Mariner Inn Playa Flamingo

... a highly recommended restaurant called “Mar y Sol”. They came and picked us up at the hotel and whisked us off to the Cliffside restaurant with an amazing view of the beaches below. The interesting story behind this restaurant is that the chef is a 7th generation Catalan (Spanish) chef who had moved here and started creating really amazing dishes mixing old world cooking techniques with the amazing and fresh local ingredients from the Guanacaste ...

... discovered banana chips! They love them here. They're like potato chips only made from bananas, perfect for those who shun carbs! I'm sure they're not any healthier, they are after all deep fried, but they are tasty and come in different flavors, funny thing is they hardly taste like bananas! <br><br>We were about to head back to the beach when we decided to visit another nearby beach we had heard lots about called Playa Conchal. We had ...

... of Dancing Queen and Money, Money, Money! <br><br>Also, while Susie slept I kept Isabella entertained with origami, coloring and other silly daddy-daughter games (ie. mainly taking silly pictures!). As you can see in the pictures accompanying this entry. <br><br>After we got into San Jose, we found our driver and rode off into the sunset, Guanacaste was waiting. Our driver and his companion were awesome! Tico hospitality at its best. They shared many ...

... examined sore legs and skin lesions. I got my first taste of the tick born rickettsial disease, erlichia, that plaques the animals of Central America, causing anemia, bleeding disorders, fever, swollen lymph nodes and death if untreated. One example that I would like to use is Claudia. Dawn took us to Claudia's house on the first day. We drove down dusty sideroads as far as we could go, and then parked the car, scrambled down a ...

... same time - totally **********!! For 25 bucks our room had a huge Jacuzzi tub, but no hot water, the electric shower head exploded (literally into 5 different pieces) when we turned on the shower, and the sink faucet would not turn off, so we had reach under the sink and turn it off by twisting the main valve! We ended up having to take cold sponge baths in the Jacuzzi that night! And this place is brand new!!...it was like the builders got 95% of the way there, and ...

... was ab** zu diesem Zeitpunkt eine angenehme Erfrischung war. Noch mehr Kuehlung gab´s dann an Land: Bi**, Fruchtsaft und viel frische Fruechte **warteten uns. Die ganze Tour war allgemein sehr professionell organisi**t und ich war sehr zufrieden. (Trotzdem bin ich nun definitiv ready fu** die naechsthoeh**e Klasse! W** kommt mit?! he he). Zurueck in La Fortuna, holte mich meine Mom mit dem Mietauto ab und wir fuhren zu uns**em naechsten Zielort - das "Baldi Th**malbad". Dieses ...

... I was looking for Monkey Island. It was visible from the hotel but I wanted to see the few monkeys that lived there. It was a tiny island (you could walk across it in 10 seconds) with about 4 monkeys who were prone to jumping on the kayaks (and apparantly biting people). I sort of kept my distance and went around them wondering if they were so vicious because they just wanted to escape the boredom of the island. Kayaking back to shore was well tough as heavy winds just set in and ...

... is used. The students are well-behaved (I'm lucky) and know very basic English. Teaching has been fun but a little challenging because sometimes the students don't understand the material, don't respond well to the material, or I run out of material too quickly. In those cases, I have to modify the lessons on the fly while appearing to know what I'm doing. <br><br>New Experiences<br><br>Since I've been living here, I've had fresh coconut juice and ...

... continue on down the beach. I had trouble and was weaving all over the place, since I was astounded by the number of stars and couldn't keep my eyes off the sky. Other than three cruise ships obnoxiously lit on the horizon and the lights of Tamarindo in the distance, the world was devoid of artificial light for miles. I have never seen stars like that in my life. That was probably more spellbinding than the turtle. Our turtle was a leatherback, 1.5 ...

... hot here and I envy anyone fighting the cold and scraping snow from the hood of the car... yeah, right!!! I've met a few very nice people at school, from Switzerland and the States mostly, and we have lots of fun talking with each other, getting to know different habits and cultures (like Popcorn for breakfast...). Next weekend we will travel to the highest (and still active) Volcano Arenal, which promises to be quite an adventure.