Hotel Villas Colibri Alajuela

... Sophia, Luchini, Jaime, Burrito and Max..it was so nice! We felt very loved! So we decided to go to Zanzibar for one last glass of wine with everyone, but called it an early night seeing that we had to be on the bus at 645 the next morning. It was sad saying goodbye to everyone, but we've pretty much decided that we're going back to Boquete for New Years, so knowing that made it a little easier. Kind of. At least that's what I'm telling myself!<br><br>We got an early ...

... signs, set up plumbing for the bathrooms, move structures around the soccer field and any other grunt work that was asked of us. Then, on Friday, we started taking 3 hour shifts for security, but I found myself working even when I was off...which was ok, but exhausting at times. We even had to take over night security shifts to watch for theft of the vendors. The people that we worked with were amazing....everyone was on the same page and worked ...

... crop unroasted and then roasts on their own. We learned Jamaican coffee is one of the most expensive because an animal will eat the Coffee cherries and then the beans are removed from the feces and cleaned off and then roasted and sold. Sounds gross to me; Apparently it is really expensive and like a delicacy. I just think that'd be miserable to have. I never realized how popular Costa Rican coffee is...but apparently it is. The plantation ...

We arrived after a shortish overnight bus journey of only 15 hours! Sheesh the Panama border crossings are bad, we stood in the hot hot sun for three and a half hours waiting to get our stamp out. I read up about San Jose on the travel pods before coming and expected not much at all, but on arriving was pleasantly surprised. The city is not as dire as many others we have visited on our trip, and it is relatively wealthy in many respects. I understand why some ...

... down there and the police had everyone´s passport and went through each one. They had the local police, the drug police and the Forest Police, don´t know why they were there. They then instructed everyone to open there rooms and that they would be sending in a drug dog to look. I got it on video and will try to put it on the blog. The dog searched all the rooms and all of the people as well. They did find on bag of marijuana ...

... perfecta. In San José, my friends and I celebrate the second night of Hanukah. En San José, mis amigos y yo celebramos la segunda noche de Hanukah. In two days, I head back up north to Honduras. But before I leave, I must as usual leave a little slang behind. Here's some Costa Rica slang. En dos días, voy de vuelta hacía el norte a Honduras. Pero antes de que me vaya, debo, como de costumbre ...

... also went to the jade museum and enjoyed that too. There were many similar items on display but what I enjoyed most was being able to see the varying colors of jade side by side. Some of the pieces were blue and that I had never experienced before. I also went to Cartargo which was at one time the capital of Costa Rica. There is a church there where people pilgramage to once a year to see La Negrita. An tiny black virgin statue said to have healing powers ...

The bus journey from Granada Nicaragua to Costa Rica was a long 10 hours. All the border crossings up to now have been fairly painless. Not this one!! It only took half an hour to do the formalities to leave Nicaragua but when we reached the entrance to Costa Rica there were at least 500 people in thé line. We had to wait out in a big yard under the sun. I felt like I was in one of those Japanese prisoner of war camp movies. One ...

... is de natuur in Costa Rica natuurlijk ronduit prachtig. Zeker in het huidige regenseizoen is alles groener dan groen en nergens anders zie je zoveel aapjes, kaaimannen, luiaards, toekans en andere gezellige diertjes als in de nationale parken van Costa Rica. Als niet-Tico moet je doorgaans flink in de buidel tasten om die nationale parken te mogen bezoeken, maar ze zijn wel mooi. Vooral als je zo vroeg mogelijk gaat en je de jungle en de beestjes zo'n ...

... they said we could come back to drink and swim if we bring our swimsuits...(sounds like a plan). Unfortunately by the time we left the ice cream shop had closed, so we five piled into a small cab and came back.&#8232;&#8232;<br><br>Had to get up very early this morning (despite not really sleeping well), had breakfast, attended another lecture/training session, and then spent the day identifying and processing the previous day's catch of 'pillars...I believe over 200 in all! We also ...