Blogs from Santa Elena, Puntarenas, Costa Rica, Central America Caribbean - page 2

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

After two years of planning, Mom and I have finally arrived in Costa Rica. Since both of our birthdays are in November and we turned 60 and 30 in the same year, we decided this was our birthday celebration. Now 62 and 32, the trip is just as sweet! We took a non-stop flight out of Miami on Tuesday morning and in less than 3 hours we were here! I couldn't believe how quick the flight was. Immigration and customs was pretty uneventful. We made our way through with no problems. The airport is so small that as soon as you cleared customs, you were outside. We had arranged private transport through our hotel in Santa Elena and he was supposed to be waiting for us with a sign at the exit. Now, I'm not sure ... read more

PART TRES: THE PEOPLE (MY FAVOURITE!) So the best part has been all the amazing people... Firstly it's the group. As I've said it's been such a mix mash of individuals and everyone has really grown on me! Although I'm sure I've driven most of them irritatingly nutty ;-) Philip is a true Australian is never endingly entertaining with his stories and backhand compliments (basically a compliment with heavy understones of insults under the surface if you're quick enough to grab them!) Yes I've been the brunt of many but there's no hope in even trying to work around it, so the only choice is to take it with all you got! Him and Fernando are the keen lovers of Bar Amigos - but I have a funny feeling that's just cos it offers a different ... read more