Blogs from Central America Caribbean - page 1928

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it has been an amazing two days. yesterday was the final day of fiestas augustinas in granada. granada feels like an authentic central american town....untainted by tourists. and it was quite the treat to be here for this unique celebration. ilsa, johan and i joined the celebrations for most of the day...from 10am until around 9pm. the city was full of energy and people and beer and rum and horses. there was a parade of horses that went on for hours....it seemed to be some sort of skill competition. the horses would do a prancy dance and scoot sideways. (sorry for my lack of technical terms here but i really don´t know a thing about horses or riding). while the parade was going on, the central parque was full of people celebrating and vendors selling food, ... read more
avoiding a road block...
ilsa and johan...lunch time!
vegetable marinating in the mercado


We shared quality time at home after returning from La Fortuna and Volcan Arenal. Craig and Callista made brownies together. The kids and I made luminaries out of cans. I thought it was a nice idea but it will go into the “don’t try this at home” category. What kid wouldn’t like to bang a nail into a chunk of ice? The Mot-mot even decided Craig was worth getting to know and made quite a few appearances. What a treat! It was nice to have time to just hang out at home before we headed out again. Craig even walked up the hill and made friends with some of the tico kids his age. He went to a bonfire with them Sunday evening. I was both surprised and proud of how he jumped right in with ... read more
Rio Tarcoles Crocodrilos
Jaco Beach
Yo qiero Jaco Bell!


My decorating is coming along slowly but surely. It is true that everyting takes a little longer here, especially when all of your classroom decorations are home-made, and in my case home-ly. Luckily for me however, Karen has mailed me some decorations all the way from Madison (Cottage Grove), Wisconsin to help out. I am very excited for their arrival. Karen informed me that mail sent by plane will take about 3 weeks to arrive, while on the other hand, mail sent by boat will take about 3 months. Sounds about right for Honduras :) After finishing the remainder of my bean curry soup, I went next door to learn how to play Settlers of Catan. I had never heard of this game before. Apparently it is a cross between Monopoly and Risk. Last year's teachers ... read more
The Tension Mounts
A  Break from the Building Suspense


Before anything else, I have to state my profound respect for elementary school teachers out there past or present. I spent eight hours today doing lesson plans for the next two weeks and I'm still not finished. Planning eight different subjects so that they have some overlap, aren't mind numbing, and keep the kids engaged is exhausting. And I haven't even met the kids yet, so who knows if they will even be relatively close to the pace that the class moves. Head Start part year employees went back to work today. I really miss my old job. We'll have to see how much learning through play I can integrate into my 5th grade classroom :) Either way, I should be done with my lesson plans tomorrow and I've already decided that I am going to ... read more


Having spent a few days in Seattle resting our feet and feasting on the local produce we were once again in the air heading to Costa Rica. We were over the moon to see the familiar faces of Rachael and Jeffrey waiting amongst the throngs of taxi drivers at San Jose International and after a night in the capital we were on our way to the Caribbean coast. It was dark by the time we arrived in Cahuita, a laid back Caribbean Rasta town. Thanks to Rachael and Jeff's excellent Spanish skills we soon found a great little room not far from the beach, where we'd spend the next few nights chilling out, playing cards and drinking the local beer (Imperial). Cahuita is a great little town embodying the Costa Rican motto of 'pura vida'; the ... read more
Cahuita Main Street
Watch your step
Cahuita beach


After almost two months of getting away with speaking 'Spanglish'and having spent a month of that time in Belize where they speak English and so not getting any practise, we decided it was time to sort ourselves out so that we could get through the rest of our trip being able to be a bit more communicative! Our solution was to enroll for a weeks intense Spanish lessons, studying 5 hours a day with each of us having a private tutor. In addition to the lessons we also decided to stay with a Guatemalan family for the week rather than in a hotel so that we would be forced to practise our spanish out of school as well; we even had to speak spanish to each other when we eating dinner with the family in the ... read more
Antigua's Churches
Antigua's Churches 2
Antigua's Cathedral


Pretty impressed with the school. I guess it used to be a shopping mall and it is open air at the top. Check out the photos. It'sabout a 20 minute walk everyday, and in the morning it's not so bad, because it's not that hot yet, but the walk back at 2 or 3 in the afternoon is BAD. We still haven't gotten bikes yet, not sure why, but I've heard a lot about Honduran time, and I guess that's what we're on now. I've heard the bikes aren't that great anyway, always falling apart. Also put some photos of our place, which is inhabited by less and less people, for whatever reason, people are being placed all around even though there are still 4 rooms avaliable throughout the 3 houses here. I am ok with ... read more
The Library
Cezar, our principal
A classroom


Well, I'm staying in Tortuguero on the Caribbean coast for the weekend...well, this is my last night here...I'm staying at place called Turtle Beach Lodge, which is absolutely beautiful. I highly recommend it. Tortuguero is a tiny tiny town that can only be reached by boat or light plane, as it is surrounded by water: the caribbean sea on one side and lagoons and rivers on the other side. Turtle Beach Lodge is also only accessible by water. On one side of the property is the sea, and on the other side the lagoons. There's jungle tours here, kayaking, boat tours, garden tours, hiking tours on Tortuguero Mountain and night watch tours for turtles. That's the reason I really wanted to come here: the turtles. Tortuguero is the nesting grounds for over 3,000 green turtles, along ... read more


Arenal Volcano, Jardin Zoo La Marina, Termales del Bosque, Manuel Antonio, Playa Dona Ana, Las Musas and the town of San Ramon… These are the places we visited during Craig’s first visit to Costa Rica. He experienced the climate changes throughout the country and got to see wildlife in native habitats, in a rescue center and in and around our home. He made friends with the local kids near our house and spent time with them getting to know the culture. All in all Craig’s first experience in Costa Rica was diverse and exciting. Craig, our twenty year old son, arrived from Port St. Lucie, Florida by way of Orlando and Miami on American Airlines August 8th for a two week visit. We drove to the house only making a brief stop for bagels in ... read more
Sangre de Cristo plant
Monkey at Arenal Hanging Bridges
Arenal Volcano

Central America Caribbean » Honduras August 20th 2006

So after a lot of vegging out yesterday, doing nothing much more than watching "Anchorman", we decided to go to another soccer game. It was a local game between "Hispano" from Comayagua, and "Montagua" from where I am not sure. Jenna and I were the only ones to go, and decided to cheer for Hispano. While we were waiting in line to get tickets, the man on a loud speaker for "Diez" (kind of like ESPN down here) came over to us and asked who the "American Girls" were cheering for. Jenna understood what he asked in spanish so she answered then he came to me and I just scremed. lol... it was funny. Lots of more interesting things happened at this game. First off, we bought tickets that were 10 lempira more expensive, thinking it ... read more




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