Blogs from Guanacaste, Costa Rica, Central America Caribbean - page 5

A few days spent madly working away at data entry! Maricela and I spent 2 full days inputting their data into their new system, and she spent a third while I worked on other parts of the system and made plans for the upcoming week. But we’re making some serious progress. Much of the data is in the system, I’ve already customized several reports for them, and they’re excited about having financial information so easily available. On Wednesday, I joined the rest of the team for dinner - a vegetarian feast that was very yummy! And tonight (Friday), we went down to the bar/restaurant in the village for a few hours, a great local hangout spot and a chance to get to know everyone better. Now I get a 3 day weekend and will be travelling ... read more

Ah Costa Rica, definitively my best place in tropical Americas!! Political stability, lots of national parks that you can visit on your own, many animals ... a paradise for animal's lover! Guanacaste region is the driest of the country ..... in dry season. It looks like end of fall in temperate regions except that it's scorching hot! But good things is that animals are easier to spot and that sky is always blue. I stayed in Playa Hermosa Condovac. Views of the bay are superb. The beach is long and part of it is wild. From my balcony, I can see howler monkeys, coatis and parrots almost every morning! Check coatis on my balcony: I show you a couple of pictures of the surroundings. I then go to explore the region.... read more

Birds spotted today: blue-crowned motmot, cinnamon hummingbirds, white-throated magpie-jay, more macaws, plus: geckos, an iguana, and howler monkeys! My day started off with some early visitors - Sam (head of the Ara Project) and two of his team members came knocking on my door first thing - glad I was already up and eating breakfast and not still in bed! I finished up getting ready to go and then drove over to the Ara site to get started. Spent my morning learning all about the history and inner workings of the project, and the afternoon looking at their record keeping. I was then able to join in on one of their daily tours, joining some tourists in learning about scarlet macaws, great green macaws, and the work of the Ara Project in helping these two bird ... read more

Arrived in Toronto before midnight and spent 4-5 hours trying to sleep in the departures / ticketing area, while not falling too asleep to guard my suitcases! (Read: no real sleep!) Finally around 4:30am, I checked to see if I could re-check my suitcase and was glad to offload it :) After wasting a few more hours, my plane finally took off for Costa Rica around 9:00am. Very glad for my exit row seat and my neighbour who decided to sit elsewhere with her friends, leaving a middle empty seat. (Read: an entire 5 hour flight to sleep!) We touched down in San Jose around 12:00pm local time, and I will never tire of the view as you fly over and land in Costa Rica - mountains, jungles, green! The heat and humidity hit you nearly ... read more

Mittwoch den 25. April haben Rebecka und ich unser Hostel um 8h45 verlassen um den Bus um 9h nach Cañas zu nehmen. Dort mussten wir dann eine halbe Stunde auf den Bus nach Tilaran warten und in Tilaran dann nochmal eine Stunde auf den Bus nach La Fortuna. Insgesamt hat die Reise gut 5 Stunden gedauer, aber es war ganz ok und der Bus kostete uns nur 5$US während ein Shuttle fast genau so lange gebraucht hätte, aber 35$US gekostet hätte! Wir kamen gegen 14h in La Fortuna an und, nach unserem Check-in, sind wir erstmal was zu Mittag essen gegangen, denn wir starben bereits vor Hunger. Unser Hostel, das Arenal Container Hostel, war ganz cool, auch wenn es ein Container war. Die Möbel in den gemeinsamen Räumlichkeiten waren größtenteils aus recycleten Materialien, die Zimmer waren ... read more