Villas Del Caribe Beach Hotel Puerto Viejo

... it later transpired that that was the way of Costa Rica and not this place in particular. Also, the rather ****** weather we'd been having had tailed us north, and dullness and rain were once again the order of the day. Ho hum.

Shortly after arrival I made a snap decision to join Chris and some Danish folk on an excursion to a sloth sanctuary, as I knew that otherwise I would achieve nothing for the entire day, such is the way the lads and I generally operate ...

... and water were delivered to the mountains of the indigenous territory where people were trapped with nothing to eat or drink. For the earthquake, the Colombian government brought a special team with a helicopter to ...

... different life, a life of only a few weeks, but, for sure, that counts more than many months made up of the same day "tainted" by a frenetic rhythm that often brings nothing. I took a few photographs, I imprinted the best memories in my mind so that I can just take them out from a little tin-plated box and they will not be faded ...

... termed "polychronic time," meaning if you're not late, they won't be ready for you. OK, so maybe I don't want to live here. But it's been a great visit all the same. When we got back to the home base, the new batch of volunteers had arrived. There are four men and four women, all from a software company in Toronto, and they're only staying a week. Most of them seem pretty nice, but there's definitely a difference between doing something like this of your own ...

... on to Cahuita, which is on the Caribbean side of Costa Rica, fairly near the border with Panama. About half-way from Limon to Cahuita, our bus broke down. It must be the curse of the travel blog, because the first day of all 3 blogs has had a vehicle break down - double decker in London, truck in the South African bush, and now the bus here. We had to wait about an hour for the next bus, and I was starting to worry if I would make it to the sea turtle project on time. Got ...

... OR CREAM PIES OR HOT FUDGE ? THOSE WERE THOUGHT TO BE UNHEALTHY, PRECISELY THE OPPOSITE OF WHAT WE NOW KNOW TO BE TRUE. Returning to my exploits, or lack thereof, Puerto Viejo itself was slooooow. The summer high season doesn't start until July, and many establishments, restaurants, bars, etc. are not even open or were being renovated. I was the only guest at the lodge I stayed at. So I ate, drank, read and wandered ...

... all doing fantastic...and looking forward to rafting tomorrow, (which will very well be the highlight of our trip) But we could not ask for a better weather, or a better destination. To sum things up another way, we could refer to this as God´s backyard, and it would be a perfect description. Tomorrow I believe we have free internet in our hotel, so we´ll try to post tomorrow night. Dan, Liz, and Katie.

... and then the locals who stayed would blast their boom boxes with reggae at 6 am every morning. At least it was good music :)

There was a bar/restaurant and bands that played there at night. Everything was completely open, except for the bathrooms and a few specific rooms. The place was massive. Many of the past travelers had made their mark by tiling the columns and floors in their ...

... t. (Randnotiz: Ich glaube, dass ich ueblich**weise eh** diskret bin, ab** die Gespraeche waren so laut, dass dass man sie einfach nicht ueb**ho**en konnte.) Am Dienstag (11.3.) fuhren wir ins Zentrum und genossen ein feines Fruehstueck im "Pan Pay", eine Baeck**ei bzw. Café nahe d** Beach. Es geho**t einem Fan des F.C. Barcelona, denn das ganze Geschaeft ist mit Wimpeln, Post**n, Fotos etc. von "Barça" ueb**saeht. :-) Zurueck in d** Posada mussten wir uns** Gepaeck ...

... gap in the trees and rushes on the lake edge. But a 31 seater boat rams into the bank to pick the 2 of us up! Its like Royal treatment today.. Across the lake is Volcan Arenal - which is active and constantly oozing lava - which can be seen red at night when clear. A pick up then takes us to la Fortuna to gt the bus back to San Jose for Ks flight in the morning. 5am today and K was up for the airport and i waved her off to be travelling solo. All other 4 in the ...