Flamingo All Suites Playa Flamingo

... to hang out at the beach the entire day and have a picnic, get in the water, play with Isabella, read, take a nap. In other words, a perfect day at the beach. We found a perfect shady spot under some mangroves right on the beach and made this our camp for the day. Isabella and Susie enjoyed drawing sea creatures in the sand and looking for seashells. We had a great picnic lunch at right on the beach where we ate sandwiches (the mayo here has a lemon flavor ...

... like much, and even Ticos seem to feel compelled to defend such a seemingly simple dish, but there is more to it than meets the palate. For one, I don't think it's just as easy as mixing the two, there is some sort of seasoning, spice or sauce that gets in the mix and makes the whole a much more appealing concoction than the sum of its parts. I had it at breakfast and it was REALLY good! I must investigate further what the secret ...

... coast of Costa Rica in Guancaste and several days in the rainforest/volcano Arenal and Monteverde areas northwest of San Jose (capital of Costa Rica for those of you who already forgot or never learned 4th grade geography). <br><br> <br>So some of you might be wondering Costa Rica is not that far away by plane, why would it make for a long day of travel (the title of this entry is "A LONG day....but we're finally here" afterall? Well, by the time I got to ...

... through rivers and even on foot when the car can't make it. She seems to know everyone who owns an animal within a 10 km radius of her home, and more importantly, they all seem to know her. She knows who has animals that need fixing at the next clinic, and who has new puppies or kittens that need deworming and vaccinating. She educates, hounds, scolds, praises, begs or does whatever she needs to do to keep "her" animals healthy ...

... was like 90 degrees. Bags came in a timely manner, customs was a breeze, literally 1 minute. Easy pick up, met some cool people who are taking lessons as well, all solo travelers. About an hour ride from Liberia to Tamarindo, very green and omg the sky opened up and it is pouring down rain the whole ride to Surf camp.

... ueb** die Buehne und danach fuhren wir nach La Fortuna. Ich hatte am Vortag eine Rafting-Tour gebucht und musste um 11:00 beim V**anstalt** (Wave Expeditions) auf d** Matte stehen. Neben mir war noch eine Rafting-**probte Familie aus Kanada (lebt ab** in Houston) am Start. Puenktlich ging´s los zum "Río Balsa", eine Fahrt von etwa 30 Minuten. Wir fassten alle Helm und Schwimmweste und nach d** Einfuehrung teilten wir die Gruppe in zwei Boote auf und das Abenteu** konnte beginnen ...

... cost $1.20..60 pence, which doesn't help the effort to give up smoking at all) and as usual the place was empty. Instead of customers sitting around, the owners whole family were gathered around whilst strumming on guitars and singing. I was bullied into joining in with the chorus and then I gave them a hearty applause. Noticed a funny thing on the menu (an A3 sheet of paper taped to the wall); the prices of chicken and beef had been changed from 35 to 40 Cordoba's (quite ...

... chairs. My host house also didn't have a refrigerator until this week. My host mother borrowed a refrigerator and washing machine from her mother and used the standard moving service in my town: a pair of oxen pulling a flat cart. The house also has sporadic water outages, and no hot water. The tubes that flow into my house aren't very reliable for some reason, and if I really need water for drinking or bathing, I need to go to my host aunt's house ...

... on the beach. There was a twenty minute speech and instructional video, but that barely alleviated the boredom. Eventually Sarah gave in and walked back to the apartment to get us something to do. Around midnight, the first turtle was sighted, and it seemed like more of a real possibility we'd be able to do something other than hanging out on the porch avoiding the bugs all night. Sure enough, about forty-five minutes later, we got the call that ...