Ramada Plaza San Jose

... When we got to the city it was so different than what we experience. When we arrive at a city there are a ton of lights filling the landscape. Here, you do not see lit buildings and there are just some scattered lights lining the streets so it is this bizarre city landscape. <br><br> We finally made it to the hotel thanks to our fabulous GPS system. She took us down all of these side residential streets with all of the typical ...

... Sloppy-chic, shabby- chic, slutty-chic, studly-chic or I-want-you-to-think-I-don&#8217;t-care- chic. This campus was no different. I waded through all the people to try to find something to eat. I stopped at a counter that had a lot of people. I figured that if I watched and listened that I would know what to do when it was my turn. Oh how wrong I was. <br><br>I pointed at what I wanted. She gave me something else. I got scared and flustered and just ...

... we headed for La Palma where we started the trek to Los Patos. Crossed the same river 25 times!!! A great day and students all did very well with the trekking. Arrived at Los Patos ranger station at around 4p.m just in time for the rain to start so we had to wait a little while to set up tents. The team cooked up a great meal on the trangias then off to bed for a good nights sleep (or maybe not as there was a huge thunderstorm!)<br>Day 3 - Started ...

... Anyway Iade it down to the plaza de la cultural, which is somewhat the center of the city. Lots of people. Nearby is the pre-columbian gold museum. While it didn't compete with museums in Europe or the US, it was pretty good. Signage was in english and espanol. It had lots of gold pieces from indiginous peoples. Interesting. I then walked down avienda central to the mercado. A lot like markets in ...

... it. <br><br> I had to give one presentation on the Independence of Belice and another on the implications of the incoming government in Panama. Panama is one of the few countries that is swinging back to the right as almost all of the other Central American governments have become leftist governments. I learned a lot through all of the presentations given throughout the week and for the first time I felt that I could ...

... quirky alternative and cool) but unfortunately I just couldn't (which makes me main stream, not unique, and very safe &amp; boring). We took the early bus to Viejo and I left Milli at a café with the bags while I went to find us somewhere to stay. When I came back Milli was talking to a local man - he shows people around to a few of the hotels and collects a small commission from the hotel owner if we decide to stay there. I liked how he was open about this from the ...

... I expected the heavens to open up and angels to descend softly stroking harps while rainbows formed over the water and monkeys wearing tuxedos served Imperials on diamond incrusted trays. Well to be fair, the monkeys were pretty amazing. The stories of monkeys stealing tourist belongings are definitely well-founded, I spotted one myself and eventually my Pringles can made its way into the enemy camp, I didn't see it happen but something tells me it wasn't the ...

... then finally finding the right queue adn getting oursleves legally entered into costa rica. the queue for the buses was sooooo long so we split a taxi to the next town hoping to find a bus there. ended up havingthree buses pass us at the bus stop cos they physically couldnt fit any more people on, which is quite a statement in central america where there is ALEAYS room for more people no matter ...

... a quiet evening hanging out at the hostel, and Filip has now gone out to meet Adrian again - I decided not to go as it's cold and wet and I have to fly to Lima in the morning. have mixed feelings about Peru now and am sad that my time in Central America has gone so fast. I would stay here longer if I could - the weather gets better every day, I meet lovely people all the time and there's still loads more I want to see and do. I will be back one day!

... to the Daycare Center with Carlos Eduardo where I met up with Ricardo from Tropical Adventures. Ricardo introduced me to Cecilia, the maestra, and all of the children I would get to play with all week. I was warmly greeted by everyone there and was quickly taken it as part of the group. Within five minutes of being there they had me dancing in ...