Blogs from Costa Rica, Central America Caribbean - page 13

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We flew from San Francisco to Houston, had a three hour layover then onto Libera, Costa Rica. We rented a car from Enterprise. One of the smartest moves we made was to rent a GPS. I asked how much they cost, the answer $12.00 per day, I said no thanks the cost was to high. Enterprise then said they would rent it for $8 per day, SOLD. I also paid extra for a AAA type service. I had read about people having their tires punctured and when local show up to help they rob you . I want to have a service just in case we ran into trouble. Our first stop was La Fortuna the town in the shadow of Arenal Volcano. The GPS gave us directions like turn right at the road or turn ... read more
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Central America Caribbean » Costa Rica » Heredia » Heredia January 11th 2020

I'm a fairly quiet person. I treasure silence and, given the choice, always prefer listening and watching to talking. Toucan Rescue Ranch is home to many, many parrots and toucans--all rescued for a variety of reasons, mostly confiscated because they were pets. Sadly they can't be released; TRR is their permanent home. These beautiful birds are all cared for with unwavering compassion by the staff and volunteers. I am now one of those volunteers, and the first thing we do every morning, is feed the parrots and toucans. Our day begins at 7am. It ends, in theory, at 3pm. In between, food trays and water trays are cleaned and replenished, living enclosures are raked and scrubbed, and pools are cleaned. When I arrive in the early morning, we volunteers are tasked with cleaning and feeding the ... read more
Amazon Parrots
Great Green Macaws
Great Green Macaws

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


Wenn fast überall englisch gesprochen wird, und man alles mit US-Dollar zahlen kann, dann ist man… nicht zwangsläufig in der USA, sondern z.B. in Costa Rica. Und das war mein erster Eindruck nach Südamerika und Panama: Hier ist alles viel amerikanisierter und Costa Rica scheint der verlängerte Arm der USA zu sein. Dadurch besteht die Gefahr, dass die Kultur immer mehr verloren geht. Von Panama aus überquerte ich die Grenze nach Costa Rica mit dem Bus und kam in Puerto Vieja, einem verschlafenen Örtchen an der Karibikküste an. Hier gibt es neben wunderschönen weißen auch einen absolut schwarzen Strand – sehr beeindruckend. Und gleich während meines ersten Besuchs im Cahuita-Nationalpark habe ich sie gesehen: Meine geliebten, witzig grinsenden Faultiere. Diese Tiere haben einfach einen zu tollen grinsenden Gesichtsausdruck – sehr niedlich. Sie verbringen bis zu 18 ... read more
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Two for the Road We’ve been planning for months now. It is daunting to try to anticipate our needs while on the road and in dozens of different countries. Aside from the itinerary, where we’ll stay and how to get there, we must consider medications, banking, communication and (for me) preserving our experiences. Here’s what we’ve come up with so far: Medications– like most people over the age of 60, we take maintenance medications to maintain blood pressure, cholesterol levels and other personal circumstances. Insurance restrictions limit prescriptions to three months only. We’ve discovered three options to obtain medications while on the road. My doctor wrote multiple prescriptions valid at pharmacies overseas. While we talked he said I could simply communicate with him via our medical plan’s email portal. He could FAX a prescription to any ... read more
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After our very brief visit to San Francisco, we flew via LA into San Jose. A new country for both of us having never traveled to any country in Central America before it was exciting to be somewhere new. We arrived at night and had to pick up our hire car, drive on the right side of the road and navigate our way to our air bnb - good thing we had GPS, Sam managed well to get us there. The next day we had a 9am tour booked at the Toucan Rescue Ranch about 45 mins drive away where their soul mission is to rescue, rehabilitate and release as many wildlife creatures they can. What sat well with us was the fact that they are not a zoo, they are a non-profit organisation and they ... read more
Two Fingered Sloth - Toucan Rescue Ranch
Two Fingered Sloth - Toucan Rescue Ranch
Two Fingered Sloths - Toucan Rescue Ranch


For our last day in Fortuna it was a full one! We started out by heading to Fortuna Waterfalls, apparently just a short walk down the road. Fortunately we brought 'Sammy the carolla', because it would have been quite a hike! Before the hike that is actually quite a large and well groomed park. There were many steps going down the waterfall to swim - they say about 500 but there must have been much more on the way up for all the complaining from our little friend, Scott. Probably the most complaints this whole trip. Maybe something to do with the temperature of the water? Scott didn't swim, but he did wander about in the shallow pools below the main waterfall. There were a couple of schools of pretty big fish to scare off, so ... read more
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This morning we got up and went to Arenal National Park for a hike on the lava flows. We were given the choice between an easy hike about one hour, or a hard hike about 2 1/2 hours. We knew we could do the long hike so that’s what we chose. The trail meandered around a lake where we spotted chestnut mandibled Toucans, Oropendolas (they make the strangest sounds... hard to describe), herons and 30 other species of bird we couldn’t identify. We also saw beetles, leaf cutter ants and a scorpion! It was over 30°, there was significant elevation, and humidity was near 100%, but Scott persevered. The views of the top were worth it, and as promised we did walk on the lava flow. It was around 1230 when we got to lunch, and ... read more
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After a dreaded 5 AM wake up, we got Tiffany and Alexa to the airport successfully. Apparently they had no problems, their plane was on time, and they’re now enjoying the relative cool of Canada, including a fresh layer of snow at home.It was about 2 1/2 hours to Fortuna and we had most of the day ahead of us, so we decided to try the local hot springs. They naturally mix with the river so there’s different temperature pools so going to the hot springs in a tropical country isn’t as crazy as it sounds. Options range from free public pools to high-end and swanky. We opted for high-end and swanky. It was expensive but it was very nice and apparently the only place where the water is not treated - just routed through seemingly ... read more
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This would be our second day at altitude (about 3000m) and slightly cooler temperatures. Such a relief! We enjoyed the lovely breakfast buffet orchestrated by a very French head chef. He pleased the crowd of mostly seniors and very serious bird watchers. We had come to the right place?! With our tiny bit of advice we started onto the trails in search of a brightly coloured Quetzal, the star of the area. Sadly we never did spot one but Scott and Alexa managed a pretty long hike in the forest. Aside from arguing over the best sticks and who had the next turn to hold them, the hike was great! Many things were spotted like yellow birds and blue birds and black birds with orange beaks. There were lots of fruit trees, clouds and views from ... read more
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