Blogs from Turrialba, Cartago, Costa Rica, Central America Caribbean

Advertisement

Central America Caribbean » Costa Rica » Cartago » Turrialba November 11th 2019

JOHNNY'S JOURNEYS: COSTA RICA 1999 July 29, 1999 (Thursday) One of our dental assistants, Sandy Smith, gave each of us a small wooden cross necklace to wear for the trip. We shall give them to the Ticos (Costa Rican people) later. We said our good-byes to family members as we left the LaQuinta Inn in Metarie, LA. We are soon at the New Orleans airport and will be on our way to Central America. Our first stop was in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. Some passengers left... others got on. Then we had a relatively short flight to San Salvador, El Salvador. The lovely airport in the capital city was new. One hour later we were finally heading to San Jose. We all breezed through Customs and all our luggage, equipment and supplies arrived. It took less ... read more


===English version below=== Na onze rondreis in Nicaragua worden we verwacht in Tuis, Costa Rica. De Amerikaanse eigenaar gaat een cruise maken door Scandinavië, wij gaan 3 weken op zijn huis en zijn dieren passen. Het huis ligt in de bergen, zeer afgelegen maar oh zo mooi. Wat verderop aan de laatste bushalte stopt de weg. Vanaf dit punt trekken de indianen de bossen in. We maken kennis met Lula en Frank. Het zijn lieverdjes die honden, tenminste als je geen indringer bent anders bijten ze misschien een stuk uit je been? Wij nemen de honden mee tijdens onze wandelingen, ze zijn het duidelijk niet gewend. In de tuin groeien cacao planten. Met een beetje hulp van Google lukt het ons om van de vruchten cacao poeder te maken. Eerst smaakt het een beetje bitter maar ... read more
Tuis verblijf - Tuis house
Costa Rica kikker - frog
Cacao plant

Central America Caribbean » Costa Rica » Cartago » Turrialba November 26th 2010

It's been two weeks now since I arrived here at Turrialba where the CATIE campus with my new home, the "Andino", is located. And what should I say? It's a lot less different than I expected :). Of course, it's quite a lot warmer, but at night it has cooled down to 13 degrees sometimes, brrr. And it is not dry, but there's such a lot of rain! This is definetely different to Germany, I don't know where all the water comes from. And as humidity is generally very high, the library smells of millions of pages of damp paper. Students' life The campus here is really huge (I feel), very green, with palm trees and a beautiful view on the hills around when they're not just covered in clouds. It is a bit outside of ... read more
CATIE campus in sunshine
Evening atmosphere

Central America Caribbean » Costa Rica » Cartago » Turrialba September 10th 2010

(Day 889 on the road)We had been a little apprehensive about Costa Rica, the Rich Coast as he name translates (named so for the gold found here during the Spanish occupation in the 16th century). All we knew was that the country was, in comparison to the other countries in Central America, overrun by tourists, most of them vacationers from the USA and Europe, who are attracted to the country by its (perceived) better security situation. And lured here by Costa Rica's relentless eco-tourism and nature ("Pura Vida" - pure life) advertisement I should add - the country is banking heavy on the responsible, sustainable nature card. At times it seems as if every idiot operating in the tourism sector has jumped onto the bandwagon and renamed his business Eco-Lodge-this or Eco-business-that. If even tour-bus companies ... read more
National theatre at dusk in San Jose
Colourful ox-cart wheel in Monteverde
Manuel Antonio NP main beach


Today was another early morning. We decided to go canyoning this morning with Kylie and Kristie so we needed to head out by 8:45. We were awakened at 7 am by the birds & the farmers market that had magically sprung up overnight. It was quite a sight, tons and tons of fresh fruit, jewelry, cloth, etc. I was tempted, but where would I put it? My bag is beyond stuffed already! We got up & cleaned up the room as we planned to check out of the hotel in the a.m. but they let us put our backpacks in storage while we canyoned. We’d come back and get them, head to the bus station (estacion del autobus) and grab the next bus to Paraiso to end up in Oriso. I had another of Luis’ fantasticos ... read more
Hotel Interamericanos
Torrialba
Andre, one of our guias


Today was amazing! It's funny how a 7am wake-up call is no problem if there's amazing adventures on the horizon & palm trees out the window! :) I ordered breakfast (eggs, toast & gorgeous fruit platter) and ate while playing on the computer. We met two awesome girls named Kylie & Kristie Chupp from Montana. They're totally fun and we went white water rafting together. None of them had breakfast before we we went and then it was raining so we didn't stop until after the trip, so I felt very superior. ;) I also drank like a liter of water and felt very healthy. Can still get "coca-cola" (yummy bit of home) but am drinking less of it and eating super fresh...vacations make me so healthy! It took us an hour to get to the ... read more
Pops in Torriealba
Torriealba, Costa Rica
Torriealba, Costa Rica


Please to be aware that this is a rough, rough draft. :) Having a blast! More info later... We left Rachel’s apartment around 6:45am & took the subway out to find the Dulles bus. After complications, we jumped in a cab to the airport. Check in was surprisingly fast and easy, as was the security gate…Dulles has come a loooong way since I lived in Virginia. We flew Mexicana and were extremely surprised & pleased by the service. Complimentary headsets, actual hot meals (I had the omelet & Rach had the crepe) and super-attentive attendants. Mostly on that flight I slept! We laid over in Cancun, where we discovered that we had to go through immigration before coming back to our gate…I’m pretty sure this is my first int’l lay-over in a country not my destination, ... read more
CostaRica1 012
CostaRica1 002
CostaRica1 003

Central America Caribbean » Costa Rica » Cartago » Turrialba February 19th 2010

What can I say. I can't swim and I was genuinely not comfortable in having my first white water rafting experience on one of the world's top 4 rivers. However, I'll let the photos speak for themselves as now, at the end of the day, when I have caught a little of the sun and had the most amazing time, I want to do it all again!... read more
First view of the river
This guy brought his own tree
Preparing the boat

Central America Caribbean » Costa Rica » Cartago » Turrialba February 6th 2010

We left Orosi in the morning and headed to Turrialba. We used the schools shuttle driver, and were able to practice our spanish a bit. After the serene, and queit town of Orosi, Turrialba was a bit intense - as its a bigger city and transportation hub. White water rafting is the most popular thing to do in the area, but we decided to spend the day at the Guayabo Archelogical Monument. The National Park is about 20 km outside of town, and is the most important archeological site in the country. We took at taxi to the park, and had our cab driver wait for us, which was convenient and we were mostly able to do in Spanish! Excavations have uncovered advanced infrastructure and petroglyphs, pottery and gold artifacts. There is also an aquaduct system ... read more
Petroglyph
Petroglyph
Volcan Turrialba


Salut a tous Nous avons quitte puerto viejo pour revenir dans la belle province de Cartago. Ce nest pas que puerto viejo nous a deplu mais disons que cetait le temps de quitter Flaky et les multiples crabes de lhotel, squattant un peu trop notre chambre, si on peut appeler ca une chambre... Guillaume dit les crabes se promenent sur le cote dans le genre flippant je ne vois pas ce que vous pouvez trouver de pire. A puerto viejo, nous avons profite des plages paradisiaques de la cote caraibe et nous sommes alles dans le parc national Cahuita... tres beau en passant !!! Cest dans cette foret dangereuse ou une meute de singes denteles sest attaquee a Maggie et a une certaine dame quebecoise qui le meritait bien. Pour faire changement de plusieurs touristes stupides, ... read more
Wow
Guigui dans le vent




Tot: 0.12s; Tpl: 0.007s; cc: 8; qc: 80; dbt: 0.0472s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.3mb