Blogs from San José, San José, Costa Rica, Central America Caribbean - page 3

As though I haven't learned the lesson enough times- the Universe reminded me again that I should really stop planning my travels so much. I had just sent my detailed itinerary to my parents when I got he update that my PHL- FLL flight had been delayed. At least I could slow down eating the meal Orion had cooked me before driving me to the airport. Got to the airport to find out the flight was now delayed by 2 hours, meaning I'd miss my connecting flight in FLL. Spirit was super easy about rebooking me onto an American Airlines flight that would get me to my connection on time. Win! Then that flight got delayed. I had found Jacob, a fellow yoga teacher that is also going to Envision and we killed time at the ... read more

Woo hoo! I was super excited for this trip but holy crisp was I ever down to the wire to get packed and ready. I had to be up at 4:00am and went to bed at 1:30am. Urgh. I’m usually freakishly organized, but this is my first trip post-new puppy and I didn’t account for all the extra stuff I’d have to do to get things ready for him. Plus, since I had a wonderful friend staying with my wee nugget while I was gone I wanted to leave him a clean house. I barely made it. I didn’t get around to cleaning my baseboards and ended up shoving piles of clean laundry in some random drawers. It also meant that, even though I made a packing list, I was sure when we left for the ... read more

25.6. Wir fahren heute nach Quepos, weiter im Süden. Die Strasse führt durch Felder und Wälder, über Hügel und durch Dörfer und schliesslich wieder der Küste entlang, die Fahrt dauert rund fünf Stunden. Die Strasse ist meistens in tadellosem Zustand, Verkehrsregeln werden von den Einheimischen allerdings meist nur als Empfehlungen angesehen, was uns bisweilen entweder zu einer Verkehrsbehinderung macht oder in Gewissenskonflikte bringt... Vor Polizeikontrollen - die erstaunlich regelmässig am Strassenrand stehen - werden wir von entgegenkommenden Autos jedoch zuverlässig mittels Lichthupen gewarnt. An die Bodenwellen, die zu Entschleunigungszwecken vor Ortschaften eingebaut sind, haben wir uns bereits gewöhnt. Sie haben uns auf der ganzen Reise durch Mittelamerika immer wieder genervt (in dichter besiedelten Gegenden führten sie zu einem unangenehmen steten Gasgeben und Abbremsen unse... read more

We waved goodbye to Monteverde, as we headed towards San Jose this morning. On the way, Fabian spotted a cashew tree and asked the driver to stop. He picked a cashew fruit off the tree to illustrate why cashews are so expensive. Each cashew fruit contains only one cashew nut. You must pick multiple fruits to get a bunch of cashews. Cashews must be roasted; in their raw form then are poisonous. The cashew fruit is edible but their stains are impossible to remove from clothes. When we arrived at Puntarenas beach, it was early afternoon and incredibly hot. Fabian booked at room at Puntarenas Beach Hotel, so the group had a choice to either head over to the beach or to stay at the hotel pool. Renata and I decided to head over to the ... read more

Pura Vida is Spanish for “Pure Life.” The phrase runs deep in Costa Rican culture. Costa Ricans use the term for multiple purposes: to say hello, goodbye, I’m great and everything’s good. Pura Vida is a relaxed, simple way of looking at life; no stress, no worries, being thankful and not dwelling on the negatives. People say you don’t quite understand what Pura Vida means until you come to Costa Rica. So, here we are, two sisters, on our epic journey to live the “Pura Vida Experience, Costa Rican style. Our first stop Costa Rica’s capital city, San Jose. We arrived at Juan Santamaria International Airport at around 1:00pm. Getting through customs took a gruelling two hours and with traffic we finally arrived in San Jose around 4:00pm. However, we were not discouraged. It is all ... read more