Blogs from Costa Rica, Central America Caribbean - page 453

FYI, the travelling and exploring part of my vacation begins on Friday when I head down to Peru; this week was definitely the R&R part of the trip. My dad and I decided to go for a little beach vacation and ended up in the Nicoya Peninsula at a hotel called the Premier Fiesta, in Gulf Papagayo near Tamarindo. It took us five hours to get there, but it was worth the journey. Premier Fiesta is about as cheesy a resort hotel as you can get, but it was brilliant nonetheless. An all inclusive package means all the food and drink (including alcohol) that you can tolerate. And while most people know I can't tolerate much alcohol, it certainly helps to push the boundaries when it's free. To be honest, my dad and I were a ... read more

Last Saturday rolled around like any other day here in Barva. Mike and I made our way over to the Delgado’s to have some lunch at about noon and chat up the family a bit. Little did we know that Gerardo had other plans for us. By the time we got to the house, Agnes (one of the daughters) had told us lunch would be ready in about an hour. Gerardo seized this opportunity to convince us to go to the bar with him for a beer while we waited. I was hesitant at first, knowing full well that he meant 3 or 4 beers and certainly not 1. However he looked so genuinely excited to take us out, that I couldn’t say no. It didn’t hit me that we’d be drinking at 12 in the ... read more

The kids just started school again last Monday. Thank G-d. Not that we didn’t have a great vacation - we did - it’s just that now I know why camp was invented. We alternated from doing touristy stuff to hanging around the house (heading into cabin-fever land). Ari had a week off while Ellie finished school, then we were all home for a week, then to the beach for a couple days and on to Nicaragua, then back at home for a week, then a visit from Nana and Pop-pop, and, whew, back to school. For the weeks they were at home, the kids were definitely getting a little stir crazy (or maybe I was the one getting stir crazy). There aren’t any camps for them to go to aside from a couple morning workshops that ... read more

Pura Vida! On previous trips to visit my dad in Costa Rica, I've been to two of the more famous volcanoes in Costa Rica, Arenal and Poaz. Arenal is the extremely active and well-known conical volcano, with lava flowing down the sides day and night. Poaz is very different, as it's not active and you can peer into it from above and look from very close at the blue/white sulphur lake. So I wasn't sure exactly what to expect from the third of Costa Rica's big volcanoes, Volcan Irazu. The volcano is somewhat famous for exploding on the day that JFK flew into Costa Rica on a state visit in the 1960s, and apparently it started smoldering a few years ago too. It took a couple of hours to get there and it was extremely cold ... read more

Intro to La Fortuna La Fortuna is the nearest village to the spectacular Volcan Arenal, which looms 6 kilometers to the west. The volcano was dormant until 1968 when huge explosions triggered lava flows that killed nearly 80 people. It retains its almost perfect conical shape and the degree of activity varies from week to week, but nightfall can often offer an opportunity to watch red-hot lava flowing and incandescent rocks flying through the air. The town has also become a popular base for day trips to Refugio Nacional Cano Negro near the Nicaraguan border. Our Experience We weren't sure we were going to be able to make it to La Fortuna in one day because we'd have to catch three seperate buses (and the last bus we needed left at 12:30pm). If we missed our ... read more