Blogs from Guanacaste, Costa Rica, Central America Caribbean

Alright final week.... So I did decide to head to Playa Gigante I almost convinced Lauren to come for a day or 2 but she didn't want to have to deal with all the buses and walking in. I wound up missing my 12:30 bus from SJDS to Rivas because it left early then the 1pm bus left super late so I was worried I was going to miss the last bus out towards the beaches but luckily I just made that one. I got off at the intersection and started hoofing the 5/6 km to the beach. I got a couple Kms in and a construction truck filled with sand and cement bags slowed down enough for me to hop on the back with some local school kids and a couple workers. The kids and ... read more

LA FORTUNA: The bus ride from Monteverde to La Fortuna was unpaved and therefore unpleasant. Sleep during the windy, bumpy ride was unsuccessful and the minute we stepped off the bus in town we were "greeted" with annoying tour salesmen. They were polite and friendly but we really weren't in the market for a tour having been in town for less than a minute and wanted to find our place and drop our bags. The "hostel" we booked was less than sufficient, but the bed was comfortable so I didn't mind. Apparently hotels have caught on to the hostel trend and started mislabeling themselves as hostels when they don't provide wifi, a communal area or a kitchen, amenities typical of hostels. Luckily we only booked one night there and found a far better place the next ... read more

Last Sunday we went to National park Santa Elena, a cloud forest. We did a long hike, didn't see much wildlife but we did not expect that as we knew that its is not best place to see wildlife but for the beautiful cloud forest. The forest itself was beautiful enough, looking like a fairytale-forest: very calm, dense, green and very mossy. And of course very wet (typical for cloud forest). On Monday we travelled to Liberia and booked our bus tickets for Nicaragua (we are going there coming Tuesday), so we are ready to go one of these days to the embassy for Gyanendra's visa. So again we are in a very hot area (about 35-38C), in Santa Elena we had very cool nights, which we enjoyed a lot. Tuesday we went to National park ... read more

Thursday, December 20, 2012 Today for us was a day of just relaxing at the hotel. I know this is hard to believe that the Breton’s are just sitting around, but we wanted to just relax today after a very long day on Wednesday, 7:00am – 10:00pm on a bus and touring. I was up at my usual 6:00am sitting on the patio writing my waiting for my princesses to wake up. Cindy woke up at 7:30am. We did a lot of starring at the ocean and pool until 9:30am when we decided it was time to eat breakfast. Breakfast was awesome at the hotel as usual. Cindy and I had similar items as Tuesday, but did try different items on the buffet. Today we did try a rice dish with beans. We finished breakfast around ... read more

Monday, December 17, 2012 Today is an awesome day. Cindy and I are traveling to Costa Rica to celebrate our 25th Anniversary. It is our second honeymoon. We had a 6:00am flight from Houston to Miami. Since I fly America for business, I was able to use upgrades so we can fly in first class. Although we were 30 minutes late leaving we still made it to Miami in enough time to catch our flight from Miami to Costa Rica. The flight attendant on the American Airlines flight was super nice and gave Cindy and me a small bottle of champagne in celebration on our anniversary. We had a great breakfast and enjoyed a mimosa. Our flight from Miami to Costa Rica (Liberia airport) was equally great, they served a excellent lunch. We were also able ... read more

Karen and I decided that 4 by 4'ing without a 4 X 4 is not the right way to see the less traveled sections of the Nicoya Peninsula so we rented a little Suzuki and headed up to Santa Cruz and then down to Nicoya. The town of Nicoya is smack dab in the center of the peninsula, from there we headed west towards all the "Playas" (beaches). The road is paved all the way to Samara. Quite a curving, narrow, hilly road through farm lands, plantations and jungles. The road is the main thorough-fair for every little town and village and as you go through each town you must NOT hit the small children, bikes, chickens, dogs, cattle or motorcycles that are in your path - Keep in mind that some farm vehicle loaded with ... read more