Blogs from Puntarenas, Costa Rica, Central America Caribbean - page 11

“That’s it! These two guys are going to fight each other to death during the trip. “ “You know, even if they do survive, that would be the end of their friendship…what do you think?” “Absolutely, they won’t see each other’s face after they return, I can bet.” “Well, let them go! We will watch the fun from the sideline”. This was the conversation, and possibly wishful thinking of our respective spouses before Dipankar and I headed out to our fun-trip to Costa Rica. The spouses had a choice of joining us, but they declined. No, Dipankar and I didn’t kill each other during the trip and we are very much alive. We had fun of a life-time and we are living happily ever after as good friends! This is a preamble. ***** I don’t know ... read more

Pura Vida - the life slogan of the Ticos, people from Costa Rica. They use it in many situations and it basically means something like 'todo bien' or 'todo bem' in Brasil or 'tranquila' in Colombia. Relax! Chill! Maak je niet druk! From Bocas in Panama, we flew with a rather small, but colourful plane to San Jose, Costa Rica. We'd heard that San Jose is not very interesting (Costa Rica is all about nature), so we decided to continue straight on to one of the many National Parks/Reserves, Monteverde. We rented a car and driving was quite an experience, as many roads that lead to the parks are not paved and due to heavy rains there are a lot of potholes. It got even more interesting when we had to drive into the hills on ... read more

Geo: 9.15232, -83.7565After a very restful evening felt more like taking the hike all the way up to the Mirador. Last year we got the the Mirador during low tide and were able to see the complete Whale's Tail! This year the tide is not running in our favor but because we are starting out early, a great deal of it should be showing.As we were walking down the road, heard a woodpecker but were never able to find it in the trees as well as the toucans calling in the distance. This year seems we are not going to see as many toucans as we have in years past.Once we got to the bamboo forest, the road was pretty much in the shade and was cool and pleasant to walk as you were steadily climbing ... read more

Salut! Je suis allé visiter la région des forêts de nuages... C'est vraiment très différent de nos forêts! Il y a toutes sortes d'arbres impressionnants... Des arbres avec des gros piquants sur le tronc, des arbres avec des lianes pour faire Tarzan, des arbres géants au tronc ÉNORME! Même a quatre on arrive pas a faire le tour avec nos bras! Il faut que je vous parle du figuier étrangleur. C'est un arbre qui s'accroche après un autre et qui l'envahit! Quand il arrive a faire toucher ses branches au sol il "l'étrangle". Le premier arbre meurt et le figuier grandit. Ça forme comme un tunnel ou on peut entrer. Je suis entré dans l'arbre et je l'ai escaladé! Frissons garantis... On pouvait monter jusqu'en haut! Celui que j'ai vu est un des plus haut de ... read more

The best part of this 5-day stay on this central Pacific coast had to be the Hostel, “Wide Mouth Frog” (WMF): nice people, great guests from all over the globe, Danes, French and Canadians; swimming pool, everything tiled from all common areas and accommodations, to library and kitchens. (And being a lousy backpacker, I even booked myself into a single room rather than a dorm). Many of my fellow world travellers were somewhat luke warm on Costa Rica -- rumblings about too many “touristas”, declining authenticity, and more pricey than other central american states. On that thought, Manuel Antonio Park was absolutely beautiful,with picture perfect beaches……but by 8:00 am just one busload after the other, literally thousands of tourists, lots of them snapping pictures of spots of just vacated by wildlife, or of indiscernably shady spots ... read more