Manuel Antonio is the smallest national park but the most famous in Costa Rica for its abundance of wildlife, unspoiled beaches and crocodiles…but more about that later. Driving across Costa Rica to get there was thankfully not too bad a journey as the road was actually paved for most of the way! You would not believe what a small miracle that actually is. Checking into our hotel (obviously a luxury resort! Well a three star hotel but it had three swimming pools and our room was the size of Raffles unfortunately without the pole that we know and love so well!), [View Full Entry]

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Even more pictures. Weekend number two we did more than just relax on the beach. Saturday we bussed to Manual Antonio and checked out the national park. We ended up taking a guided tour through the rain forest part and it was worth every penny. He had a telescope that he set up and then you could use your digital camera to take pictures through the telescopic lense. So we got some amazing shots. We saw parrots, toucans, amardillos, ant eaters, tons of iguanas and MONKEYS!! We were very pleased with the day!!! Sunday morning we spent the day on [View Full Entry]

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After a few days in Manual Antonio we are ready to move on. We have had some good days of surf, got out on a catamaran and did some snorkeling, and enjoyed the great beaches and nature here. Tomorrow a.m. we are heading to Montezuma on our way to Mal Pais, which is in the northwestern province of Guancaste. We are going to check out the surf there and do some exploring as well. Have a look at a few of our pics from the past few days here in Manual Antonio... D&H (P.S. - Happy Mothers' Day, Moms!) [View Full Entry]

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The boys were so excited to learn that one of their best friends from home, Peter, and his parents were going to leave the cold weather in St Paul and come down for a week-long visit during the first week of April. Unfortunately, their trip coincided with the first trimester's midterms. So, the boys buckled down and studied early so that they could play with Peter when he arrived This included introducing him to the various mascotas (pets) at our house. During the week, the boys took their tests while Peter and his family toured the volcanos. Then, for the weekend, [View Full Entry]

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Took the bus south this morning as far as Manuel Antonio, and this is as far as we are going at this point. We found a great hostel, the waves are perfect for us, and the area and people are pretty amazing. After we got into Quepos we took a bus straight to Manuel Antonio and went for a tour in the park. The park is a beautiful, steaming hot rainforest which is full of all sorts of characters: iggy the iguana, marcelle the monkey, rod the rodent, lots of russell the rustlers, and etc. We were thinking about a surf [View Full Entry]

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Upon our return from the journey to the Caribbean coast we started exploring our opportunities back in Canada. According to my leave agreement it was necessary to indicate my intentions to return or not by the 15th of March. I had already contacted my buddy in human resources to find out what might be available and Nataghia was exploring her opportunities as well. As it turned out my opportunities were limited to a couple of teaching positions in small remote communities and a principal position in a small town similar to Eastend. In the meantime Nataghia found a nice opportunity with [View Full Entry]

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We woke up ready to start our vacation. We went into Quepos to get some food and check out the town. We ate at Cafe Milagro and had the best breakfast that we have ever had. After some shopping we went back to our hotel to get ready for the beach. It was the first time I have ever been to the ocean and I had a great time. After Christina and I got some good sunrays we rented some boogie boards instead of going parasailing(too expensive and afraid of heights). I had so much fun until I took a big [View Full Entry]

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If you are not a regular diver it can be a little difficult trying to identify what exactly you are looking at when you go diving. For example, what was that big blue fish that went past and why exactly is that red fish hiding in a hole? This past weekend we thought we’d try and solve some of those problems and encouraged a few of the local divers to take a fish id class. For our first specialty of the month it proved popular and Sunday morning started nice and sunny. The morning was spent in the classroom looking at [View Full Entry]

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Once we made to San Jose we had the task of getting to Manuel Antonio. It took us forever to get out of customs and we had to catch a cab to the bus station. We met this nice man who took us there, we barely made it alive. The traffic was horrible (Rush Hour) and there were motorcycles that flew in between the cars. Over here a blinker means nothing, if you want to get over you have to make some moves. When we made it to the bus station we were a bit scared. The ticket office was closed [View Full Entry]

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Manuel Antonio um 4:15 quälen wir uns aus unseren Betten, kaufen Frühstück und düsen mit dem Bus in Richtung Parzifikküste weiter. In Puntarenas müssen wir umsteigen und überbrücken die einstündige Wartepause mit einem netten Brunch, bestehend aus Fisch und Schrimps. Beim Ticketkauf für den Bus nach Manuel Antonio bekommt Lukas einen Zettel, mit der Warnung, genau auf dieser Busstrecke sein Handgepäck gut im Auge zu behalten, da es auf dieser Strecke schon mehrere Pickpocket-Fälle gegeben hätte. Wir bemitleiden noch einen anderen Backpacker, dem vor wenigen Tagen sein ganzer Rucksack gestohlen wurde und steigen unbeirrt in den Bus. Ich nicke kurz ein [View Full Entry]

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