Doubletree Cariari by Hilton San Jose

... that says Best Western. That was the nicest thing ever! I have never had that happen. So there end up being four of us in the shuttle (all very nice people). One guy just got his CPA license found out he hated it and is now traveling for awhile. The couple live on a farm in Canada and move down here for the winter to get away from the snow. <br><br>So I told the driver where I was going and he lets us off at this hotel. There is loud ...

... through the nondescript alley and at the other end try not to get hit by a car whose driver has no concept of pedestrians. Walk down that street toward the other street and at the big cactus go up the not so busy street toward the busy street and the school is almost at that corner. <br><br>Nice.<br><br>When we got to the corner with the cactus she pointed toward the school and left me to my own devices. I was trying to remember the way but all I kept wishing was ...

... that it was before 8a, broad daylight, and with a ton of people around - the gun just lifted his shirt and pulled out a gun and pointed it at her demanding her stuff. She said no and yelled for the security guard so the guy ran away. The rest of us are okay and she lives by me so now we walk together with a few other girls on my street so we don't walk to school alone. Our professor keeps saying to not bring our computers to class because that stuff will happen ...

... 4th of July weekend. There is a beach nearby and some places to go - I'm really excited. I need lots of suntan lotion though because last time I went to the beach I came back like a lobster and peeled for 3 weeks. It finally went away but now I'll get it back. We have a kitchen in the cabin so we'll be able to cook real food (not beans and rice) so that's really exciting. We'll probably end up ordering pizza because we haven't had pizza in forever, it ...

... there was hot water &#8211; it was still kind of barren and not like the hotels in the US but it was much nicer than the villas. We then left to go on a night walk in the Monteverde rainforests. We saw two lightening bugs wrestling and hollow trees and animals and a rat in a tarantula hole and we think that the rate ate the tarantula. It was really cool because it was raining but we were under three layers of trees so we didn&#8217;t get hit with any rain until ...

... ruins. The influences are a mix of Mayan, Toltec and Aztec, at least as far as I could discern (the explanations are mostly in Spanish). There are some very nice pieces, and it is worth a visit. Plus, a couple of the rooms are air-conditioned. I mention that because walking up and down hills in high humidity, temperatures in the low 90s and at some altitude can take a lot out of you. We finished our walking tour with a loop around the neighborhood, passing the ...

Wow! El Salvador was awesome! Totally blew my expectations out the window. We drove from Puerto San Jose, Guatemala to a place called El Zonte, which turned out to be our favourite surf break in the area. We weren't really sure if we'd be able to park in the town, but after seeing how dead the town was we decided that it would probably be OK. Our parking/sleeping spot ...

... the many recognizable neon logos - an incredibly modern city. But this impression comes through a dark glass. Our TicaBus pulled over to their office with an associated small hotel the San Benito, with a nice canopied restaurant and a couple of internet stations. We immediately checked our e-mail and were so relieved to get e-mails from both of our kids that Corey and Nandita were indeed, safe. No Thanksgiving turkey for us ...

The end of my time in Guatemala City was actually really nice. I managed to connect with the capoeira-group-in-progress in the city (everybody´s got a friend-of-a-friend who plays, it seems) and sweat out a lot of frustrations. The instructor was injured, so seeing as it was mostly beginners in the class, she had me demonstrate a few things, which was much fun...I think I do like being "onstage" quite a bit. There was an ...

We were a bit apprehensive about our trips to Mexico City and El Salvador. We were pleasantly surprised by both. While the air pollution affected both of us (Candy had to stop wearing contacts), the temperature was considerably cooler than Merida (65-85 degrees) and the experience was very worthwhile. We certainly appreciate clean air a lot more! We wish we had more than two days to explore Mexico City. We took a double-decker tour bus ...