http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Puntarenas/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Central America Caribbean , Costa Rica , Puntarenas en-us Mon, 08 Sep 2008 10:06:57 BST Mon, 08 Sep 2008 10:06:57 BST Hello Well we are back in Puerto Jiminez on our second day off. We have now finished our volunteer project and are heading back to Heredia tomorrow before setting off on the adventure tour on Saturday morningThe second week has been amazing We went out on the boat observing dolphins twice this week and yesterday the dolphins came right up close to the boat 3 dived underneath it 2 did synchron http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Puntarenas/Osa-Peninsula/Puerto-Jimenez/blog-319814.html We piled the truck high with trash bags gloves leaflets on reclying marine debris project aware and the blue flag program and headed to the beach Playa Espadilla Sur in Manuel Antonio.At 9am we were about the only people on the beach most normal people still in bed after a Friday night out. Doris Alonso Doris Dennis and I were joined by people from Arenas de Mar Costa Verde Fourtrax and http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Puntarenas/Manuel-Antonio/blog-318343.html I didnt think the last photos uploaded but it seems they did Will do some more...I may have managed to upload two here but its not working very well and I have to go now See you all soonSuxxxxxxx http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Puntarenas/Osa-Peninsula/Puerto-Jimenez/blog-317655.html Hello Its so good to be in touch with the world again after a week in the middle of nowhere We have travelled an hour on a half on a bus to use the internet here and it was so worth itThe place we are staying is absolutely amazing. Its an ecolodge place with wooden cabins made out of bamboo. Its all so natural and theres even coconuts for the shower heads and lamp heads The view out of http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Puntarenas/Osa-Peninsula/Puerto-Jimenez/blog-317652.html She did request that. And I have been lazy at this blogging business so I'm getting back into it. I hope the description pleases my mother. I'll start at the place I'm staying. I know I've described it a bit but here I'll go into laborious detail just for the fun of it. The main complex of cloudbridge has three buildings. The electricity comes from solar panels the stove works on gas an http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Puntarenas/San-Isidro-de-General/blog-315132.html 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 Today started with a van ride to Extremo Canopy Tour. Finally after several days of clouds and rain the sky was a beautiful blue and the sun was shining brightly. It was a welcome sight. The Extremo canopy tour was amazing with several ziplines stretching between mountains. What an amazing experience to be flying through the air attached to a small wire hundreds of feet above the ground. http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Puntarenas/Monteverde/blog-312985.html Today was the day we did our 7hour trek from La Fortuna to Santa Elena and the Monteverde Cloud Forest. We started early in the morning by taking a van to Lake Arenal Costa Rica's only lake at the base of the volcano. From there we boarded a bot that took us across the huge lake. From there we mounted up on horses for a 4hour trek on horseback. the horseback ride was fun but very painful a http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Puntarenas/Santa-Elena/blog-312601.html Moving on from Nicaragua into Costa Rica has been like going from floating peacefully down a river to plunging head first into rapids. In fact I've experienced this both physically and metaphorically in the last week...but I'll get into that in a bit Just a quick note before I begin I managed to get a few pics up in my previous blogs. Not many because the internet still is too slow but at lea http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Puntarenas/Monteverde/blog-311025.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 I haven't had much time to write at my blog because I have been working with the group to finish our research and put together our project. After the group returned from Arenal we started putting together a focus group for the women in the area to learn about their perceptions of the local farmers' market. I am so glad that we got to choose the farmers' market as the focus of our research. Loca http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Puntarenas/Monteverde/blog-303666.html Manuel Antonio is the smallest national park but the most famous in Costa Rica for its abundance of wildlife unspoiled beaches and crocodileshellipbut more about that later. Driving across Costa Rica to get there was thankfully not too bad a journey as the road was actually paved for most of the way You would not believe what a small miracle that actually is. Checking into our hotel obviously http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Puntarenas/Manuel-Antonio/blog-302959.html Hi everyone David here actually writing from Hotel Brio in a tiny village called Gigante on the Pacific Coast of Nicaragua. As expected time is flying and we're having a lot of fun but as a result we're a little behind on our updates. It is currently raining outside a blessing as the last couple of days have been seriously hot and humid and Liesel and I are taking advantage to update our b http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Puntarenas/Monteverde/blog-301518.html Arriving in Costa Rica always feels like returning home. My 11th time was not much different. I arrived late from Honduras and Jorge picked me up. After a crazy night of drinking I headed to Montezuma. Spent two weeks here in Montezuma just hanging out and sleeping reading and of course a little bit of partying. I got to hang out with Sasha and Molly. We had a great time visiting Santa Theresa http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Puntarenas/Montezuma/blog-299747.html After the first day or so in Monteverde everyone settled in and quickly got used to the totally different environment of the cloud forest region. We literally were above the clouds during most days you could see them down below the mountain and in the afternoon they would creep up the side of the mountain cross over the road in front of CPI and make everything foggy. Sometimes it woul http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Puntarenas/Monteverde/blog-299417.html Hello to AllThis week our main focus has been to learn about Anthropological Measurements things like height weight and calculating Body Mass Index BMI as well as blood glucose and blood pressure skin fold measurements for detecting body fat etc. We had lots of lectures and practice sessions Monday through Wednesday. This was all preparation for holding a local Health Fair where we wou http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Puntarenas/Monteverde/blog-299217.html After 3 nights in Montezuma I left for Jaco.This place was huge and very Americanised. Lots of surf shops lots of Americans everybody speaks English too. I spent 3 nights here and it was a great place to kick back and party. The hostel had a pool so it was a good place when the pubs shut to go for a 3am swim. I enjoyed it here but its certainly not what I wanted to get out of Costa Rica. http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Puntarenas/Jaco/blog-298173.html Well since writing my last blog about leaving for Arenal I met a couple of people in the hostel who convinced me to go to Montezuma with them so I had an early night and got up for 530am and caught the bus. It was an easy but long journey. Definately worth it though we had a great adventure in the sleepy town. Treking through the jungle to see the waterfalls when we finally reached it the rain http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Puntarenas/Montezuma/blog-298168.html We've had an amazing last couple of days....we took a boat across from Jaco to Montezuma which is a wikid little town its tiny...the main street is only about 50 meters and just a beach with a few restaurants and bars what else do you need thoughOn tuesday we went on a horse riding trip which was amazing we jumped on our horses on the beach and rode along the beaches and into the jungle for http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Puntarenas/Montezuma/blog-297791.html In some of the gift shops in Monteverde they sell a Tshirt that says ldquoI survived the road to Monteverde.rdquo Itrsquos true that the last hour and a half of the trip from San Joaquin was on a very bumpy and hard gravel road that winds through the fields and mountains and eventually reaches what feels like the top of the world. The panoramas were breathtaking. Sometimes there were sha http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Puntarenas/Monteverde/blog-297075.html It is Sunday evening and I have had my first officially free day since we all started the program on June 22. Yesterday my group the Nutrition Group went with a fellow USF Graduate Student to 2 of the farms that he has been studying for his research. We split up into 2 groups and worked the fields for a while with each of the farmers. Our idea was to speak with farmers to see what motivates t http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Puntarenas/Monteverde/blog-296993.html I haven't been paying attention. It is July 4th a national holiday back home and I forgot all about it. I haven't had much time for blogging because we have been so busy with classes all day and homework at night. I guess we have officially had 2 weeks of classes and will have one more week of didactic classes with some of our research in between. After that we will spend the days doing field http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Puntarenas/Monteverde/blog-295409.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 Thursday June 27 we took the 7 hour bus to David. The ride was nice with AC and an audiobook. Our hostel for the night was called the Purple House Hostel. It is quite purple and so is most of its contents. The lady who owns and operates it is from New York she came down initially with the Peace Corps. We met two young Irish guys and one young guy from Britain. Good conversations. There were oth http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Puntarenas/Golfito/blog-293587.html From Wednesday until Friday the Field School Group went back and forth between the Poco a Poco Little by little Hotel and the Monteverde Institute. We had several introductory classes about the institute as well as anthropology and public health lectures from our instructors. On Friday morning we were grouped into beginning intermediate and advanced and took our first Spanish Class. Later in http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Puntarenas/Monteverde/blog-292975.html HolaOn Sunday all the students met in the hotel breakfast area to get to know each other. Many of the students have an anthropology background others have public health backgrounds and some are journalism and international relations. We all went to dinner that night continuing to get to know each other. My roommate for a couple of days is Ally and she is great. We get along well and she do http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Puntarenas/Monteverde/blog-292188.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 Hi from a very wet Costa RicaOne thing I didn't mention on my last blog as I did not think it would be important is that I got what I thought was a blister on my foot.The day after I last updated we had an epic travel day which involved no fewer then five buses two taxis and one border crossing. We started of with a taxi ride to the bus station with a much more relaxed driver then the night bef http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Puntarenas/Monteverde/blog-289451.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