http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Alajuela/Arenal/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Central America Caribbean , Costa Rica , Alajuela , Arenal en-us Thu, 23 May 2013 03:29:44 +0000 Thu, 23 May 2013 03:29:44 +0000 They call it the ultimate waterfall rappel. Frommer39s calls it a bigger rush than a canopy tour.I39m talking about the Pure Trek Canyoning tour near Arenal Volcano in Costa Rica. Canyoning is a mixture of rappelling down waterfalls and hiking in a canyon. Noted by TripAdvisor as one of the top 10 activities to do in the Arenal area the Pure Trek Canyoning tour will have you rappelling http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Alajuela/Arenal/blog-783698.html There were two options to get from Monte Verde to Arenal. The first is on a 100 dirt road on winding roads for 3 plus hours.. no thank you.. and the second option was JeepBoatJeep. Which is the option that we took. We took about a 1.5 2 hour bus jeep ride to Lake Arenal where we took about a 3045 minute boat ride to the other side of the lake and then a 30minute taxi jeep ride up to http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Alajuela/Arenal/blog-773507.html Tall impressive Volcano Arenal is at the top of everyones list of places to visit in Costa Rica. Towering above the rainforest that surround its base and the beautiful Lake ArenalVolcano Arenals perfectly symmetrical conical shape makes it a stunning sight.Even though Costa Ricas most active volcano is taking a rest lately from spewing lava gas and ash nearly every day and night stand http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Alajuela/Arenal/blog-771102.html We arrived in La Fortuna pleasently surprised by how nice our 11 a night hostel was. The Arenal backpackers resort is what they call themselves and resort feeling for a backpackers was felt This small volcanic town situated at the base of mt arenal was buzzing with many tourists and not too short of great food places either We had a action pack relaxing 3 days ahead. Day one consisted of a fu http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Alajuela/Arenal/blog-770315.html Our shuttle bus arrived to pick us up and take us to La Fortuna as we were the only travellers that day we had plenty of space and our driver Roberto was very pleasant company on the journey. He asked if we were OK after the previous nights earthquake he had been fishing and said that the earth started to move and then he noticed the water rippling I think it must have scared the fish as he http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Alajuela/Arenal/blog-753039.html August 4th Volcano Walk and Hot SpringsLovely place but as we back onto the Jungle Canopy it sure was noisy In the middle of the night it sounded like every Monkey in Costa Rica was having a party on our veranda Then the howling started and I mean howling... a bit like a cross between a very upset dog and a loud donkey. Eventually died down a bit and we went back to sleep tired today http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Alajuela/Arenal/blog-735308.html Real Rain ForestUp bright and early tremendous storm in the night must have been inches of rain. But when we got up blue sky and clear.Breakfast was part of the cash deal so down we went. It was really really nice including fresh fruit and fried breakfast which included Pino Gallo rice and beans and Fried Cheese which was very nice but should we have put it on bread Sp http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Alajuela/Arenal/blog-734914.html Blogging fail I didn39t realize I39d only saved and not actually published the previous entry. I apologize to anyone who might have been concerned about our safe arrival.Anyway this blogging thing is not working out well on this trip obviously. We were without internet altogether at our last stop the lodge on the river we were rafting and most places only have it near the lobbyoft http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Alajuela/Arenal/blog-729377.html MayDay was a relatively low key transition day. We were met at Monteverde and driven a couple hours through mountainous backroads to the edge of Costa Ricas largest lake Lake Arenal where we were met by a boat.The captain who reminded me of my nephew Jordan must have picked up our vibe because indtead of taking us to meet our driver on the other shore he first took us to an abandoned hundre http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Alajuela/Arenal/blog-713992.html Well for this years vacation we decided on the complete opposite adventure from Egypt.ltspangt Lush rainforests stunning waterfalls and vast active volcanoes were in Costa Rica ltspangt We boarded our flight to Liberia Costa Rica via Atlanta at 545am today.ltspangt Its a complete coincidence that well be exploring the jungle on Earth Day a pretty cool coinci http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Alajuela/Arenal/blog-711892.html We were sad to leave the Peace Lodge as it had been a restful place to stay after our busy tour of Guatemala but we were also looking forward to our next stop at the base of the Arenal volcano. It was a fairly easy 2 and a half hour drive to Arenal we were very pleased to check in to our hotel and find it exceed our expectations. The Royal Corin has a number of hot spas and pools all feed by hot http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Alajuela/Arenal/blog-710606.html One of the many nice things about living in India for 4 years was all the people I met along the way. Like most capital cities Delhi is home to people from all over the world. Each country sends people from home to staff and provide services at their respective embassies and you get to meet many of these people along the way. People that are willing and able to take assignments in foreign lan http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Alajuela/Arenal/blog-676334.html So where do I start Many people that we know have been to Costa Rica or have some connection to it. We had heard that it is the most developed country in Central America it had amazing beaches and attracts many English speakers. Preparing to go we did our research reading blogs internet research and reached out to friends. We had many expectations and precautions. Costa Rica turned out to b http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Alajuela/Arenal/blog-626226.html We chose the jeepboatjeep option 3 hrs as opposed to 8 hours via car or bus around the perimeter of the lake to go from Monteverde to Arenal. One and half hours over very rough gravel roads took us down to the edge of the lake. It was a trip made more interesting by seeing very obious climatic changes in the scenery in a short period of time. We crossed from the dustier drier Pacific side of http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Alajuela/Arenal/blog-606555.html Helloooo We have had an awesome few days here Sunday was our last day in Puerto Viejo. Ian and I went on a botanical garden walk in the morning which was pretty cool... saw lots of red poison dart frogs and learned how many different foods are produced. We saw raw cacao sugarcane black pepper pineapple guava etc. It was cool seeing what these foods look like before they get to us.Then we http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Alajuela/Arenal/blog-594179.html Dear all. So I have only two days left in San Francisco and six in Costa Rica. It's a shame to leave the school just as I feel more comfortable the opposite feeling to getting into the swing of things e.g remembering that few 10 year olds speak Aristotle in the weeks before. I don't doubt that it deserves its reputation as one of the best schools in the north of Costa Rica the children have http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Alajuela/Arenal/blog-593933.html I think at least one member of Monty Python was once a frustrated primary school teacher. What... is your name. What... is your favourite colour'. Small child continues to prefer nosepicking to intellectual endeavour. 'What... is the capital of Assyria' Child fired into abyss. There seems to be a serious pencil and biro currency in the school they are the prizes that Oliver the english teac http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Alajuela/Arenal/blog-591082.html Went on a trip to the volcano Arenal and some hot springs nearby. We were Mikkel Simon Yvonne Joanna Germany and Lukas Austria. http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Alajuela/Arenal/blog-588679.html Our Photos from the rafting http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Alajuela/Arenal/blog-554272.html So this past weekend I took another trip. I went with the other USAC group here in Costa Rica to Volcan Arenal again. I have been there before but I hadnt done the activities that we did this past weekend. The whole weekend was simply a blast We left Friday for the volcano and that whole experience was an interesting thing.This past week has been a week of solid rain and there have been a lot http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Alajuela/Arenal/blog-546187.html