Finca Monteclaro Turrialba

... then getting soaked by waterfalls falling into the river. More than once I was looking up at a waterfall only to be crashed in the face by a huge wave. On top of that tocans(cant spell, as in tocan Sam, from fruit loops) fly over head the entire day. I had never sen one fly before. They would flap their wings a few times, then put their wings at their sides, like a missile. I got a huge kick out of this. <br><br> Unfortunately I was ...

... conversations make it go faster and are a lot of fun. Afterwards, a bunch of us, and our TA for the trip walked to San Pedro. It took about 25 minutes to get there and it is very hilly (and steep!) but it was a really nice and beautiful walk. When we got there, we walked through the San Pedro mall, briefly, just to see it but decided we'd go back to shop because the stores were obviously Apple or Hollister, or others that we have in the US but they were ...

... all of you are asking yourselves the obvious question... "Why weren't the earplugs helping her?" It's a perfectly legitimate question, however I didn't wear earplugs because I was worried I'd oversleep and not hear my watch alarm! The irony of all of this is that we, note I said "we", decided to stay overnight in Turrialba so that we could sleep in later to go rafting the next am, than if we had spent the night in San Jose. BIG ...

... He said, "Tracy, you know that question you asked me earlier? Well, only when we pass the Cha-Cha's." He was alluding to the fact that they would be asking them if they needed a ride. I told him that they were welcome to give the Cha-Cha's a ride in the car, but pointed out that the last time he entertained the idea there were 3 Cha-Cha's walking down the road and there was no place for them all to sit. He informed me that where there ...

Costa Ricans have a saying here that really describes my last two months perfectly. "Pura vida." For those of you who don't have your Yahoo Babelfish handy, that means Pure life in Spanish. So let me tell you just how pura my vida is here. Going to bed at 9 (9:30 on occasion) on weeknights...pura vida. Waking to our parrot shouting my host mom's name at 3:30 am...pura vida. Rice and beans for every meal...pura vida. Having guitar lessons ...

... on the Friday night and spent the evening playing games and drinking with other travellers. On the Saturday, which was Valentines Day we spent the day relaxing and then we joined in with a barbecue in the evening and drank the night away! Sunday dawned bright and sunny, and we decided to go exploring in town and also down to the park at the far end of town. On the way we stopped off at the pharmacy as Ed had what we think is a spider bite on his elbow and it had caused a lump. The ...

... on our own buy got lost along the path and had to turn around half way through. But we made it the bridges. -They were hanging bridges, and while secure, still wabbled as you'd think they would, so it was a little bit scary. But we got to see monkeys. Overall, the trip was fun and we saw a lot of interesting things. The rainforest is exactly as I'd thought it would be. Lots of plants, very wet, and beautiful. -In the ...

We packed up the car and headed to Turrialba for some canyoneering, white water rafting, and rapelling. We had an awesome hotel overlooking the valley. Many, many coffee plantations and mountains as far as the eye could see. The town was pretty much your average Costa Rica working town.

... nearly at all times a project coordinator or Isaac (one of the directors) himself was present, or came on a regular basis, if for nothing else than just to see that we we're all okay and to bring us some snacks. The women (the number of them seemed to change on a daily basis) who were responsible for the ...

... to take a wander around Turrialba - it´s a pleasant &amp; seemingly quite thriving small town in scenic surroundings without many tourists. Friday was my whitewater rafting day and it was all very good fun , allbeit not particularly adrenaline-charged as the rapids weren´t that big and we all stayed in the boat (until it was time to swim) ... certainly nothing like as hardcore when I went rafting a few years ago ...