Our choice for this part of the coast is the Hotel Iguanazul which was recommended to Neil by a Millwall fan now living in Costa Rica! The owner offered us a great discount and we have found ourselves the only guests. The hotel is amazing with great free form pool waves are beautiful, just as I expected the northern Nicoya Peninsula to look. For ages I´ve wanted to come this far north and it is one of the most beautiful coastlines I have ever set eyes on. Also we had forgotten just how hot Costa can get and it´s currently around [View Full Entry]

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Bienvenidos a Costa Rica! I'm already back in Edmonton, Alberta, freezing my butt off, after spending an action-packed, fun-filled week of R & R, at the Allegro Papagayo resort, Guanacaste province, Costa Rica. Mother Nature provided a record-breaking welcome back to Canada, of the cruellest kind, on the night of Saturday, December 12, 2009. The second leg of our journey home from Liberia, was interrupted over Winnipeg, Manitoba, when the Captain informed passengers that we were turning back to Toronto, due to the extreme cold conditions in Edmonton that exceeded the aircrafts minimum ope [View Full Entry]

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Alright....so the story I left you wanting to hear. We got to Tamarindo at dark, so we were happy to have help finding a place to stay. A guy on the street showed us this hostel, we checked it out and for $8 a night in expensive gringolandia the place looked alright. We put our stuff down, made friends with our roommates for the night and then headed off for dinner. We came back and hung out with the manager, Diego in the patio area upstairs. We are all having a great time and Diego is showing off his homemade surfboard [View Full Entry]

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We left Liberia to get to Playa Tamarindo early on Friday Oct. 30. We arrived by bus and settled in at La Bottella de Leche (The Milk Bottle) Hostel, a cow-themed establishment. Friendly and chaotic it was packed to the brim that weekend for reasons that had nothing to do with the wildlife or surf. More on that later. Our guidebooks warned us that Playa Tamarindo was overdeveloped and commericalized. Well, it was a bit odd in that none of the roads were paved, but there were several tall, luxury hotels, bars, and pricey restaurants. Still, the beach was very beautiful. [View Full Entry]

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We boarded our bus at the Costa Rican border at about 3 pm on Monday, October 26. We were lucky to get seats as many people had to stand for the 3 hour plus ride to Liberia, although we were not lucky enough to sit together. I was already worn out by the time we got on the bus. The bus was air-conditioned, and my clothes were damp and smelly from rain, sweat, and futile handwashing attempts. I began to feel a chill, which got worse with every minute. Halfway through the ride I was pretty certain this chill wasn´t going [View Full Entry]

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Our worst border experience as of yet was crossing from Nicaragua to Costa Rica. Many countries in Central America have an "open border." Residents of these countries cross freely between the borders and only the touristas need to show documentation. The situation is quite different on the Nicaragua-Costa Rica border. Costa Rica has quite a bit more money and many Nicaraguans come into Costa Rica to work, both legally and illegally. Consequently, there is a lot of traffic at this border and everyone gets their papers checked. Our border crossing day was Monday, October 26. It was a lo [View Full Entry]

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Today was a terrible day. Terrible. The word can´t be repeated enough. Lets start at the beginning. Got up at 5am (!) to catch the 6am bus next to the hostel. Saw a lovely sunrise, but the bus was half an hour late. 1.5 hours and one incredibly whiney child and smelly man later, our bus arrived at Paquera, dropping us to catch the Ferry, which was fine fine fine and we arrived at Punta Arenas on mainland at 10.15. Now, riddle me this; why would the harbour arrange for a boat to come from south of the peninsula to mainland [View Full Entry]

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Costa Rica - Lake House We zijn intussen alweer ruim een maand in Costa Rica, hoog tijd voor wat nieuws van deze kant. Via vrienden (makelaars) kwamen we in een huis terecht met uitzicht op het meer. Er zijn veel buitenlanders die hier een huis bouwen/kopen/verbouwen en er slechts een aantal weken per jaar verblijven. Het is prettig als een huis bewoond is, aldus gingen we huis oppassen. Alleen de electriciteit en water moeten we betalen, ongeveer US$ 30 per maand, goed te doen dus. Het is een klein en knus huis, groot genoeg voor ons en lekker makkelijk om schoon [View Full Entry]

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Traveling to Nosara got off on a great start when we missed our bus and had to take a taxi driven by a one footed man in order to catch our next connection. He was cheerful nonetheless. Next, we got to sit in a bus terminal for a lil while...enough time for some pigeon to take a shit over everything I own. Seriously...It went everywhere. Not just one drop like a normal bird; this one must have eaten too many beans and washed them down with some of the bad water they warn about in all the guide books. He/she slopped [View Full Entry]

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My first day in Costa Rica was spent wandering around San Jose, changing money, eating Quiznos, and silently laughing to myself at how excited T-Bag gets when he talks Spanish to other people. We caught a bus out of San Jose on Wednesday, and rode six hours to the beach town of Tamarindo. People like to party here, but not in the methods that Taylor and I are used to. The closest we could find was this dude named Andre who suggested we get three bottle of rum and take it to the bars with us. We are staying at a [View Full Entry]

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