Blogs from Santa Elena, Puntarenas, Costa Rica, Central America Caribbean

Our journey to Costa Rica was long. Leana, Dan & I met up with a British couple we had become acquainted with on the island and took a boat back to Rivas in the morning. We then met a couple girls from Germany and so we all shared two taxis to the border because it was pretty cheap since we had a group and obviously quicker than taking the bus. I believe the drive only took about half an hour. On the way we saw tons of wind turbines and I was impressed that Nicaragua had so many here. When we inquired about them to the driver he told us some of them had been there a few years and some were just a year old. We got to the border and went thru several lines ... read more

"Pura Vida" (pure life) is the slogan of the Costa Rican people and that's what you hear a lot and how they live their life: relax and enjoy, everything will be ok! As we told you, we were planning to visit the Marino Ballena national park last sunday. After we woke up with the shouting of the howler monkeys (brulapen, our hotel was close to the forest), we took a boat trip. The guide told us we would see dolphins, but no whales, unless we would be very lucky. After about half an hour, the guide received a phonecall: another boat spotted a whale (yeah that's how it works a few kilometres away from the coast on the Pacific Ocean...). So we turned to another direction and went full speed to the place to be. And ... read more

Disclaimer: The Spanish may not be correct but I tried hard! After the Spanish is a more detailed account in English of the past 4 days! Enjoy. Hint: You can enlarge the photos! I suggest doing this with the ones of the monkeys so you can actually see them! Tengo mucho para escribir y no tengo mucho tiempo. Después de escribiendo mi blog, necesito hacer mi tarea y ya son las nueve y media de la noche. Clase empiece a las ocho de la mañana y si quiero comer, necesito levantarme a las seis y media de la mañana por lo menos. Han sido cuatro días desde la última vez que escribió por mi blog. Tengo que hablar sobre sábado, domingo, lunes, y hoy, martes. Primero sábado. Sábado miré el partido de fútbol americano de los ... read more

Yesterday we left the Arenal Observatory Lodge after a leisurly breakfast, looking at the volcano for the last time. The road from El Costillo to Santa Elena was even more windy than the ones we have already experienced. The roads were also in much worse shape, making for a very bumpy ride, but the view more than made up for it. Most of the drive was on roads on the edge of plunging cliffs with fantastic lush vallies. The distance from our hotel to Santa Elena is about 17 km as the crow flies but took us about three hours, covering 105 km because of the windy route we had to take around Lake Arenal. Santa Elena is a great little back-packing town. It is essentially a triange made of three main roads with tour operators, ... read more

(...) Tocaba abandonar la Fortuna, próxima parada Monteverde... DIA 4 Esta vez el traslado era Van/Boat/Van, es decir en furgo, lancha y de nuevo furgo. Nos salía 18$ por cabeza; una furgoneta nos recogía en el albergue y tras 1/2 hora de trayecto llegabas a un embarcadero y te montabas en una lancha. Recuerdo que llegamos los últimos y ya estaba completa exceptuando unos asientos al final. En la parte delantera había unas chicas adolescentes de unos 25 años, y una de ellas se quedó mirando fijamente a Rafa, éste se dió cuenta y no evitó su mirada mientras caminaba por el pasillo hacia la popa de la embarcación estableciéndose una comunicación silenciosa donde ninguno apartaba la vista y que duró hasta que el cuello del colega no pudo torcerse más. Rafa nunca se negaba a ... read more

I'm going to keep it short because I need to pack, shower, and sleep before I catch my 6:30 am bus to San Jose. As people reading my facebook may have seen I'm going to try to make it to Carnival in Panama City. It starts the night of the 12th, so that's a LOT of bus in a little time. Since Quepos: I spent a night in San Jose. It was the first time I met really friendly people at the hostel I've been staying at. They have my bag so it has been convenient, but I should switch hostels. I met a woman from NYC who was heading to Santa Elena also so we took a bus together, stayed at the same hostel, and hiked in Monteverde together. I'm staying at Pension Santa Elena. ... read more