Hello family and friends, Our plane landed at 1130 and we found a hostel close to the NICA bus station. We ate pollo tacos and when I asked (valentin asked) if they had any juice the nice waitress got a whole pineapple and squeezed it fresh. It was amazing. San Jose was loud, pretty dirty, and there was a lot of poverty and homeless folks walking around. It's odd because we saw many mecedes benz driving around and just as many young kids eating out of the trash. Our hostel was expensize but also safe. Central America does have black tea, [View Full Entry]

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The Hermosa beach in Jaco is the ideal place to relax and do nothing. Actually, this would be misinformation for the avid surfers for Hermosa is the surfers paradise. But since I don't surf at all I liked it because it was quiet, devoid of much commercial activity and the hotel we were in was right on the beach. We did go out on a sky walk tour near the Carara Biological Reserve but we were unlucky as we didn't get to see any toucan or macaw. We saw some other birds and a lot of green and black poison dart [View Full Entry]

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Our Costa Rica Trip - Part I This blog is primarily a summary of our trip, focusing on the best parts, and the occasional comment on what didn't work as well. Accompanying this 2-part narrative are what I think are the 120 best photos from our trip. We also took a lot of videos (especially since Miles had his flip camera along), and I have not even begun to deal with them yet. At some point I'll post a few. The Challenge Having purchased reduced-fare tickets just weeks before traveling, I threw myself on the mercy of a travel service. I [View Full Entry]

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Traveling to Nosara got off on a great start when we missed our bus and had to take a taxi driven by a one footed man in order to catch our next connection. He was cheerful nonetheless. Next, we got to sit in a bus terminal for a lil while...enough time for some pigeon to take a shit over everything I own. Seriously...It went everywhere. Not just one drop like a normal bird; this one must have eaten too many beans and washed them down with some of the bad water they warn about in all the guide books. He/she slopped [View Full Entry]

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I just realized that I had not published my blog from July! But here it is September and I am moving into my house in 8 days. There are still finishing touches to be completed, but my household goods will be delivered this Friday and I will take up permanent residence on Sept. 16th. The whole construction process has been so wonderfully managed by my Tico friend who is bilingual. Without his help this effort would have been impossible as I am not yet able to communicate in Spanish. But I have been working with a fantastic architect and with a [View Full Entry]

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Before I visit any place, I always try to find out what my options are with food, what is local and famous. When I was doing online research and reading guide books in Costa Rica, I didn't find much being mentioned about food. The only comment about food was that it was bland and there weren't any specific suggestions. Costa Rican's eat simple and the dishes comprise of simple local ingredients. Rice and beans are staple and constitute the major portion of a meal. Rice and beans don't sound very inviting but they make something called "gallo pinto" by mixing the [View Full Entry]

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Costa Rica Well after an interesting shuttle bus ride to the airport, getting us there over an hour late with some not to pleased Americans and crap customer service... pretty much summed up NY but great experience! We flew into Costa Rica. Landed into the heat and tried to work out which bus to get into San Jose and onto our hostel. We finally arrived to the lovely hostel Bueko where we were met by friendly faces. Then spent the first day there walking a round the city, but were told is wasn´t to safe at night so didn’t venture out [View Full Entry]

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My first day in Costa Rica was spent wandering around San Jose, changing money, eating Quiznos, and silently laughing to myself at how excited T-Bag gets when he talks Spanish to other people. We caught a bus out of San Jose on Wednesday, and rode six hours to the beach town of Tamarindo. People like to party here, but not in the methods that Taylor and I are used to. The closest we could find was this dude named Andre who suggested we get three bottle of rum and take it to the bars with us. We are staying at a [View Full Entry]

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Yesterday was Day 2 in Costa Rica. Volcano Lodge, the hotel where we stayed is a wonderful place. The hotel is almost empty due the green season, but the staff is super friendly and service is excellent. Yesterday was our time for horseback riding in the morning and zip line canopy adventure in the afternoon. We rode up to the waterfalls on horseback while the rain came down up on us heavily. The ride itself was a treat, one and half hours through fields, settlements and some steep climbs and descents. When we reached the waterfall we were greeted by a [View Full Entry]

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Today was our first day of the week long vacation in Costa Rica. We arrived in San Jose yesterday and stayed in a hotel just outside the city. Today morning we were picked by the tour operators (pre-booked) from our hotel for a day long visit to Arenal volcano and surrounding areas. The drive from San Jose to Arenal is about 3-4hrs long and on the way we passed through Grecia, Sarchi, Naranjo and San Ramon. We saw a beautiful church in Grecia. The tour guide told us the structure was metallic and was made that way to withstand earthquake tremors. [View Full Entry]

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