Posted by John This is our last posting... I will explain at the end but read on for now.... Time for another border run... Seeing as how our last border run was to Panama, we decided this time to head north and see Nicaragua. Our semester teaching has ended and six of us teachers decided to go to Nicaragua together to save on boarding and transport. One of our friends had heard some good things about Granada and the surrounding area so that was the plan. It worked out well although getting a consensus with a group can sometimes be a [View Full Entry]

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Megan and I went on a great rafting trip with 11 of the other teachers from school. It was an exhilarating trip during rainy season here in Costa Rica. The river Paquare is supposedly classified as class 3 and 4 rapids with 5 being the highest on the scale. I am have no idea if the rapids were that big but they were definitely big enough for us. We stopped half way and had lunch and then finished dog-tired ready to collapse and go to bed early. The section of river we ran was quite remote and wildlife was plentiful. We [View Full Entry]

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Posted by John Time to catch everyone up on our travels again. It has been a while. Megan and I have been on a few trips since we last wrote in the blog. Not long ago, we took a short trip to the Monte Verde area. This region in the northern part of Costa Rica is a popular tourist attraction for its zip-line tours and jungle canopy bridge tours. We decided to ride the zip-lines the afternoon we arrived because the chance of seeing more wildlife on the canopy bridges would be better in the morning. For those of you that [View Full Entry]

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Posted by John It has been so long since we have posted. Megan and I have just been caught up with teaching and the day-to-day aspects of living here. We have adjusted quite well. It feels now almost like living anywhere else really. We work, pay bills, grocery shop, clean house and all of the other things we would be doing in the States. Now we just have to do them in another language. Needless to say, Megan pretty much has the language thing in the bag. I, on the other hand am still in the dumb gringo category stumbling along [View Full Entry]

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Posted by John 1/18 We have finally moved into our new apartment and are slowly getting settled in our new life. Heredia is the perfect size town. Small enough to walk across but big enough to have all that we need. The terrain, weather and overall feel of Heredia reminds me a little of a northern California town, cool breezy nights and sunny cool days. During the day, I think the temperature here is usually in the 70's, rarely exceeding the low 80's and at night it dips into the high 50's. San Jose is a fifteen minute bus ride away [View Full Entry]

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Road Trip! Posted by John The last days in Samara diminished quickly as many of our fellow TEFL students moved away to their respective jobs, peppered all over Costa Rica. There were four of us left, each interested in traveling to Heredia near the capital of San Jose. Two of us have jobs waiting, one of us is going there to look and the other is flying home to visit family. We decided to leave early so we would be able to take a road trip, take our time and see some more of this beautiful country. We left Samara on [View Full Entry]

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12/24/08 posted by John Settling in at the farm… Yes, as Megan stated, we are now on a farm and it is quite nice. We have been spending our days exploring some of the other beaches in the area. Yesterday, five of us went in search of Playa Izquierda. The hills here march all the way into the sea creating many crescent shaped coves that in time have become a series of sometimes small and almost inaccessible beaches. Playa Izquierda is such a beach. The directions are cryptic at best. After a couple of reroutes, we found ourselves on a small [View Full Entry]

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Posted by Megan 12/27 Well, Christmas has come and gone but supposedly the party is just starting. The festival starts today. It looks very interesting... they've been setting up rides and getting ready for this for days. It lasts until January I think. They are going to have a big parade on horses all around Samara - like 30 or so caballeros. Then on the last day of the festival, they are going to ride not only around Samara but supposedly three other nearby towns as well. It should be interesting. Christmas day was pretty relaxed around here. Everything was open... [View Full Entry]

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Posted by Megan 12/22 Well, we are officially done with classes. We both passed with an A. And we got moved to the new place... which happens to be a much better place!!! That was the quickest move I've ever lived through. We packed all our stuff up and got it moved over to the new house in a grand total of maybe 2 hours. The new place is on a farm on the outskirts of town. It is such a beautiful place. There are chickens running around everywhere, and there are cows, horses, iguanas, and a huge cage of really [View Full Entry]

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(posted by Megan, 12/17) Well, class is almost over! We have been so busy the past two weeks with homework, creating lesson plans, creating our portfolios and resumes, and just being in class 9 hours a day. But I taught for the last time last night (it went pretty well I think) and John teaches for the last time tonight. All we have left after that is our final exam and to finish our portfolios. We think we are going to be working for Intercultura Language School starting in January. It is not official yet, but we're pretty sure that's where [View Full Entry]

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