http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Guanacaste/Samara/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Central America Caribbean , Costa Rica , Guanacaste , Samara en-us Thu, 07 Jan 2010 08:04:20 +0000 Thu, 07 Jan 2010 08:04:20 +0000 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 http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Guanacaste/Samara/Sarchi/blog-436623.html Well what a few weeks The title sums up my feelings of what have been some of the best weeks of my life for many reasons. But just to keep you all in suspense for a little while longer I'll return to where my last blog finished. After Nicaragua I had my last week of classes in Heredia and it was a fairly uneventful week with the highlights being two 'Intercambios' where I spent an hour with l http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Guanacaste/Samara/blog-395518.html It was time to ldquomake lemonade out of my lemonsrdquo so to speak. As most of you know I was laid off in December from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Since I left Samara Costa Rica back in 2006 Irsquove been itching to go back so.. .here I am Welcome to Jolynnrsquos Costa Rica Blog Episode 3On this my third trip to Playa Samara Costa Rica I hold some bittersweet feelings. Itr http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Guanacaste/Samara/blog-373689.html Costa Rica.We are burnt but happyily so. We have feasted on casados batidos and cervezas. And we will continue our journey southward. Hope you all are well. Bye for now. http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Guanacaste/Samara/blog-372405.html Road Trip Posted by JohnThe last days in Samara diminished quickly as many of our fellow TEFL students moved away to their respective jobs peppered all over Costa Rica. There were four of us left each interested in traveling to Heredia near the capital of San Jose. Two of us have jobs waiting one of us is going there to look and the other is flying home to visit family. We decided to leave ear http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Guanacaste/Samara/blog-362064.html This was a family vacation to Costa Rica. We swam tried to surf zip lined went horseback riding and had great relaxing time. Family time like this hadnt happened during the last ten years due to life Aaron flew in from New York and Mary Marc and I from Portland. I still remember Mary's face when she stepped off the zip line platform for the first time fear followed by pure exhilirat http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Guanacaste/Samara/blog-361163.html So New Year was a blast Started off with dinner at Karin Pierro's then 'pub hopping' in Samara Yes I was on top form and made sure it was a celebration of a lifetime Tequila Queen blended with Guarro Devil brought out the best and worst of everyone... So good that I missed my bus at 8h30 on the 1st I mean which idiot thinks they'll be up at 8 on New Years day and because all the buses http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Guanacaste/Samara/blog-360565.html Well it is eventually time to say goodbye to beautiful Samara. It is amazing how in less than 2 weeks I have met a few amazing people who have crept into my heart so rapidly sneakily I might addI feel so blessed for my time here and it is so much harder than I could have ever imagined to say goodbye...The last few days have been filled with yoga coffee conversation beach swimming coo http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Guanacaste/Samara/blog-358875.html 122408 posted by JohnSettling in at the farmhellip Yes as Megan stated we are now on a farm and it is quite nice. We have been spending our days exploring some of the other beaches in the area. Yesterday five of us went in search of Playa Izquierda. The hills here march all the way into the sea creating many crescent shaped coves that in time have become a series of sometimes small and almo http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Guanacaste/Samara/blog-357701.html Posted by Megan 1227Well Christmas has come and gone but supposedly the party is just starting. The festival starts today. It looks very interesting... they've been setting up rides and getting ready for this for days. It lasts until January I think. They are going to have a big parade on horses all around Samara like 30 or so caballeros. Then on the last day of the festival they are going to http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Guanacaste/Samara/blog-357618.html The days seem a mystery and misty haze of possible dates times days seasons I guess this is a good indication that structure and diligent routine are a rather distant notion easily forgotten...Things are slow and the most exciting moments seem to be doing as little as possible Guess what In the middle of Samara I have found somewhere to do yoga Karin does a mix of various forms every http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Guanacaste/Samara/blog-356942.html Posted by Megan 1222Well we are officially done with classes. We both passed with an A. And we got moved to the new place... which happens to be a much better place That was the quickest move I've ever lived through. We packed all our stuff up and got it moved over to the new house in a grand total of maybe 2 hours. The new place is on a farm on the outskirts of town. It is such a beautiful p http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Guanacaste/Samara/blog-356387.html After a few bus rides traversing from singlelaned highwaysto erratically tarred rural roads and over sporadic ditchlike potholes I finally arrived in Samara. Its quite amazing to see how the scenery and the people provide an accurate indication that you have moved from the rural mountains to the tourist influenced coast. From cloud forest vegitation mist rain wind and gently polite Ticos t http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Guanacaste/Samara/blog-356182.html posted by Megan 1217Well class is almost over We have been so busy the past two weeks with homework creating lesson plans creating our portfolios and resumes and just being in class 9 hours a day. But I taught for the last time last night it went pretty well I think and John teaches for the last time tonight. All we have left after that is our final exam and to finish our portfolios.We http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Guanacaste/Samara/blog-355064.html Posted by John A week of class has passed and the weekend is greatly welcomed. I taught Friday night and it went extremely well. My class was very responsive and we all had a lot of fun. Being Friday night and the end of a somewhat stressful week all of us in the TEFL program decided to go and have a beer after class. The other students have found a favorite local bar to frequent near the house http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Guanacaste/Samara/blog-350473.html posted by Megan 1126I NEED FOOD I seem to be always hungry lately. Even right after I eathellipWersquore trying to live off 100 a week total and Irsquom not sure itrsquos going to be possible. We went to Nicoya for groceries and spent almost 80 and almost all we have left in the fridge are pasta eggs potatoes rice beans a carrot some celery a couple onions and a half a red http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Guanacaste/Samara/blog-349399.html posted by Megan 1127Ok so yoursquove got everything planned out perfectly yoursquove got all your pictures and charts drawn your activities planned out and your lesson plan worked out to perfection. You think yoursquore gonna do just great you think you might just knock some socks off. And then WHAM You get your own feet knocked out from under youhellipTonight I taught my first http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Guanacaste/Samara/blog-349396.html Posted by Megan 1124Today was the first day of class. Phew I didnrsquot realize that there was so much information to learn about teaching. We had a lesson on classroom environment and then a lesson on lesson planshellip I have a feeling we just scratched the surface on both of those topics. Then the last 3 hours we worked on building lesson plans for our first class. Which for some of the http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Guanacaste/Samara/blog-348840.html So we are now winding down on our trip and we are spending some time chilling out on the beaches. We're still keeping busy but its now a mixture of national parks with surfing swimming and reading on the beach for an afternoon here or there. Here are our highlightsNicaraguaWe decided to spend a few days up in Nicaragua and we visited two locations Granada and Isla Ometepe. Granada is a real http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Guanacaste/Samara/blog-348590.html Posted by John. Nov. 22ndGetting settled.Everything is falling into place nicely here in Samara. This is definitely a Tico town. The normal touristy feeling you sometimes get while traveling in Latin America is virtually nil here. Aside from the few students that come here to study Spanish it is just a nice relatively untouched Tico town. A rough knowledge of Spanish is a must. I have realized http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Guanacaste/Samara/blog-347951.html