Blogs from Central America Caribbean - page 2081

NOTE: This is a review I posted on a travel forum before starting this blog. We visited Costa Rica over the Christmas period in 2005. Occidental Grand Papagayo Resort, Papagayo, Guanacaste, Costa Rica. We have just returned from a glorious 14 nights at the Occidental Grand Papagayo. The dynamic of our party was quite varied- 3 families comprising of 6 parents (in our 40’s), one child of 10, 3 teens of 16 and five 17-19 year-olds. 15 of us in all. We are from the UK and go away together in a group every Christmas. Traditionally, we choose the Caribbean (all-inclusive resorts) but this year we decided to be a little more adventurous - so glad we did! As there is no direct flight to Liberia from the UK, we flew via Miami, which meant a ... read more

The irresistible lure of the caribbean cast a further spell on me, and has led to a change of plans to see in the new year. The original plan was to spend New Years Eve in Panama City, but I found myself on a bus the night before through the Panamanian countryside and on to Changuinola. I met a Dutch couple and a Costa Rican on the bus, and we shared the cost of a taxi to the border with Costa Rica. An uneventful border crossing ensued and we had to wait a couple of hours for a connecting bus. After an hour of further travel I caught a transport truck to complete the journey, and was thrilled to be back on the caribbean coast just in time for New Years Eve. Puerto Viejo is a ... read more

Well we arrived in Panama city this morning around 6am...I think. The bus terminal was by far the biggest we have been to so far, and Panama city seems to be the nicest of the cities. The only trouble is that, I guess, due to the size no one knows where anything is. We got in a cab and asked to go to the hostel. The cabby's response was, "which way is it?" I figured that wasn't a good sign. So, after pointing it out on the map, and him asking several other cab drivers we were on our way. About half an hour later, and somewhere in Panama city, we were still looking for the elusive hostel that we find ourselves in now. Of course he did not know where he was, so I was ... read more

Now that Nautilus was up on stilts, repair work could begin on the rudder, and among the crew. The foam underneath the fiberglass shell buffered the impact from the metal skeleton of the actual rudder. The fiberglass only had to be replaced. Of course, removing the boat meant that several other projects could be started, including scrubbing the algae and grime off the hull, grinding the barnacles off the propellor, buffing the sides and fixing the depth guage once and for all. (The GPS has depth-finding capabilities, too.) We would be up in the air for at least several days. As for the crew, Treva and Franzi hired a car and a room in a hotel in Freeport proper. They needed to rethink things, as well as run some errands. Mau, Captain and I stayed to ... read more

After a day and a half of frustrating travel, due to many reasons, I arrived in San Pedro La Laguna via a overnight stop in Guatemala City. Within about ten minutes of arrival a guy had lead me to a hotel and language school and I had parted with money to both. Language schools are amazingly cheap here, with 20hrs lessons 1-1, accomodation and food setting you back only about US$90. The general consesus among travellers is that the standard of teaching is not hot, but for what I wanted (a lot of conservational practice) this is not too important and still provides excellent value for money. Of course the flip side of the coin tells you that by the time the language school has pocketed it's bit the teacher is unlikely to earning much over ... read more