Hotel Guarana Puerto Viejo

... modicum of privacy without breaking the bank, which is an infrequent luxury when backpacking, let me tell you. In addition to these nifty features, the restaurant does a smashing range of Tex-Mex food, befitting of owners from Arizona. All in all, a good spot, a little out of town but only a ten minute walk from a fabulous beach, so all good.<br><br>At first, I wasn't that gone on the town. The prices of food and beverages at Rockin J's knocked me back initially ...

... 200,000. For the flooding on the Caribbean side of Costa Rica last November, tons of donations were received through local organizations and even the USA. Through seemingly endless helicopter hours, food ...

... to learn by doing games and drawing. When they began to draw, they expressed a strong feeling about their country and their families. I was a little part of their world and before I came back to Italy, visibly moved, I collected messages and colored drawings... Sure I will never forget. It wasn't a vacation, it was the desire to live ...

... vocabulary question, but this time it turns out I had a legitimate reason for not knowing the answer. She asked me how to say "hesitate" in Spanish, and as we discovered when I described the concept to the students (and later confirmed with the teacher) there is no Spanish equivalent. "Pausa" is "pause," but that's really not the same. I'm tempted to read all sorts of cultural implications into that curious omission, but I'll try to refrain. I also tried my ...

... was made Blue Peter-styley! Our third and final stop was at a shayman who showed us more plants from the rainforest that are used for different remedies. After having arrived back from the trip we stopped for a photo with the organiser - who claimed to be Cahuita´s last ever cowboy - then headed for an afternoon on the beach where, inspired by earlier, I sculptured an amazing iguana in the sand (heartlessly destroyed by Rachael´s foot) and I ...

... des jackfruits, des bananes, des platanos, etc. C´est un paradis de fruit. En plus, on a recemment crée notre petit potager pour cultiver des legumes et des épices. Derrière la maison, on trouve un bois avec encore plus de varietés de plantes comme les palmiers (dont la coeur est super delicieux), les rambutans (ou les momón chinos en espagnol), les arbres de muscades et de cannelle. Il y egalement un petit ruisseau dans lequel on trouve des crevettes...enfin ...

... so pretty. We walked for about 4km, but the weather started getting worse and we decided to head back. On the way back we saw Howler monkeys in a tree on the beach, they were so close to us and we got some great photos and we also saw some more Capuchin monkeys on the way back too. Oh and I saw my first hermit crab too. I love Costa Rica!!!! But then the rain set in and it continued until we left pretty much. We were ...

... moments and interesting things! I stayed over Semana Santa, which I had no idea was such a huge holiday in Costa Rica. There was a record number of over 350 people at the hostel. I guess they don't have a maximum. It didn't take me long to figure out that this not actually a place to stay for sleeping purposes. The crazy thing is everyone was up until about 4 am, or just never went to ...

... for anything....We´d heard tales of poisonous snakes chasing you and chest high rivers to cross, but there was nothing like that, just an easy level trek through great scenery. Wee lizards darted across our path, and howler monkeys growled away in the trees. We stopped to view a particularly ´difficult-to-spot´sloth high in the trees and got bitten to shreds by mozzies. The swampy parts of the trail had been replaced by boardwalks ...