Blogs from Costa Rica, Central America Caribbean - page 486

Central America Caribbean » Costa Rica » Puntarenas » Manuel Antonio February 4th 2006

Hola Todos, We have arrived in Manuel Antonio and as a result of my slight mention of the tiny stomach ache I've had, my parents have insisted upon helping us to "upgrade" our situation while here. Who are we to disagree. We left Samara yesterday morning and it was the first place that we really spent enough time in (albeit much on the toilet) to really miss when we left. On the plus side, the bulk of our journey was in a private van because no one else was going from where we went to Manuel Antonio. We'll miss Jo-el and his cigarettes and mumbling franish (spanish and french combined); we'll miss Gretel, the cleaning lady and her pleasant greeting every morning; we'll miss the solitude of our little pool at Hotel Marbella; we'll miss the ... read more

Liberia

Central America Caribbean » Costa Rica » Guanacaste » Liberia February 3rd 2006

AmberH

Hola amigos, Gisteren ben ik in Costa Rica aangekomen. De grens over ging verbazingwekkend snel. Liberia zelf is en koloniaal stadje, wel aardig, maar mijns inziens niet te vergelijken met Antigua of Granada. Vandaag naar een vulkanisch park in de buurt geweest: de natuur hier is geweldig: van watervallen tot borrelende modderpoelen, stoom die opstijgt uit gaten en de geur van zwavel, diversiteit aan bomen en planten, uiteraard veel vogels (en insecten), geluid van apen (en in de verte een gezien) giftige slangen (toch wel blij dat ik niet op mijn sandalen loop) en de blijkbaar zeldzame koningsgier. ... read more

Personal Pardise Found

Central America Caribbean » Costa Rica February 3rd 2006

ele_mental

Hola amigos, Shit, where do I start...All inhibitions i intially had about this place have long since been erased...I left Alajeula, town outside of SanJose on the 27th and took a bus to the Pacific side, to a town called Jaco...stayed there about 2 hours and was like, no thanks...its a medium sized surf town, but it is overpriced, very much commercialized and targeted at rich gringos there for a week to blow there money...went to catch the bus to Quepos...met 4 other travellers at the bus stop...a dude from Cali, travelling with 2 boards, and three girls from Montreal, 2 travelling together and one solo...anyways, talking away and this ex US mountain rescue military dude pulls up in a brand new land rover and yells out the window, anyone going to quepos, hop in its ... read more

Fishin with Taj

Central America Caribbean » Costa Rica » Puntarenas » Bahia Drake February 3rd 2006

seadubtraveler

I guess I have a little catching up to do, I haven't been to a computer in about five days. What a week! On Sunday, I got a taxi over to Juan Santamaria airport in San Jose, and waited for about an hour for my dad to get in. It was so awesome to see him again, and I know he loves coming down here. Hell, this is the second time in a month for him. We drove that night up and over the Cordillera Talamanca range, climbing over 10,000 feet before plunging back down onto the Pacific coast. We ended up in a cool little surf town called Dominical, where we settled in for the night and had a few cold ones to catch up with each other. The next morning, we hopped in the ... read more

Final days of first 3 months

Central America Caribbean » Costa Rica » Alajuela » San Ramon February 2nd 2006

Drive to Poas

Alex and Davide

Our 90-day tourist visa is about up so we have to leave the country for at least 72 hours. We will be heading back to the States for about 2 weeks. Time to reflect on how we feel about Costa Rica and whether or not to return and also whether we want to go to the trouble to apply for residency. The country is absolutely beautiful; we feel so lucky to be living here. We have met some wonderful people, both gringos and ticos. The community of San Ramon is very family-oriented and everyone is easy going. It also seems to be a very accepting community. It seems that once you meet someone, whether buying something from their shop or eating at their restaurant or just being introduced through mutual friends, they always remember and greet ... read more

SO there I was under the palm tree....

Central America Caribbean » Costa Rica » Alajuela » La Fortuna February 1st 2006

Gunga

So there I was, in the dark, in a bathing suit, trying to keep my towel dry, standing under some large palm fronds.... let me back up here. Last weekend I took a trip with some others from school to La Fortuna. It was billed as the jeep-boat-jeep tour. And that is exactly what I got. I was picked up, close to my family's house, at 7:30 a.m.. After gathering a few more students we were off on another one of 'Mr. Toad's Wild Rides'. Oh, maybe I haven't told you in detail about the roads in Monteverde. This is truly one of the few places on earth where having an SUV is essential. Everyroad is a up a steep hill ( or down). The roads are not paved. The ruts and potholes could hide small ... read more

Samara - Sun Good, Stomach, Bad

Central America Caribbean » Costa Rica » Guanacaste » Samara February 1st 2006

Gregg and Elise

Since you've last heard from us we've traveled to the other side of Costa Rica, changed hotels three times (all in one day) and sent the Brown-O-Meter well on its way. We are in Samara and after having a few down days are back on our feet and raring to go. Well, maybe we're medium-raring to go, but getting there. The rains of Cahuita, and possibly something else, twisted my stomach into some pretty intense knots that are still trying to untwist themselves.... on the bright side I've got my appetite back. AND, as an added bonus, now that the abdominal pains have ceded I've welcomed a new sympton... let's just say a different Brown-O-Meter might be introduced. Enough about that, I don't want to go "blue" with the blog. Back to Samara: Samara We arrived ... read more

Hostel Owners + People I Kind of Know.

Central America Caribbean » Costa Rica » San José January 31st 2006

Heller

Last night I checked into a new hostel in Jaco. The owner was really cool. He was a former: Pentecostal Preacher, Septic Tank Installer (Shit Man), Rockstar, Drug addict. And a current: Schizophrenic hostel owner. His being schizophrenic is the reason that he owns a hostel. After years of counseling he finally convinced the United States government that he wasn´t capable of holding a job. They started sending him 1200 a month, which is incidentally enough to own a successful hostel in Jaco beach Costa Rica. He got into preaching because he heard voices... like the Devil and God and shit... He was the guy who told people ¨You are Healed!¨and then they were based on psycho-somatic magic. He lost his faith when he started to realize that it was too extreme for him. The voices ... read more

First day of school

Central America Caribbean » Costa Rica » Heredia January 30th 2006

Bye Bye Bortman Homeschool!

TheBortmans

Ari’s first day of school is tomorrow (well, today by the time you read this - or maybe even yesterday, last week or last month). We are all very excited. Since his teachers were on strike when we left Yardley, he hasn’t had a real day of school since October 21 (well, there was that one day he went back and visited after Thanksgiving). I think Ari is nervous and excited - although he is being very calm and cool about the whole thing. We will see how he is in the morning. I can’t wait for him to meet some more kids his age and get back into the school routine. I know he will enjoy the school. We decided to send him to the European School - the school we saw on the second ... read more

By the Beach Mon.

Central America Caribbean » Costa Rica » Puntarenas » Jaco January 30th 2006

Heller

My last night in the mountains, and my last night with the Swisses was fun. We ate pizza and then went to a few bars. The owner of one of the bars spoke english fluently, because when he was sixteen he jumped the border and lived in America for a while. He was also a coyote, the guy that helps people get in the US. He told some cool stories... it costs 90,000 USD for a Chinese family to sneak into the US. (ATTN: Chinese Families, I'll do it for 85,000.) We went to another bar, where I pretended to be Swiss, when we were talking to ugly North American chicks... it was fun but hard to maintain when the question of "Why is your English so good?" "Why don't you speak German?" Etc. But I ... read more

Brief history of Costa Rica

Costa Rica is a Central American success story: since the late 19th century, only two brief periods of violence have marred its democratic development. Although still a largely agricultural country, it has expanded its economy to include strong techn...more history

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