Hotel Riu Guanacaste Santa Cruz

... the
capital of Nicaragua), where we stopped for about 15 minutes and
unloaded more than half of the bus.


and nativity sheep..



This was awesome because for the first 5 hours, as luck would have it,
there were two sick children directly behind us, coughing and kicking
Liberia, Province of Guanacaste, Costa Rica farrahfig

... Soaking on these thermal baths was a spa in and of itself. And then top off with a great drink served from the bar situated in the middle of the pool. The sun wasn’t cooperative today, it rained half the time, and overcast the rest of the time. But the air remained warm and comfortable. Lunch and Dinner at the resort’s restaurant were provided by the day trip package ...

... Opvarmningen af vandet var naturligt, jorden/undergrunden er meget varm pga. den aktive vulkan tæt på. Udover det var der ikke så meget natur over det, vi var på et stort hotel, men der var ikke så mange turister pga. det sene tidspunkt. Vi hyggede os og slappede af. Næste morgen havde vi booket en hike-tur, en lang gåtur i regnskoven omkring vulkanen. Da vi gerne ville have turen med en guide der talte spansk, fik vi vores egen guide ...

... et rør i væggen. Men det ** okay, det har vi hurtigt vænnet os til. På badeværelset bor familiens papegøje som hedd** Dorita. Så når jeg ** i bad sidd** den på sin pind og snakk** løs, direkte ind i hovedet på mig.. :) I starten var det sjovt, men nu kan jeg godt blive lidt små irrit**et når den eft**lign** lyden af en politisirene konstant når jeg prøv** på at vaske hår ;) En anden ting jeg lige skal vænne mig til ** de dyr d** find** vej ind på værels ...

... and then stopped to hike around the area for about an hour with our tour guide Elmer - he is one funny dude! And man alive ... what´s with the men pulling their shorts/boarders here ... they pull it til it hits like half way down the ass ... and you can see the crack! The photo guy at the rapel had done the same thing as Elmer ... and yes... we saw the *********... not a pretty sight ... anyways... continuing on with the story... Elmer was very knowledgeable about the volcano ...

We headed off early (the first bus was at 4am) for the journey back to civilisation. We were headed north up the Pacific coast. The journey took all day and 4 buses but in the early evening we reached Quepos. Quepos is a small town that for me was the sort of place i would turn around and walk out of if i could. From the dirty bar lined streets with broken neon lighting to the large impersonel, overpriced, unfriendly hostel we stayed in to the crowds of tourist crwoded round fast food ...

... bay. We had a wonderful lunch and visit before heading back to the resort for our romantic dinner at the Italian Restaurant...eih - nothing really spectacular food wise there....good, but not great. We would have been just as happy eating at the buffet. Monday Feb 4th, The "kids" on the trip all went on a day tour for zip lining. I had booked the tour ealier with Ricardo Vargas Tours (very good!). They picked us ...

... at 6am towards Costa Rica. Unfortunately the ferry time wasn't at 6am but rather 6pm (the manager at the Altagracia hotel said 6am) so I had to stay another night here (not a bad thing really). This morning had to bid farewell to yet more great people I've met durin my travels. Matheus and Christina had a boat to catch today. Who knows we may meet again in South America somewhere. After breakfast I hired a kayak for a few hours and went floating around the lake. More ...

... the company. Actually, I had never done it before at all. I had been in lighted caverns with paths and a tour to show all the formations, but this was totally different. They sent us in with rubber boots and a helmet with a flashlight on it and told us we were going to get wet. They weren't kidding. We started and were almost immediately up to our knees in water and guano. We kept going and it just got darker. The only light ...

... anywhere else, in at least five other countries, but that one specific chain of banks does not take the card. Well, it takes it, but it refuses to give any money in exchange, which is kind of the point. Banco Popular, Banco Cuzcatlan (sp?), and the Banco de Costa Rica all worked fine, though, to my relief. Just for kicks, we tried some of the American fast food for lunch, to see if there were any interesting alterations, like the curry sauce for the chicken nuggets I got ...