http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Guanacaste/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Central America Caribbean , Costa Rica , Guanacaste en-us Tue, 29 Dec 2009 03:08:47 +0000 Tue, 29 Dec 2009 03:08:47 +0000 Our choice for this part of the coast is the Hotel Iguanazul which was recommended to Neil by a Millwall fan now living in Costa Rica The owner offered us a great discount and we have found ourselves the only guests. The hotel is amazing with great free form pool waves are beautiful just as I expected the northern Nicoya Peninsula to look. For ages Ive wanted to come this far north and it is http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Guanacaste/Junquillal/blog-460829.html Bienvenidos a Costa RicaI'm already back in Edmonton Alberta freezing my butt off after spending an actionpacked funfilled week of R R at the Allegro Papagayo resort Guanacaste province Costa Rica. Mother Nature provided a recordbreaking welcome back to Canada of the cruellest kind on the night of Saturday December 12 2009. The second leg of our journey home from Liberia was in http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Guanacaste/Liberia/blog-460445.html We left Liberia to get to Playa Tamarindo early on Friday Oct. 30. We arrived by bus and settled in at La Bottella de Leche The Milk Bottle Hostel a cowthemed establishment. Friendly and chaotic it was packed to the brim that weekend for reasons that had nothing to do with the wildlife or surf. More on that later.Our guidebooks warned us that Playa Tamarindo was overdeveloped and commerical http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Guanacaste/Tamarindo/blog-455118.html Alright....so the story I left you wanting to hear. We got to Tamarindo at dark so we were happy to have help finding a place to stay. A guy on the street showed us this hostel we checked it out and for 8 a night in expensive gringolandia the place looked alright. We put our stuff down made friends with our roommates for the night and then headed off for dinner. We came back and hung out w http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Guanacaste/Tamarindo/blog-453013.html Our worst border experience as of yet was crossing from Nicaragua to Costa Rica. Many countries in Central America have an open border. Residents of these countries cross freely between the borders and only the touristas need to show documentation. The situation is quite different on the NicaraguaCosta Rica border. Costa Rica has quite a bit more money and many Nicaraguans come into Costa R http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Guanacaste/Penas-Blancas/blog-452071.html We boarded our bus at the Costa Rican border at about 3 pm on Monday October 26. We were lucky to get seats as many people had to stand for the 3 hour plus ride to Liberia although we were not lucky enough to sit together. I was already worn out by the time we got on the bus. The bus was airconditioned and my clothes were damp and smelly from rain sweat and futile handwashing attempts. I http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Guanacaste/Liberia/blog-449458.html Costa Rica is a wonderful vacation location From the US it is an easy three to five hour flight. The beaches in Guanacaste are world class If you are interested in a Costa Rican vacation latinexplore.com can help you out http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Guanacaste/blog-448230.html Today was a terrible day. Terrible. The word cant be repeated enough. Lets start at the beginning. Got up at 5am to catch the 6am bus next to the hostel. Saw a lovely sunrise but the bus was half an hour late. 1.5 hours and one incredibly whiney child and smelly man later our bus arrived at Paquera dropping us to catch the Ferry which was fine fine fine and we arrived at Punta Arenas on http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Guanacaste/Nicoya-Peninsula/blog-447144.html ldquoTo create a unique life experience in Guanacaste for our customers and investors in harmony with nature and traditions creating innovative growing opportunities for our human resource and neighboring communities as well as to offer a high profitability to our partners being leaders in the sustainable tourism development of Costa Ricardquo. Reserva Conchal mission goes along with a number http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Guanacaste/Playa-Conchal/blog-446432.html Costa Rica Lake HouseWe zijn intussen alweer ruim een maand in Costa Rica hoog tijd voor wat nieuws van deze kant. Via vrienden makelaars kwamen we in een huis terecht met uitzicht op het meer. Er zijn veel buitenlanders die hier een huis bouwenkopenverbouwen en er slechts een aantal weken per jaar verblijven. Het is prettig als een huis bewoond is aldus gingen we huis oppassen. Alleen de http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Guanacaste/Tronadora/blog-443285.html With only 51 100 km2 of land extension Costa Rica entails more than a hundred good reasons to visit come back and why not... stay forever. Location weather nature people and traditions national partieshellip all together seem to be the perfect magic charm for both locals and foreigners people simply fall in love with Costa Ricans peaceful way of living and friendliness. Geog http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Guanacaste/Playa-Conchal/blog-440329.html 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 My first day in Costa Rica was spent wandering around San Jose changing money eating Quiznos and silently laughing to myself at how excited TBag 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 http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Guanacaste/Tamarindo/blog-434475.html These are all the pictures from the trip. http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Guanacaste/blog-426274.html Friday is usually my most favorite and least favorite day of our vacations. Since I am the resident overplanner we've usually spent all of our money gone on lots of adventures and started thinking about the trip home by then. That's why MY tradition which has become the de facto family tradition is to leave Friday as a wideopen day. We can chill do something we've missed or forgotten or http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Guanacaste/blog-424638.html I'm a couple of days behind on updating...Wednesday was Mike's Choice. He wanted to go fishing and we were lucky enough to find a boat that would take us out for a halfday of fishing AND snorkeling which usually don't go together. I've never been trolling and it was really nice. The boat was fairly small 26 feet but very nicely maintained. Neither the captain nor the first mate spoke m http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Guanacaste/blog-424141.html Crocodile makes a lunge for German touristA crocodile lunged out of the water at a terrified German tourist on the Tempiski River in Costa Rica with its jaws open to expose its razorsharp teeth.With her camera in hand the unnamed holidaymaker was poised to capture a close encounter with the reptile during a boat trip in the Central American country.However when a tour guide banged a stick again http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Guanacaste/blog-423867.html Most of what you hear about as a must see in Costa Rica is the rainforests after the monkeys of course. Well Tuesday was rainforest day for the girls. Mike wisely decided to stay behind even though we were promised that the tour company would make it easy for him to enjoy. WRONG...there was not one part of the trip other than the lunch possibly that the girls and I figured he would ha http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Guanacaste/Mirrivalles/blog-423610.html So after reading about all the crazy animals reptiles and birds that are down here I had two major goals for sightings monkeys and a Jesus Christ lizard sonamed because it walks on water. Success on both countson our official river cruise and also back here at the house.The river trip was very tame but in a way it was very relaxing. After an hour and a half tour bus ride air condition http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Guanacaste/blog-423023.html Our first day in Costa Rica So the sun comes up at about 530 and being an hour behind Chicago time I'm up at 6 am. But it reminds me that this is my favorite time of vacation...sitting on the porch drinking my coffee preprogrammed the night before and figuring out a how much we've spent so far and b what our travel budget is.Rafael from the tour company came by last night and we' http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Guanacaste/Playa-Grande/blog-422882.html