fancy coffee’ is layers of crushed ice, powered coffee(?), ice cream, and some condensed milk to finish it off. Our fruit salads are (in this order) red jello, fruit, ice cream, chocolate ice cream, corn flakes, and a cherry. Nothing like an all-star breakfast to begin [View Full Entry]

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Our stop over in Puntarenas was due to the fact that we didn’t want to stay another night in Monteverde, we decided to take a late bus to Puntarenas, stay the night and get an early jump on the busses down to the beaches. This was an astronomical mistake. First, the bus to Puntarenas was sketchy, the seats were so dingy that we didn’t want to sit down. However, we obviously did. The ride, was nice, albeit scary as hell. To look out the window was to look a few hundred feet down the side of a cliff. This is a [View Full Entry]

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Made it to Monteverde! Carolyn and I were picked up this morning, ecstatic to say good bye to Jimmy’s Cabañas. We drive about 20 minutes around the Volcano to Lake Arenal. We hop on a smallish boat and speed across the lake. Nice views, ride lasted maybe 15-20 minutes maybe and then we wait for the van to pick us up on the other side. This is where the adventure begins. This is the roughest, bumpiest road in Costa Rica. Views are amazing; you just keep driving higher and higher into the clouds. Lots of coffee fields, cows, and horses to [View Full Entry]

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Arrived in La Fortuna this morning, big site to see-Arenal Volcano. Traveled here with Ian and Carolyn (the Brit and Canadian), as soon as we got off the bus in La Fortuna we were swarmed by people trying to get us to go to their hotel/hostel, Carolyn and I just ignore them, while Ian actually agreed to stay at one; Jerry’s Cabañas (this place will haunt Carolyn and I always). It was $7 a night, but really, they should have paid us. The kitchen was horrid and the room cramped. We booked tours for the volcano and zip lining right away [View Full Entry]

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Alright, made a big decision today...tired of walking 17 blocks looking for a language institute only to have them tell me that they only hire teachers with permits (something they could have told me two days before when I stopped by). So, I became a backpacker today, if something comes up along the way-down the road, maybe I'll hunker down and teach for a bit, but as for now, I need to get out of the city. So, my first order as a backpacker, do something ridiculous...like bungee jumping. It all started lastnight, a Canadian, Carolyn, checked into my room last [View Full Entry]

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