Blogs from Costa Rica, Central America Caribbean

I never actually got around to finished my journal yesterday so today is really 5/23/2012. Yesterday we had our long 6 hour hike to San Pedrillo (ranger station) and back. It was a lot of fun. On the way there it was a somewhat easy hike, but we saw a snake which was cool. Funny thing is that the snake was so camoflauged that the guide leading the front walked right by it and Danny spotted it when it was about to strike. Everyone was okay, and we really didn't know what kind of snake it was, not even the guides. At first we thought it was the eye lash viper, but after looking more the guides concluded it wasn't. I got some good pictures of it though. When we got to San Pedrillo we walked ... read more

This morning was our last morning to wake up at campanario, and it's beautiful ocean sound. We had our last breakfast at 6:30am and boarded the boat to leave at 7:30am. The boat ride was quiet at first, but we were all looking forward to new things. After about 6 hours worth of traveling we finally arrived at UGA. It's completely different here. We are at a high altitude with many green hills/mountains. Although we are no longer at the beach, this area is beautiful in it's own way. Monteverde/the cloud forest; is right next to where we are staying and is literally within walking distance. in the evening after arriving you could literally see the clouds drifting right over your head. After dinner we had a short orientation to the campus and afterwords we all ... read more

Never got to journal yesterday so today is actually 5/25/12. Yesterday I had a headache in the morning so I skipped the morning hike. I just slept in instead. After waking up (sleeping in), we ate lunch... and after lunch we pretty much had class for the rest of the day. Our first class was from one of the "Naturalists" or students from UGA who live at the campus for at least 6 months. Our internest taught us about many different types of birds in the area (there are a ton). Pretty much directly afterwords we had our normal Biology class with our Biology professor. Class lasted for quite a long time and when we were finished we had dinner and went to bed. It was a really busy day (class wise) so I had no ... read more

I believe I last wrote about La Fortuna and the Arenal volcano. That was sweet. Our next stop was Monteverde where we would do the famous zip line Canopy tour. We decided to take the jeep-boat-jeep mode of transport there, which consisted of a 4wd taxi to Lake Arenal, a boat across the lake and then another taxi to Monteverde. The roads in the latter section really were terrible, but luckily we weren't in one of the equally if not more terrible buses they have here. I can safely say that they are a whole lot worse than South American buses. In fact the buses in South America where relatively luxurious compared to these. The ones in Costa Rica are mostly just old American school buses that they've imported and converted for public use. As such, ... read more

Waking up to the sound of the ocean is amazing. This morning I couldn 't tell if the sound I was hearing was rain or the ocean. it's very loud. This morning I got to hike to the tide pools. The tide pools are pretty much a really rocky area next to the ocean which waves crash up against and the water sucks out leaving fish etc. We were mainly looking for eels, and I was the only one who saw one, but didn't get a picture because I didn't want to bring my camera that close to the ocean. A lot of other people got some cool underwater pictures I believe. When we got back we had some free time. in fact, I literally just finished kayaking in the ocean (no joke). ... Oh and ... read more

Waking up to the sound of the ocean was amazing and beautiful. At the moment I am sitting at a table on the deck which overlooks the ocean. I can hear strange birds in the background and also see the waves & hear them, coming up and crashing on the beach and nearby rocks. Far away in the distance I can see an Island with amny trees. The island is supposively only 20 miles away. ... Sorry I was just interupted running to get my c amera to get a picture of a toucan which had landed in the tree next to me (not even joking I got the picture too, but with my smaller lens). Anyways, earlier we went on an intense hike up a trail which they call "the stairmaster" ... There I got ... read more

Waking up in Sierpe was quite ane xperience. Sierpe is a verys mall town and we were told there were probably more stray dogs there than people.. pretty funny and from the looks of it that was probably true. Our "motel" was by far from fancy, but it had to make do. Honestly I expected worse, but the shower was large and surprisingly nice. After waking up I walked down to the river to a small dock with Daniel, but was cautious of getting too close because of the huge ass crocodiles I saw the day before. The area was beautiful with old boats across the river, and beautiful mountains in the distance. We later went kayaking for over an hour and a half which was super fun since I had never been before. Was a ... read more

Before getting in to what we´ve been up to in Costa Rica, allow me to just say something quickly about airline food. Maybe it´s just non South American airlines that are creating the terrible reputation that it has, because so far it´s just been awesome. This is excluding the food we got in business class on the way out here of course as that´s obviously not a fair representation, but on the other flights we´ve had the food has been great. Travelling from Lima to San Jose we had chicken with herby mashed potatoes and a tomato sauce, with a potato/lettuce/tuna salad, bread rolls and biscuits. I´ve been led to believe I should be expecting some flimsy cardboard box filled with rotting meat and compost, but what I´ve actually found is pretty decent standard food, although ... read more