Blogs from Costa Rica, Central America Caribbean - page 454

Hey guys, I´m back at Hostel Toruma in San Jose and I have access to free internet so I thought I´d take advantage. I´m staying here over night and then heading to Cartago in the morning. Volunteer Abroad just bought a house for the volunteers to stay in, so we´re going to go there tonight for a barbeque. Meaghan is here at the hostel with me before she leaves for Matapalo tomorrow, so it´s nice to catch up on what each of us has been doing. Last Sunday I went on a Catamaran tour, which was awesome...at least when I wasn´t feeling queasy. It was this huge boat that holds around 65 people, but there was only about 15 people when I went. We headed out towards the beaches of Manuel Antonio National Park while listening ... read more

Yesterday was a good day. We had a 10am meeting with the lawyer who would send us with his driver, Brian, to get our driver’s licenses. Brian is the same guy who worked with us on getting our fingerprints and paperwork from the police station when we were working on our residency so we were already familiar with him. He’s a good guy of little words, probably late 20’s but definitely knows his way around town and the systems of CR. The bus ride into San Jose was longer than normal. I’m still not sure what the hold-up was because we were in the last seat and couldn’t possibly see what was going on up front. All I know is we sat, most likely in traffic, for 15 minutes at a complete standstill. Needless to say, ... read more

Note Pictures to be posted at a later date. Bienvenido a Costa Rica Surfer dudes, bird nerds, hiking fiends, mountain trekkers, back-to-the-land nature fanatics, beach bums and party animals all seem to have found something in common in Costa Rica. The waves are prime, the natural beauty is staggering, the pace of life slow, the beer plentiful and the locals friendly. A stronghold of peace in a region torn by strife, this tiny nation attracts a stream of more than a million eager visitors every year. The country stands apart from its Central American neighbors on various points. The first is that it has no army. Armed forces were abolished after the 1948 civil war, and Costa Rica has avoided to despotic, dictatorships, frequent military coups, ism and internal turmoil that have plagued other countries i ... read more

Our lawyer is located in San Jose only a few blocks away from the Costa Rican National Museum of Art. Since Mike and I don’t have a truck yet and aren’t on any real schedule, we figured we’d make the most of our time in San Jose and check out some of the museums in the area. We still plan on visiting the Serpenterium (figured it was good to know which guys to look out for) and the Gold Museum, but for this trip, we decided to check out the art museum. For $5, you can see 2 floors of Costa Rican artwork. It’s not a huge museum. Actually, we learned that the museum was in fact, the country’s previous international airport. The tower you see in the picture was the control tower and the grounds ... read more

Nous avons traversé le Costa Rica aujourd´hui, arrivé a l´auberge hier soir et repartis ce matin a 07h30 vers David, Panama. La traversée de la frontière du Panama a faillie tourner à la catastrophe; le douanier ne voulait pas nous laisser entre sans preuve qu´on pouvait ressortir du pays, ca lui prenait la preuve du vol d´avion que nous avions acheté à Managua. Nous avons du trouver rapidement un Internet et faire imprimer notre confirmation de vol, pendant ce temps le chauffeur d´autobus s´impatientait. Finalement tout est entré dans l´ordre, nous avons rejoint les autres passagers à temps pour une fouille des baggages qui n'a finalement pas eu lieu. Nous sommes arrivé a David au Panama vers 17h00, notre chambre est dans le mème édifice (long mail) que le terminus d´autobus. Demain il part des autobus ... read more