Hotel El Velero Playa Hermosa

... of which i got to see at the beautiful beach, where many Tico (local Costa Rican) families came to play on the weekends.<br><br>But really, i spent a very small amount of time at the beach...often, while my co-volunteer sarah<br> (who came too) was soaking up the rays, i could be found laying on the bed doing little but watching TV or reading....it was wonderful. I also enjoyed a couple of HOT showers....of course making it just a little bit harder to ...

... options of getting to a beach where there's diving and some sun, that won't cost me an arm and a leg. So far, Honduras seems like the best bet, but if I am to go there, I need to be at the airport of San Jose which is far away from here. Will most likely know more tomorrow. A bumpy bus ride will not do wonders for my neck so I'm dreading it, the road conditions around here are horrible! The roads of Belize were great compared to ...

... and making walking slightly difficult. After the national park we started our drive towards Quepos on the Pacific Coast, which should have taken us from 2 to 3 hours, but some of things we have discovered in Costa Rica are: - They hate road signs, so they are normally not there - When there is a road sign it indicates a direction, but then does not warn that you should turn on the next turn So our trip expanded to 6 hours of lovely mountain ...

... but the women behind the bar are ticas. The only beautiful thing left in Jaco is their two mile long beach. Perhaps that is the natural course of development, a sleepy little beach town is turned into Miami south. Perhaps someday all of the beaches in Costa Rica will look like this, and then people like me will go somewhere else to get the authentic Latin experience, and the rest will enjoy there safe ...

... I'm a kiteboarder and I live for the wind and water! In Bahia Salinas I found a natural wild beach, fairly warm water, great conditions for kiteboarding, and most importantly awesome people! I met great people from all over the world from Europe, the USA, from Central and South America and we all shared the same passion - kiteboarding! I met a great couple from New York, Alina and Gene, who are good friends now, shared a house with ...

... smoothies, and banana pancakes. Mmmmmmm. Some days we'd walk the beach, on others we'd lounge by the pool reading, swimming and relaxing. We spent many hours in the hammock on our balcony that overlooked the surf. Late afternoon the waves cleaned up again so the last few hours until dark I was back out there. We ate mainly at the restaurant at Las Olas, BBQ ribs, coconut encrusted mahi mahi, and lime and garlic pork chops and more. We also managed to find the local pizza ...

... sunset - finishing her plates without drama. Determined to finish, despite being so comprehensively beaten, Sam grizzled and struggled to stop the entire breakfast reappearing - Frances ever the motivator cheering from across the table 'Come on, what are you?You wimp!', 'I thought I knew you!', 'What are you going to tell our kids if you don't finish this? - I'm always going to remember this!' Thankfully, after battling away for another 25 minutes, Sam limped across the finish ...

My Friend the Ocean - by Simon Dunne The Ocean is my friend. I swim in it and it makes me feel good. I like to bring my board with me sometimes but the ocean doesn´t like that. It sends waves to punish me. I don´t like being punished. But sometimes the waves are my friends too. Sometimes they even let me stand on their backs and ride. I like to look down from their backs into the friendly ocean. The water is clear, like it isn´t even there. I can see the ocean´s ...

... every meal. gallo pinto is the local nica term. tonnes of fresh fruit and amazing coffee though!! one mucho problemo in san juan is the frequent amount of times that the water just doesn´t work. my first night with my family, i woke up and couldn´t enjoy my cold shower or brush my teeth. had to go get a bottle of water to brush. Then 2 nights ago, we were in a store buying a bottle of rum and all of a sudden all the lights in town shut off. its kind of comical ...

... Honduras, abstinence is your best bet. The Hondurans brew the horrid Salva Vida. I think that loosely translates to "Applause of Life". A more appropriate name would be Petroleo y Vinagre - oil and vinegar...motor oil and vinegar. Marc, a French Canadian from Sherbrooke owns the place we're staying at on Hermosa Beach in Costa Rica. He's very much an environmentalist who works tirelessly to protect the natural habitat of Hermosa. Marc's place is kind of like a mini jungle. There's a ...