This is a special little place, in the undiscovered wilderness of Costa Rica. It is remote, isolated and has little to no development, and therefore, very much off the beaten path. To get there, after several bus rides, you take a boat to a small town as there are no roads. This tiny boat, so full that the water was only inches below the sides, did ok until we came out of the river mouth and into the open ocean where there were enormous waves crashing over us. The driver was pretty amazing and managed to get us there in one piece, although all my belongings were soaked. We stayed in a little cabina on top of a hill where we had wicked views of the ocean and could watch whales breaching with their babies. Our ... read more

Manuel Antonio is a national park on the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica. Our first day here the park was closed so we spent the day in our hammocks reading on the beach and swimming in the pool at our hostel. The next day we went to the park with our new Dutch friends, hiked though the forest and saw tons of wildlife. A group of 20 squirrel monkeys followed us around for a bit, every few minutes we'd see sloths in the trees, howler monkeys howled above us, white-faced monkeys darted in front across our path, raccoons tried to steal our lunch, sea turtles swam just off the beach, caymen guarded the ponds, tree frogs lined the leaves of the paths, red crabs scurried out of our way, deer just stood there and didn't even ... read more

We headed to this city, known for its active volcano straight away. When we arrived we became friends another couple staying at our hostel from Germany. Everything in this town requires the purchase of a way-over priced tour, but they knew of a secret spot where there is a hot springs river and knew a guy who would take us there. It was an incredible night. At sunset we drove out to the river where we relaxed in the hot water after dark and drank rum with our new friends. Just us and the fireflies. Afterwards we drove around the volcano to the active side and were witness to the hot red lava streaming down the side of the Volcano. It was a bit scary as it came down soo fast, but we were on the ... read more

My favorite place for part 1 of the journey. We spent 3 weeks here. It is a tiny little colonial town in the midst of the mountains smack in the middle of no-where. The streets are cobblestone and there were many beautiful churches, and an amazing daily market. We took some Spanish lessons here and I volunteered at a women’s clinic with a Mexican obstetrician who spoke no English. Dana and I learned lots of Spanish quite quickly as we had to use it all the time. It was here where we met are musically inclined friends from the UK. Tom had played in a band for 10 years and Greig was just beginning, putting himself out there, and trying to make it happen. Both had left England, a girl and their old lives and came ... read more

Wilderness Medicine Course This was a course designed to teach you how to practice medicine in remote areas when you have no supplies, technology or support. It also taught survival and rescue methods. Unfortunately the course was a bit disorganized and it got cut short leaving out the medical portion. Dana and I did however receive the survival and rescue training and I will tell you the entertaining (for you)/traumatizing(for me) bits. Highlights: saving our broken legged “patient” who was trapped inside a cave and transporting her though an underground river, up a muddy slope and through the dense bug/snake infested jungle. Repelling down a 150ft cliff in the dark (splinting a patients arm and leg half way down) The best part (for you): surviving for 2 days in the jungle with only a machete and ... read more