http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Puntarenas/Quepos/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Central America Caribbean , Costa Rica , Puntarenas , Quepos en-us Sat, 06 Sep 2008 23:04:31 BST Sat, 06 Sep 2008 23:04:31 BST After an exciting time in Monteverde it was time to head to the Pacific coast for a few days. This was our longest travel day. The drive was beautiful driving back down the mountains and then driving along the coast. This is the Costa Rica that most people think of crystalclear blue water brown sand and tropical heat.We stayed in Quepos a port city that was a little rough around the edg http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Puntarenas/Quepos/blog-313212.html The last few days have been mostly travel days. Not sticking around anywhere for long. Making our way up to the Peninsula De Nicoya where we will be visiting Montezuma. Probably will be there a couple of days. We crossed the border into Costa Rica on Thursday with no problems but I thought it odd that we had to pay to leave Panama. Only 2 each but silly. Anyway we traveled by bus up to San http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Puntarenas/Quepos/blog-307507.html The last two weeks of our year long trip was spent in Costa Rica. It was in the hope that the sun would shine and gives us some super tans to go home with. Unfortunately it was the rainy season so we only managed 2 hours of sunbathing in the morning at the most before the clouds came. We stayed in some lovely hotels and hostels with huge rooms and swimming pools. Very comfortableWe travelled t http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Puntarenas/Quepos/blog-305765.html Hola ChicosAfter a grewling day of travelling via boat a bus another bus and another bus we have finally reach Costa Rica It is stunning here We drove on buses for about 9hours on tuesdays and the scenery was incredible the drive was a little scary with huge cliff edges with no barriers and a slightly insane bus driver going much faster than he sould be But we got here in once piece and are http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Puntarenas/Quepos/blog-295079.html About 6 weeks ago I signed our shop up for a bowling competetion only 1 of us had bowled before....so we were a little apprehensive about the ability of Los Tiburones our team name. I was only vaguely aware that there was a bowling alley in Quepos But Quepos has Bobby D's a proud relic of the Palm Oil Production company Palma Tica that is being kept alive by Bobby an avid bowler. Bobby D's h http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Puntarenas/Quepos/blog-291257.html Well Im gone again on another adventure. This time Im travelling for 16 weeks Central and South America. Saturday I flew to San Jose Costa Rica Spent a couple days visiting with friend of mine Krista and her roommate Ashley. They have been down here since January teaching English.Sunday we went visited Pose Volcano. Monday I jumped a bus to the pacific coast to a town called Quepos near Man http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Puntarenas/Quepos/blog-288131.html Kate Our journey to Quepos was....hurray... not too long and only took around 2 hours. When we arrived however it was absolutely tipping it down with rain which we later learnt it did everyday in the afternoon in Quepos. It is actually quite refreshing since the mornings are so hot and also you dont feel bad about lazing around the hostel playing cards reading our books in the afternoon. Qu http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Puntarenas/Quepos/blog-276321.html Hellooooo. From the jungle we got on a bus at 6 am and went back to Puerto Jiminez to wait for the water taxi for 5 hours and then from Golfito on a bus 3 seperate times until we finally arrived in Uvita in the dark. We got a room at a cool little hostel and met our roomate from North Carolina who later travelled further with us. Uvita was a town with spread apart different sections and you had to http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Puntarenas/Quepos/blog-242200.html Hey and welcome all to Oceans first official blogI figured i would start the new season and new year with a bang and actually keep everyone up to date with whats going on down here in Manuel Antonio Quepos. Im part of a a relatively young dive center down here and living my everyday sometimes adventurous sometimes random life working as a dive instructor and helping run the center. My job is http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Puntarenas/Quepos/blog-233758.html Thanks to the monkey visit on Tuesday which started at 5.30am and lasted till about 7am Tuesday was a looong day. We checked out of the hotel at 8.30 since the power had been shut off at 8am so there was no point in hanging around and we drove to a local spice farm called Villa Vanilla.With not knowing what to expect combined with getting a personal tour from the owner of the farm we had an amaz http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Puntarenas/Quepos/blog-214291.html So last night I was on our balcony and i was like hohum guess no monkeys for me I was relaly hoping I would get one on our balcony. Even last night both Jay and I woke up once each in the middle of the night to peak on a banan we had left out. Then at about 5.30 I wa sup and couldn't sleep anymore and I looked outside and there was an amazing sunrise so I opened the door and there it was a monke http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Puntarenas/Quepos/blog-213669.html Well unfortuantely we never got to Zip line today we got to the site paid and THEN they brought up a concern wiht the harnesses and Jay and would they fit him properly so we pretty much wasted a day to find out they did not have the right harness for him and it would of been a risk for him to be in a suspension harness with not a lot of room for slipping.....we were pretty pissed since I had c http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Puntarenas/Quepos/blog-213513.html A monkey was on our balcony todayhelliphellipand WE WERE NOT HERE How do I know Because I left a banana on the ledge and for the two hours that we went out for lunch we came back and found a banana peel on the floor how do you like that eat and leave trash behind Oh well I am hopeful that the new banana I put out will secure me an up close encounter with a monkey.We did go to Manuel Ant http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Puntarenas/Quepos/blog-213276.html So here is my first attempt at a blog. I just got a bit scared as I counted the days before we left. I am so not ready. We have purchased about a million bottles of bug spray and if somehow those pesky little buggers do break through the repellent force we have a hundred pounds of antibiotic cream. We have so much luggage to bring. I can pack for a trip with no problems but this is a whole differe http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Puntarenas/Quepos/blog-205620.html Finally Leaving the grim sweatbucket that is San Jose behind in a trail of bus dust Rich and I forged towards the megalopolis of Jaco on the coast. To my dismay I found it to be a dingy uncomfortable place full of seedy locals trying to sell cocaine on every corner. As Rich was still recovering from his bout of what was apparently tonsilitis according to the obese Dr. Jose Jiminez we decide http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Puntarenas/Quepos/blog-197470.html Honeymoon http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Puntarenas/Quepos/blog-166167.html Goodbye to Quepos.....againnbspCentral America Caribbean raquonbspCosta Rica raquonbspQuepos By Chris y NikkiApril 6th 2007Chris and NikkiOur last weekend in Quepos before heading to Panama the family took everyone up to a waterfall for lunch. It was a bumpy drive to get there but very fun. Climbing around rivers jumping off rocks into waterfalls...Nikki even ate tunaFor Easter we http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Puntarenas/Quepos/blog-148041.html Waterslide PicnicnbspCentral America Caribbean raquonbspCosta Rica raquonbspQuepos By Chris y NikkiMarch 18th 2007Chris and Nikki Before we left for Playa Hermosa Punta Mala our Tico family decided to take everyone to another ranchero for the day. We spent the day playing washers soccer eating and of course sliding down the waterslide tobogn en espaol. The highlight of the day http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Puntarenas/Quepos/blog-146130.html So getting to Quepos is one of the most memorable travelling legs ive had on this whole trip. We decided to splurge on a shuttle bus versus taking the local bus. If we took a local bus it could take up to 11 hours the shuttle took about 5. We leave early in the morning only to find out we are the only ones on the shuttle we have it all to ourselves it was so relaxing. We heading to Paquera http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Puntarenas/Quepos/blog-141610.html Last Saturday we went on a canopy tour near Quepos with three other students from the school. You wear a harness similar to rock wall climbing and they hook you onto a wire cable that spans from one platform to another anywhere from 50 meters to 400 meters. The longest on our tour was just over 400. If you can zoom in on one of the photos I think it says the length. So they hook you on to the http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Puntarenas/Quepos/blog-136332.html We're playing catchup with photos here. We got back from the Arenal trip around 4 and shortly after our Tico family invited us out the Quepos Festival. There was some live music rides bumper cars was the best junk food and bull riding. I'll let the captions and the pictures tell most of the story.The next day we had a 3 hour surf lesson and local surf spot that took us through some pretty i http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Puntarenas/Quepos/blog-130823.html So I have been in Quepos for about a week now and am really liking it so far. The first night here was somewhat of a problem for me but ever since then it has been awesome. The first night was tough because my homestay was not exactly the safe middle class home that was promised by the program. The house was down a dark muddy alley behind the bus station and next to the junk yard. Not exactly the http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Puntarenas/Quepos/blog-93613.html Hola Things are still going really well here. I havent been feeling great again this week but not nearly as bad as last week. A couple of days ago I had my first agua pipa which is the water that you drink from a young coconut thru a straw. Its refreshing and sweet and apparently its a lot like getting a blood transfusion. Soldiers used to use it as an IV to regain their strength. It definit http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Puntarenas/Quepos/blog-78307.html Hola mis amigos Im finally going to tackle the travel blog thing so lets hope it works. I know some of you didnt get the first couple of emails so Ill do a super quick summary of what you missed. Also Im having trouble uploading my pictures from my camera here so when I get home I will set up an album on this page and on MSN. Oh and I sent out a bunch of postcards the other day but I d http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Puntarenas/Quepos/blog-77267.html Well I believe one of the last things I left you lovely people with was elations about how easy it is to travel around this country. I spoke too soon as paul and i got in to the biggest mess just trying to get to a town that was a mere 80km away.i need to paint a picture here of exactly where this town is and why its so hard to get to in the first place. lets just say that mr toads wild ride pa http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Puntarenas/Quepos/blog-52455.html