Blogs from Central America Caribbean

Good morning everyone! I am going to try something new by posting a "weekly" review instead of the occasional daily post. I have some friends and family who don't use FB so I need to at least post for them. I will continue to post daily pictures on FB though. What a GREAT week! Highlighted of course by Yari's week long visit! It is always a pleasure having her company, although we do have our occasional "bumps" in the road lol! But for the most part we really enjoy each others company. Of course if one of us would learn the others language the "bumps" would be far and in between. Defining our relationship is best described by the Facebook status "its complicated" lol! We care for each other deeply and at some point we will ... read more

(Note...definitely scroll to the bottom for some amazing photos) On Day 3, Wednesday, I explored more of Antigua with the two English and Denver guys from the hostel. They were a fun group to hang out with, and we visited a museum and a few ruins. I was going to book my trip to hike Volcano Acatenango, but unfortunately they changed the schedule and would be leaving Saturday instead of Friday. I did not want to wait around for a couple more days and lose my precious time, so I decided that I would move to my next destination the following day. At night, I went out with some guys from the hostel for dinner and then to a bar which was of course filled with gringos. It still is surreal to me to be in ... read more

This past weekend our group traveled to Manuel Antonio National Park. On our way to the beach, we had to take a 30-minute walk through the rainforest. There were nearly 300 species of animals in the park. We first came upon a two-toed sloth. We had the rare chance of seeing a mother sloth traveling across the tree-tops with her baby attached to her underside. Next, we encountered the white-faced monkeys when we neared the beach. Seemingly cute, everyone was excited to see them. As we found out later, the monkeys know how to snoop into our bags and retrieve the snacks we bought earlier. One member of our group (Jonathan) had his banana stolen right in front of him. Also looking for a free meal, there were raccoons. On the rocks sunning himself was a ... read more

Coffee beans, ground coffee, chocolate covered coffee beans, iced coffee drinks, coffee liquors, coffee candies . . . coffee everything! Today was our day to visit Café Britt and learn about the production of coffee, from the first step of planting to the final step of roasting and packaging. The Café Britt Coffee Tour is not just another tour. Yes, it is full of information about coffee production and its importance in Costa Rica, but it is also funny and full of surprises. We walked down a path totally surrounded by coffee plants and tropical trees, where the Britt guides explained the planting, growing, and hand-picking processes. Then we were led to the roasting area, where large roasters are used for varying amounts of time to create light roasts, dark roasts and espresso roasts. The next ... read more

Hello everyone! Well the pool construction has started! Having a construction background I find it very entertaining lol! Everything is done with just BASIC tools. No air, no generators, just good old fashion hard work! NO WONDER IT"S GONNA TAKE TWO MONTHS LOL!!!! But they seem to work hard and all day long. I notice most of the workers seem to know their individual jobs well. For sure this is a plus for speed. Anyway, it is underway and 6-8 weeks before I get to swim in it. I hear it is even going to have a waterfalls! Yari is arriving today for her second visit. I've missed the squirt lol! It will be fun having her back! I am in a full blown routine here with 10x more friends and social interaction then I have ... read more