Hotel Playa Hermosa

... Five hundred yards is equal to the length of five football fields. Just imagine paddling 500 yards duckdiving your way through six foot sets. Boca Barranca is a humbling wave but worth the price if you're in the right place at the right time. Pura Vida!

... try out their English. The staff took us on a tour of their school and we learned how Costa Rican schools operate. Read about it on Avispa's Adventures Web site, www.avispasadventures.com, under "Community Involvement." Without a doubt, this was one of the highlights of our trip. We got in the narrow covered boats for our water trip in the Palo ...

... cool...), we checked into Ranch Grande hostel which is owned by an American or Canadian or something of the sort. The place is OK, with rooms apparently clean and spacious, and the beach is only 50 metres away...however several horror stories relate to this place: - Cockroaches immediately infest the place the moment you turn the light off (as Steffi found out when he left his luggage open during dinner) - the towels they gave us had ...

... donc en compagnie de ce type qui nous offre un Tshirt, un billet de 5 et 20 colones qui ne sont plus en cours. (on verra plus tard dans une boutique qu'ils rachètent le billet de 5 pour 500 colones soit 100 fois sa valeur). Le type, en fait est un représentant en Tshirt et qu'il va d'hôtel en hôtel en transports en commun. Enfin quand il y a un bus parce qu'après 1h d'attente, toujours pas de bus, une chaleur écrasante, rien à faire dans le village, on part finalement ...

... We used standard rock-climbing ropes and harnesses and rapeled through the water on several of the falls. We got pretty wet, and it was VERY exhilarating! We had to hike into and out of the area where we were rappeling and had to ride in 4x4 trucks to get to the edge of the jungle. This is an area that ...

... Hermosa) to no avail, and it was the same case in Quepos, so our video camera remained out of action for the majority of our time in Costa Rica. Manuel Antonio National Park is situated just south of Quepos. The road to the entrance is a narrow, steep road with spectacular views of the jungle and the Pacific Ocean. To enter the park you have to cross a small creek about 3 metres wide. Shoes off, cross the creek, shoes back on. There are a number of jungle backed beaches in the ...

... stomach. I had felt that I had taken all the necessary precautions. I had not thought to bring towels to mop up vomit from the floor. Luckily, though, there was an old rag on the floor for wiping feet that worked perfectly for wiping up puke too. After that, the ride to Las Pumas went quickly and smoothly...thank God! And when we arrived, emerging from the buseta stretching and yawning, the kids seemed equally amazed by the heat as the exotic birds in the nearest enclosure. And ...

... first time I tried. The water feels and looks amazing, and the waves here are not too big (maybe 3-6 feet today) and have a gentle break which is great for beginners. I was very suprised that it wasn't croweded at all and we had plenty of space to ourselves. In fact, when we went back out after eating a late lunch at a cafe on the beach, we were two of four people in the water...it was excellent. We both decided about thirty minutes ago while ...

I finally made it out of Puntarenas. I just got back from Playa Hermosa/Jaco. I loved it. The beaches are different there. There is big black sand and pebbles. And it was soooooo hot and humid. But the fauna is greener and bigger and beautiful. Oh and did I mention there was a Surf Competition in Hermosa. It was pretty interesting. Lots of internationally known surfers, of course I had no idea who anyone was but they certainly were fun. I stayed in a little tin roof shack ...

... night at the bar, it was the weekly Tuesday party that features local bands that played some really good blues music. They stopped selling food at the restaurant when the music started so at around 10pm we were a little hungry and walked into town looking for a snack. We ended up at Fiesta del Mar where I had a tasty dish of arroz con pollo. After that we headed back and went to sleep.