Blogs from Alajuela, Costa Rica, Central America Caribbean - page 3

09 octobre 2018 : Visite d'un petit zoo à côté de chez Jorge. Il y a surtout des oiseaux, et quelques jaguar et pumas. L'après-midi nous allons à Ciudad Quesada à la clinique de Jorge où Yamora fête son anniversaire. 10 octobre 2018 : Nous passons la matinée chez Jorge et Ana Milena, à la maison, et l'après-midi nous les accompagnons à Ciudad Quesada où ils ont rendez-vous au tribunal pour le divorce de Jorge junior.... read more

It was our last part of the trip. We decided to do a little road trip. We went to Zarcero. On the way we stopped to Grecia, to see the church made of metal plates. We also stopped at Sarchi to see and buy some handicrafts. In region of Zarcero, views are splendid and reminds a bit of Switzerland. In Zarcero city, there's a nice topiary in front of the church. The church itself has 2 towers that look like missiles, (!!). On the way back, we went South to Atenas, one of the places that was tagged as one of the most ideals weathers of the world. In the "zocalo", like all other spanish cities, there's a beautiful park, and we sat there a little while to see people go by and eat some ice ... read more

We left Monteverde to stay in San Jose for a couple of days. It is our base to explore the central region. First stop is fantastic Poas volcano. It's a very popular park and for good reasons. The road(s) to get there from Alajuela or San Jose, slowly climb through various farms landscapes and showing superb views. Close to park entrance, there are a couples of farms growing strawberries. All in the car agreed they were as good as ones in Canada!!! Visitor center is well designed and has many interesting displays. The road leading to the crater builds up your expectations... and at the crater itself, you are not deceived. The crater is more than 1km wide, and the view is spectacular! The trails in the park brings to a special forest with short trees, ... read more

For today’s adventure we did the quintessential Costa Rica thing and took a 2 hour walk in the cloud forest on a series of suspended bridges. Yes, it was as awesome as it sounds. We had an extremely knowledgeable guide, Jorge, and the walk through the cloud forest was spectacular. We encountered a bunch of army ants on our trail that Jorge told us to run past quickly (you know, for safety). We saw a few birds, a tree that creaks and many a beautiful view. There were ferns the size of elephant ears - it was like something out of Jurassic Park (I’m pretty sure I saw a velociraptor lurking in there somewhere). We learned a lot - tons of info about the local flora (like which plants we could eat), that the things Tarzan ... read more

On our last day in Costa Rica, we headed over to the local supermarket to buy a couple of snacks and souvenirs for the plane ride back to Toronto. We also bought some Salsa Lizano, to try our hands at making Gallo Pinto at home. When we walked out of the supermarket, we were surprised to see a parade of people marching down the street. We asked our hotel concierge, what the parade was all about. Apparently, today was Juan Santamaria Day, a National Holiday in Costa Rica. Juan Santamaria, was a poor drummer boy from Alajuela who helped prevent the U.S citizen William Walker and his mercenary army from turning Central America into a slave-trade empire. After Walker conquered Nicaragua, Costa Rica sent troops to Nicaragua to fight the growing threat. The battle, turned in ... read more