Blogs from Arenal, Alajuela, Costa Rica, Central America Caribbean - page 3

August 4th - Volcano Walk and Hot Springs! Lovely place but as we back onto the Jungle Canopy it sure was noisy! In the middle of the night it sounded like every Monkey in Costa Rica was having a party on our veranda! Then the howling started – and I mean howling... a bit like a cross between a very upset dog and a loud donkey. Eventually died down a bit and we went back to sleep – tired today though. We sat on the back Veranda first thing in the morning and watched the jungle monkeys moving about their business and a toucan on the tree next door (until a very upset Turkey type bird moved it on) and then went down to the restaurant for breakfast. Lovely breakfast – fresh fruit, scrambled eggs toast ... read more

Blogging fail! I didn't realize I'd only saved and not actually "published" the previous entry. I apologize to anyone who might have been concerned about our safe arrival. Anyway, this blogging thing is not working out well on this trip, obviously. We were without internet altogether at our last stop (the lodge on the river we were rafting) and most places only have it near the "lobby"--often closes early or is out in the open air--not always convenient in the rain, which we've had way too much of! (Note to self--and anyone else thinking of visiting CR--go in April or May! If July is the "beginning" of the rainy season, I can't imagine the height of it (supposedly September/October)!!! The other "problem" is that we've been way too busy to blog--which is a good thing, right? ... read more

Well, for this year’s vacation we decided on the complete opposite adventure from Egypt. Lush rainforests, stunning waterfalls and vast active volcanoes – we’re in Costa Rica! We boarded our flight to Liberia, Costa Rica via Atlanta, at 5:45am today. It’s a complete coincidence that we’ll be exploring the jungle on Earth Day – a pretty cool coincidence. When we boarded our flight in Philadelphia the stewardess for Delta Airlines immediately moved Michael and me to the exit row for the journey because of his height. I ended up sleeping most of the time in wondrous relaxation. Then after our very short layover in Atlanta we boarded the 4 hour flight from Atlanta to Liberia and, once again, Michael and I were moved into the emergency exit row so that we could have a more ... read more

One of the many nice things about living in India for 4 years was all the people I met along the way. Like most capital cities, Delhi is home to people from all over the world. Each country sends people from home to staff and provide services at their respective embassies, and you get to meet many of these people along the way. People that are willing and able to take assignments in foreign lands often end up to be some of the most interesting, educated, world-aware, and well-traveled people. Matt and Brina are two such people. I met Mat and Brina while living in Delhi and we have stayed in touch since on Facebook. Since leaving India in 2010, they have been stationed in Washington, DC and now Vancouver, Canada. Matt works for the Foreign ... read more

We chose the jeep-boat-jeep option (3 hrs as opposed to 8 hours via car or bus around the perimeter of the lake) to go from Monteverde to Arenal. One and half hours over very rough gravel roads took us down to the edge of the lake. It was a trip made more interesting by seeing very obious climatic changes in the scenery in a short period of time. We crossed from the dustier, drier Pacific side of the mountains to an obviously much greener Caribbean side. Very hilly country but scenic. There was no boat ramp at the lake - the jeep parked at the waters edge and we waited 20 minutes or so until we saw a boat heading across the lake towards us. In the distance Arenal Volcano loomed on the horizon and it ... read more