May 15, 2006 - Costa Rica: Parismina-Turtle Project

Highlights: Parismina Turtle Project-helping to save the great Leatherback turtles-older than dinosaurs! Please visit www.costaricaturtles.com to learn more or make a donation, staying with a local family, boat tour of Jalova, Tortugero National Park, meeting Gwenda from New Zealand! Today, I arrived in Parismina for the Save the Turtle Project. This is the breeding season for the great Leatherbacks , older than dinosaurs!! I took a 2 hour bus rde from San Jose to Siquirres than another 2 hour bus ride to Cano Blanco, the last stop on the...

Jan 16, 2006 - Puerto Viejo - It's raining, it's pouring, am I in Seattle?!

Wet greetings from Puerto Viejo De Talamanca! The weather in San Jose was sunny and dry but we arrived here at the Caribbean coast yesterday and were greeted by grey skies and heavy showers. The forecast says heavy rains are expected to continue through the week. Fortunately we head out tomorrow, though whether the weather where we'll be going will be any better there is hard to say. This coastal area has a very different feel then San Jose with its rastafarian vibe, brightly colored signs and buildings and reggae music pouring into the...

Dec 30, 2005 - La Tortuga Feliz - Batan

Vrijdag 30 december - Maandag 23 januari www.latortugafeliz.com Na een nachtje in San Jose de volgende ochtend richting de caribische kust, naar het stadje Batan. Hier worden we opgehaald door Paul, een Nederlander die drie jaar geleden een stuk carribische kust heeft gekocht en hier nu voor het tweede achtereenvolgende jaar een schildpaddenoproject runt. Vanaf Batan is het project op 30 taxi-minuten en vervolgens 45 minuten met de boot gelegen op een schiereilandje. Doel van het project is de schildpad en haar eieren tegen de stropers te...

Nov 12, 2005 - Catch a wave

In Saluida, Mexico, after Tommy and I had been dating for six months, we thought it would be fun to rent surfboards. The surf shop offered lessons as well, and I was about to take one, but Tommy said. . . oh, no need, I'll teach you! I thought, that's great, Tommy seems to know a lot about the sport and can teach me some of the basics. I asked if we should practice standing up on the board on shore before going into the water. Of course this was not part of Tommy's "lesson," so we proceeded out to the waves where about twenty surfers were...

Nov 10, 2005 - Boot scoot scooter scoot

Wow, when it rains in the tropics it rains. We swear we wouldn't have been more wet today even if we had jumped in the ocean. Joel, in his witty way, said he thought that's how a baby must feel the day it's born. Now that's wet. It was a rebirth of sorts. The rain here can be de-motivating if you're afraid of getting out in it. We, of course, don't have that issue. It feels good to be chilly, in fact, and once you're out in it it's an absolute blast. Especially when you're cavorting down the road at about 50 mph on a 50cc scooter. We...

Nov 6, 2005 - Move like a jellyfish

We are now roommates with our Canadian and Israeli friends on the Caribbean side of the country, living in a beautiful house with them for $10 each a night. We're particularly happy with the Canadians, who design computer games for a living - right up tommy's alley. All three of the boys have computer-game dork histories, but none of us (besides Tommy, of course) are dorky. Very good group, which is important as all of you know. Also last night Tommy found a guitar player with good skills and he played well into the night. The gathered...

Oct 25, 2005 - The Cahuhita Village

Yesterday I arrived in Cahuhita. It was an 4 hour trip from San Jose via Puerto Limon, using the Express Bus from the San Jose Carribean terminal. There are big bananas fields everywhere, shipped from Puerto Limon anywhere. Cahuhita is a backpacker styled village, mostly run by "Creolan" inhabitants. Since rain is starting again, I'm try catch a break and visit the national park here and then leave to getting to Bocas de Toro (Panama). The neverending luggage story says, that my luggage was arrived in Mexico-City and will be there in Cancun...

Aug 15, 2005 - Caribbean Costa Rica and wildlife spotting

We relectantly left the beach in Nicaragua (Shaun sporting a bit of a mixture of heat rash, surfboard rash and sunburn on his chest - nice!), and made our way into Costa Rica. The first European to Costa Rica was Chris Columbus in 1502 and while he was there he saw that the native people wore lots of gold. For that reason he named the area Costa Rica, meaning Rich Coast, as he thought there was going to be lots of gold about. Colonisation of the area by the Spanish began in 1563 and the native people put up little resistance. In fact Costa...

Aug 12, 2005 - Cahuita... pour dire aurevoir a la mer des caraibes

Ce sont mes derniers jours au Costa Rica. Et j'avais envie d'aller me baigner une derniere fois dans les Caraibes, ce qui n'etait pas possible a Tortuguero (a cause des requins) Cahuita, petit hameau pres d'un parc national qui longe une plage magnifique et sauvage. Petite promenade de 4 heures avec une heure de bain sur une plage isolee au bout du parc. Tantot a traverser la foret tropicale humide, tantot a longer la plage, j'ai vraiment beaucoup apprecie ce parc. J'y ai vu des singes hurleurs, le fameux papillon Morpho a la couleur bleu...

Aug 5, 2005 - Welcome to the Caribbean

The taxi-boat from Tortuguero took 3 hours get to a little village just north of Limon. It was an enjoyable boat trip, again travelling through the winding waterways of the jungle, although the rain was torrential, pretty much the whole time. We are getting used to being soaking wet most of the time - either due to the rain or being at the beach! From the boat we got a collectivo, (a minibus, somewhere in between a bus and a taxi, which people get crammed into!), to Cahuita. Jess also got off at Cahuita but we parted company with the other...

Aug 3, 2005 - A gathering of vultures

Sunday 31.07.05 Vicky was still recovering from the night before's sighting of a 10cm cockroach at our door, and howler monkeys had woke the entire place up in the very early morning, so it was without too much cheer we greeted a dull rainy day in Cahuita. While walking through the rain to an internet cafe, i spied a flock of giant black birds roosting in the trees over the Parque Central. Even from a distance it was easy to pick them as vultures. During the evening when it finally had stopped raining, we decided to go for another walk to...

Jul 16, 2005 - Cahuita, Costa Rica

Finally a holiday! Hit the beach with other Raleigh chums and hit the cocktails too! Pina Coladas by the pool - excellent :-) Not before we'd done some white water rafting down the Pacaure river though which was great fun. Grade 3 and 4 rapids - loved it, so bring on the grade 5!