Villa Tournon San Jose

... telling us to just jump on and obviously rushing to get to his next stops. Half hopping and dragging ourselves up the steep step, bag and all, we got on to see lots of space to squeeze into. What followed was a speeding ride down the motorway and a much more welcome lower heat than Cuba coming through the window. We got off at the last stop which was basically the center of San Jose and got a taxi to Tranquilo Backpackers our first real hostal stop. <br><br>The ...

... off when the bus stopped for good. It did say Cartago on the front so of course the bus would end its route and stop there.<br><br>So in retrospect there are several things that I should have paid attention to: <br><br>1. The bus seats were plush and comfy, not like regular city busses but like it was preparation for a longer trip. There was room to stretch. (I got on anyway, anticipating a short ride)What city bus that is going a short way ...

... for me. If I was at home you'd have to provide me with a damn good reason to step foot in Mahon Point, so sauntering around a little slice of the US of A in random Latin American cities just don't appeal to me. And Maccas basically leaves me feeling (a) pretty ****** and (b) hungry again half an hour later, so I generally leave them to it. The only plus side to the malls I've occasionaly been coerced into going to are the ...

... this message, it's 5.30 on Thursday morning. Cal has made an appearance so the other students will be sure to follow. We will have breakfast then we're off to the Bri Bri which the students are really looking forward to! There will be no more messages for the next 5 days or so but as soon as we get to a town I will hopefully be able to post some pictures.<br><br> Hasta Pronto!

... was really fun. We first took a taxi to the central market in San Jose and then walked in downtown San Jose after that. It was a lot of fun to look in the shops and we even found some touristy shops. We had lunch at Quiznos which was great &#8211; non-Costa Rican food, yum! We then went to San Pedro mall and then went to the University of Costa Rica for a bit. We want to go back though because the stores on campus weren&#8217;t open and there wasn&#8217;t much ...

... National Guayabo Monument. It is the most important preserved and protected archaeological sites in Costa Rica. It is believed that it had been inhabited since 1000 BC to 1400AD. There were Mounds, Aqueducts, Roads and Water Storage Tanks. All of the other information about the site was extremely vague, and unfortunately failed to mention who actually inhabited the land. While the land itself is 15 to 20 hectors there are only 4 hectors ...

... around town all day. It was pretty sweet, it was cool to meet everybody and just absorb Costa Rica. My spanish was a little bit better than I expected, but it still has tons of room for improvement. Anyways, we visited a bunch of historical spots, including the Church of la Merced, the Metropolitan Cathedral, the National Theater, the ...

... spent through; fishing with ticos, surfing with Itilians, ********ting with Canadians, eating with Argentinians, arguing with Americans, eating with Sweads, dancing with Germans, story swapping with Austrians, hitchhiking with the Dutch, Birding with the French, snorkeling with Brits, sweets with the Swiss, and chillin with the Panamanians. So I accomplished a little out of this carribean beach town, I suppose it wasn't all bad. See you in the next spot.

I haven't written much about my volunteer assignment, but I've been taking notes. The kids are nice. They play rough (even the girls) but I haven't seen anything that looks like bullying. The teachers let them roughhouse and push each other around and work out their own disputes, for the most part. I wonder if they're complacent because no one ever seems to get hurt, or if no one ever seems to get hurt because the teachers don't intervene. It's tempting to speculate that the lack ...

... English? I am one of three students who speak Spanish on this trip, and I talked to Carlos about his farm, why he was so interested in sustainability and his ideas for the betterment of Costa Rica. The finca is bordered by old growth cloud forest, which includes many oaks (Quercus copeyensis and Quercus costariquensis - that's for you Grandpa!), bromeliads and bamboo. Carlos also joined us in our ...