TravelStream™ news feed for member danielaccg on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/danielaccg en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Wed, 11 Jun 2008 10:11:53 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/danielaccg/latin_america/1150152300/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/danielaccg/latin_america/1150152300/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/danielaccg/latin_america/1150152300/tpod.html Wed, 11 Jun 2008 10:11:53 -0400 Follow Bob and Daniela around Latin America. We are looking for voluteer oportunities and any travel tips people would like to share.

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Trujillo, Peru

We have now moved out of lima. It was a bit hard to leave the family we were with, since it´s been awhile since we were with family or felt truly at home somwhere. we spent the past month or so staying with jose and mari and their daughter layla. mari´s daughter lives in the states, and is a good friend of daniela´s family, hence how we know them. although we had never met mari and jose before we got to lima, they immeadiately took us in and treated us like family, cooking us traditional peruvian food, giving us advice on routes around peru and ecuador, and giving us a great, commfy place to stay. But the truth is that we need to get moving, look for a service program, and let go of our pseudo-family. It was not any easier when they asked us to stay longer, telling us that we were leaving too soon. But we managed to say our good byes (along with lots of thank yous), hugged, and got on a bus heading north. After 9 hours we arived in the city of Trujillo, and knew we would enjoy it here. i´ll post pics of us and jose and mari.EatingWe ate at a cute place in town, good food, great deals, sweet people, and really clean.El Barro Dorado on Jr. San Martin 475 tel-29-0126 It´s only about a month old, you can get an appetizer, meal, dessert, and drink for only 4 or 5 soles (about US 1.40-1.70). Good atmosphere, too.HousingWe stayed in Hostal El Ensueno on Junin 336 tel#222382, ok rooms, bath, cable tv, in a double for 30soles(under U$S10)
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/danielaccg/latin_america/1163300940/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/danielaccg/latin_america/1163300940/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/danielaccg/latin_america/1163300940/tpod.html Wed, 11 Jun 2008 09:41:38 -0400 Follow Bob and Daniela around Latin America. We are looking for voluteer oportunities and any travel tips people would like to share.

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Manuel Antonio National Park, Costa Rica

to cap off amanda's time here in costa rica, we jumped on a bus to quepos and stayed right near manuel antonio national park. we rolled into the beachfront town that is a few hundred meters' worth of restaurants and surf shops away from the entrance to manuel antonio. after finding a hostel, we got down to business to make the most of the few days we had at the park. getting to the entrance of the park is not hard during low tide, when we had to wade through a small inlet. on the way out, though, the inlet was flooded by high tide and we had to hike up our shorts and watch the people ahead of us to see where the shallower parts were. of course there were a couple of guys waiting to paddle us across for a tip, but it was only about 100 feet from one side to the other. once we got into the park, we booked a guide--we weren't planning to take a guided tour, but he offered us a cutrate (i think they usually book groups at the hotels) and promised we'd see lots more animals with him than without him. and he was right. he had a telescope and somehow spotted bats sleeping high up in the trees, cicadas, lizards deep in the woods, and gave us great views of sloths. we also saw howler monkeys, a coati (an eateater looking fellow), a friendly racoon that kept trying to steal food from people on the beach, and lots of garrobos, blue lizards that look like iguanas. so the tour was a good deal.we spent the afternoon on one of the beaches in the park--i slept most of the time, while daniela and amanda swam and explored the rocks at the end of the beach. since it was midweek and technically still rainy season, there weren't that many people on the beach. on the way home, we saw some more monkeys at one of the hostels. people were feeding them, but we didn't have much luck giving them chips--they only wanted fruit. it rained on that night, but we just grabbed some pizza and went to bed early, tired from not stopping since taking the 630am bus from san jose. it rained the next morning, too, but we waited it our and hit the beach around 10. at the hotel, a man who sells lunches to local vendors was working in the kitchen. before we took off for the beach, he fed some bread to a wild deer that came by--from his mouth. the deer apparently comes by everyday, accustomed to getting a snack from the guy or the guests. after breakfast, we headed down towards the beach and waited under the bus stop shelter for the rain to stop. we spent the day lounging, swimming a little, and daniela and amanda got some real nice sunburns. we watched a bunch of locals (including the lunch guy, who everyone called "lunch") play a game of soccer on the beach. we packed up and headed back to quepos around 5, but when we got there we almost didn't get on the bus--the only one going to san jose was full, so we had to sit on the floor or stand most of the way back. not so fun after a day of scorching on the beach, but we made it and managed to get amanda onto her plane early the next morning. end. Tours William Chaverria777-4847will_chavarria63@yahoo.coma great bilingual tour guide that will show you a lot of animals you would not be able to find on your own.Housing Manuel Antonio Tico Lodgetel (506) 777-5085maticoladge@yahoo.comEating In the Back of the Tico Lodge there is a kitchen that sells breakfast and luch for U$S2. They sell it to the local artisans, and dont tap into the tourist market. They are decent meals, if not a little on the oily side. and the guy feeds deer out of his mouth by the kitchen.Here you can get a large pizza for U$S6, which is a good deal for this town. Its a cute, clean place to relax and eat.La Posadaprivate jungle bungalows777-1446www.laposadajungle.com
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/danielaccg/latin_america/1141330320/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/danielaccg/latin_america/1141330320/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/danielaccg/latin_america/1141330320/tpod.html Thu, 15 May 2008 10:06:23 -0400 Follow Bob and Daniela around Latin America. We are looking for voluteer oportunities and any travel tips people would like to share.

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Buenos Aires, Argentina

Carly HotelUmberto Primo 464 (San telmo area, infront of plaza dorego)Payed 32 pesos a night for two of us, own room and bath.Rico, Josie, and Emma During our first week in Buenos Aires, we got to know the city some, and during the second week we met some of our fellow travellers who were quartered in the good ol' Hotel Carly with us. The hotel has a small common space with two computers' worth of internet access, some tables, a cable TV, and a nice view of Avenida Humberto Primo. And that is where we connected with Rico and Josie, both of whom are from Holland. The internet really does bring people together. You just have to wait until people are done typing until you can talk to them.During the week we had a few conversations with them in passing, and then on Sunday we ended up spending the afternoon talking about our respective trips and what we had done in the city. They started out in Suriname, where Ricos family is from, and travelled south through Brazil towards Argentina. They are both about 25, and are also interested in doing volunteer work as they travel. Rico is a professional wrestler (which explained why he always seemed to be on the WWE website in the hotel cafe), and has also wrestled a little bit during the trip. So as the afternoon wore on we moved from the shallowness of international politics into more serious cultural discussions of Mexican wrestling and how cheesy the WWE actually is now. Josie is a social worker back home, but was having trouble finding work without experience. So that helped provide another impetus for their trip--why not rack up resume fodder while travelling in South America? They were also both taking Spanish classes while in BA, and Rico was looking forward to continuing his lessons for another week. Thanks, god, for granting me this moment of clarity: Josie speaks Dutch, very understandable English from what she learned in school, and was taking spanish lessons. Rico speaks Dutch, almost perfect west-coast accented English that he picked up from watching TV (I didn't pay any attention in school, he confessed), and was picking up Spanish. So, if a person who speaks two languages is bi-lingual, and a person who speaks three languages is tri-lingual, what do we call a person who speaks one language? American. All the talking was hunger-inducing, so we headed out to a chinese food tenedor libre, or all you can eat buffet. Apparently its a crowd pleaser in any language. Anyway, we had a great time and a decent meal (for US $3 a person) at the buffet. Things were going so well (our conversation had progressed to discussing the BA zoos llama with the deformed mouth, and the spooky endowment of its male tapir) that we decided to keep the night moving and head to the club. Rico had mentioned a club that was about a 15 minute walk from the hotel, and on the way back from dinner we decided we were all feelng up to trying it out. We met up for a couple glasses of wine in the hotel courtyard before heading out, and had a good time at the huge club. Even though it was a Sunday night, there were easily 200 people dancing and partying the night away. And although the first drink was complimentary, the sound system was very good, and the Porteos (people from BA) were young and energetic, daniela and I werent used to the late hours. We called it a night around 2am, and Rico and Josie came with us. Most clubs in BA stay open until 6 am, but we cant confirm that. We left early on Wednesday morning, and our Dutch friends were still sleeping, so we didnt get to have a proper goodbye with them. But we might be in Peru at the same time as they are, so maybe were hoping to meet up with them there. If not, now we have some friends to visit in Amsterdam. The next day, while we were whiling away some daylight in front of the hotel computers, we met another fast friend, Emma. At first look i was not sure what to make of hershe poked her head into the cafe and asked for a bathroom in what can become a familiar, but always frantic, moment for a traveller. After her panic was allayed, Emma returned to the cafe to thank us and chat us up for the next 45 minutes or so. She has been in Buenos Aires for about two months, and was an expert on the hostel scene. We started talking with her about some of the spots wed researched, and she let us know about some of her experiences not only in Argentinian Hostel, but in hostels all over the world. From her stories, She has travelled pretty extensively, and among other places she has been to Mexico (which she loved) about 15 times and to both coasts and the middle of the US, including spending some not-so-savory time in a hostel in Miami with a/c that was too strong for a Japanese couple. Heres the story she told us about that: while Emma suggested that the couple simply sleep facing the opposite direction so that the a/c would not be blowing directly on their heads, the couple opted to turn off the a/c, which then led to an onslaught of bloody beasts that sent a bunch of the hostel guests to the local pharmacy riddled with bug bites (from hostile bugs--ha--hostel guests, hostile bugs...i got a million of em). Two days later we met walked into the pizza place down the street from the Hotel Carly and she regaled us with more of her wonderful stories and commentary on Buenos Aires. At first i found her a little overwhelming, as she seemed to be spewing thoughts about everything from dog shit to Denver, but she soon grew on me as a story-filled straight shooter of a woman. Two days later, when we had become fast friends and were helping her move her luggage to another hostel at 11pm, we abandoned the doggie dulce de leche line of discussion in favor of that safe fall back, American politics. Emma told us that she loved America, and said, I am the only French woman you will meet who loves America. true enough. Later she explained that she loved the combination of American and Mexican cultures. She gave American discipline high marks and she is a little enraptured by the culture and people of Mexico. Join the club, Emma. A straight shooter with good taste. She confessed that she wasnt a fan of our President, and we explained that most Americans aren't, either (66% if  i had to give a figure). When I mentioned that the people surrounding the President are scarier than he is, she confirmed with, yes, the Vice President, he just shoot his friend in the face. This land is your land...
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/danielaccg/latin_america/1180107000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/danielaccg/latin_america/1180107000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/danielaccg/latin_america/1180107000/tpod.html Mon, 23 Jul 2007 21:03:32 -0400 Follow Bob and Daniela around Latin America. We are looking for voluteer oportunities and any travel tips people would like to share.

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Burlington, Vermont, United States

this weekend found us up in b-town, vermont...home of magic hat beer, a damn fine guitar/bajo player called felix "sonny boy" wilson, and one alyssa brown.  we hung out with alyssa, daniela's best friend since, like, forever (aka since they met freshman year in college) and her german shepherd delilah.  on saturday we paid a visit to the magic hat brewery (the "artifactory") to see and sample a bit of the magic.  the brewery tour wasn't super-exciting, since the bottling line isn't in action on saturdays.  we did see the fermenting room (where they use a strain of english yeast that's a couple of hundred years old), complete with foamy vats and a brewer or two poking around.  the sampling bar was ok, but the barkeeps stopped paying attention to me before i got to try everything.  i'm now inspired, though, to visit all the microbreweries that are in the area.  burlington is a great walking city, and we spent a bunch of time strolling around downtown and on the lake champlain waterfront.  lots of window shopping and people watching kept us busy during the day.  on saturday afternoon we caught a compact little man strumming  frantically  and stomping away on the cobblestones of the main pedestrian thoroughfare.  we stopped and watched him for awhile, and ended up going to see him at a little coffee shop later that night.  we met up with another friend from college who was a former housemate of daniela and alyssa, and went to the show with her. decent show, very good pints of porter.  it seems like i can order a different microbrew in every restaurant in burlington and never worry about repeating--the place has a earned warm spot in my liver.  on the way back down to new hampshire, we stopped over in hanover, new hampshire to see barack obama speak at dartmouth.  big crowd, lots of waiting, and a 30 minute speech.  barack is a decent speaker, and he talked a little about himself and about healthcare, the war, etc...nothing he said really stuck with me, which speaks to my cynicism and the overall lackluster speech.  but daniela's friend alyssa said that, for the first time, she believed something a politician was saying.  it sits well with my cynical self to know that he's not a washington lifer, ground down and molded into shape by the way business is done in DC.  whether or not that translates to a) votes and b) the ability to actually get things done if he gets in.  i do know where i can get a good pint, though. 
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/danielaccg/latin_america/1137959460/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/danielaccg/latin_america/1137959460/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/danielaccg/latin_america/1137959460/tpod.html Wed, 28 Mar 2007 21:36:08 -0400 Follow Bob and Daniela around Latin America. We are looking for voluteer oportunities and any travel tips people would like to share.

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Valparaiso, Chile

here is a quick update on us in Santiago Chile: we are about to make moves--we're heading to Valparaiso (just northwest of the city, famous for its beaches and one of neruda´s houses and hillside elevators) this week and then this Wednesday, we are heading south to Futaleufú for a 12 day hiking expedition along the Futaleufú river with Daniela's cousin Cathy, her boyfriend Miguel, and his cousin. to any concerned parties: Daniela's cousin Cathy has worked as a guide with her father's rafting business and has spent many summers on these trails. so we´ll be in good hands. we´ll be staying at different camps built by Daniela's uncle--who runs a white-water rafting expedition company on the river--during our trip. one of the camps is comprised completely of large tree houses. you can check out where we´ll be hiking at the company website: www.earthriver.com (we´re not doing the white-water rafting part, but following trails along the river).  if you need to get in touch with us (while we´re in Santiago--which is until Wednesday night), you can call Daniela's parents and they can give you contact info. if you need to get in touch with us after Wednesday (while we´re hiking) until the 10th of February, call Daniela's parents and they can figure out how to get us on the phone. but this should only be for emergencies, because Daniela's parents would have to call Daniela's aunt in Santiago, who would in turn have to contact people along the trails who would in turn have to find us somewhere along the trail. then it's on to Argentina...we are doing well and enjoying our visit with Daniela's family. we've visited one of Pablo neruda´s houses (his eclectic, boat-themed, pop-art soaked pad in Santiago is largely bookless because of the ransacking it received from the army during the coup preceeding pinochet´s assumption of power. how's that for some passive voice?) last week. the house was great, and the guide was well-informed and perceptive--he identified Daniela as a mexicana after only three words (we think it's the ¨chavita¨ that did it). the only thing he could not explain was why the house looked so much like it belonged to one Nydia Currie-Gutierrez. we suspect that mr. neruda´s eccentric taste was reincarnated and is living in Portland, Maine. with a pet rat. we've even taken a couple of salsa lessons...last night (second lesson) we had to switch partners and dance with an advanced student and i stepped ALL over this girl's feet. the gringos aren't making many Chilean friends through the international language of dance. but Daniela and I are learning the steps together pretty well. among some of the other things we´ve done in the past week are: road testing some massage beds they´re trying to sell in Santiago, going to a cookout at a friend of cathy´s house, and cooking lunch one day. As a promotion and in an attempt to sell the massage beds (which are supposed to heal a large range of maladies), the company that sells the beds offers 40 minutes of free seat time downtown. On top of that, there is no limit to how many times one person can come for 40 minute sessions. The beds are supposed to mimic hot stone massages, chiropractic massages, and acupuncture techniques, and some other technical terms that were lost in translation. To me, it felt very much like lying on a bed of hot stones while a chiropractor dug into my back. Daniela enjoyed it very much, finding it very relaxing. The massages seem to be popular, and lots of people claim to be cured and show up for regular sessions. We also tried our hand(s) at making dough this week. It was semi-successful. Luckily, we made two different batches, because one didn´t rise at all. The other didn´t rise much, either, but it tasted ok. We made calzones for lunch (the big meal of the day in Latin America). Some were filled with spinach and cheese, and some also had ham. Overall, it was a success-everyone ate at least one and no one got sick. We wanted to visit and tour a vineyard, but we shopped around and found the prices to be steep so we´re putting that off for now. We may get a better shot in argentina. In lieu of a tour of a vineyard, we bought a one liter box of Chilean cabernet/merlot for about $1.60 or so. There´s a lot of cheap local wine here, and the box we bought was a tremendous wine for the price. I´d buy it again.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/danielaccg/latin_america/1164252420/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/danielaccg/latin_america/1164252420/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/danielaccg/latin_america/1164252420/tpod.html Wed, 28 Mar 2007 20:47:10 -0400 Follow Bob and Daniela around Latin America. We are looking for voluteer oportunities and any travel tips people would like to share.

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San Isidro de el General, Costa Rica

we distributed in and around san jose for the first 4 days--at a school near aunt rhoda's house, at the DHL warehouse, and at a&nbsp;children's hospital.&nbsp; for the last day we took a 5 hour trip towards the south and west to the city of perez zeledon (aka san isidro de el general, depending upon your map).&nbsp; the group we were volunteering with sprung for&nbsp;rooms in a&nbsp;beautiful little hotel, and we had a great breakfast&nbsp;before we started out&nbsp;on saturday morning--our last day of&nbsp;distribution.&nbsp; we worked at a sports complex, and&nbsp;sat people until it started getting dark.&nbsp; that night we all were invited to a pastor's house for dinner, and when we pulled in to the impressive spot, jhonny (one of the students who helped out translating)&nbsp;realized his calling in life: "i want to be a pastor," he said, the reflection of a mercedes hood ornament twinkling in his eyes.&nbsp; afters daniela and i hung out with chris,&nbsp;mel,&nbsp;and&nbsp;("uncle") lonny over a few well-deserved cans of&nbsp;<i>aguila.&nbsp;&nbsp;on sunday we had a nice relaxing day at some hot springs, a nice way to end the intensity of the week.&nbsp; hudson, the official photographer, was not so relaxed, and spent lots of time trying to get pictures while everyone was trying to chill out.&nbsp; we ate gigantic hamburgers for lunch (gigantic hamburgers were a lunchtime theme throughout the week, i think the costa rican coordinators were&nbsp;thoughtful&nbsp;of american eating habits--though i wonder if they&nbsp;think americans eat gigantic hamburgers on the regular).&nbsp; we digested our gigantic hamburgers during the busride back to san jose--just in time for dinner.&nbsp; lovely.&nbsp; we said our goodbyes, promised to stay in touch, and left looking forward to working on another distribution.&nbsp; there are pics of some of the folks we worked with here, check them out.&nbsp;
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/danielaccg/latin_america/1163646960/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/danielaccg/latin_america/1163646960/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/danielaccg/latin_america/1163646960/tpod.html Wed, 28 Mar 2007 20:36:44 -0400 Follow Bob and Daniela around Latin America. We are looking for voluteer oportunities and any travel tips people would like to share.

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San Jose, Costa Rica

we spent&nbsp;an intense and fulfilling&nbsp;week volunteering as translators for a group of americans who came down to distribute and fit out wheelchairs for costa ricans who need but cannot afford a chair.&nbsp; we&nbsp;got the hookup&nbsp;from daniela's aunt rhoda, who also worked on the project.&nbsp; she signed us up as translators, which would put my spanish to the test.&nbsp; the schedule that we received projected&nbsp;distribution (and customization) of over 200 wheelchairs in 5 days.&nbsp; the project started on a bright tuesday morning, and we met the team of people we'd be working with for breakfast where they were staying. there were a few physical therapists, some wheelchair technicians, and people who coordinated the collection, remanufacturing, and distribution of the chairs on both the american and costa rican ends. there were a few other translators, who were recent high school graduates from here in costa rica.&nbsp;&nbsp;we got to know each other&nbsp;over pinto gallo (lit. "painted chicken", costa rican talk for rice and beans), pineapple, and papaya.&nbsp;the first day wasn't all sweet papaya and painted chickens, though.&nbsp; after we loaded chairs into the trailer truck that DHL donated, the truck couldn't get released from the warehouse because of a missing signature on the customs paperwork.&nbsp;&nbsp;we set up&nbsp;shop at the first&nbsp;spot on the schedule&nbsp;before we learned that we would have no&nbsp;chairs to distribute.&nbsp; things picked up the next day, though, and we got into a (very syncopated) rhythm.&nbsp; our first patient was&nbsp;a young lady who was largely paralyzed, and it was tough to tell&nbsp;when&nbsp;she was comfortable&nbsp;or uncomfortable.&nbsp; she&nbsp;could not speak, and years of improper support had led to her body fusing into&nbsp;a twisted, prone position.&nbsp;&nbsp;we saw this&nbsp;quite a bit, as most people who came through had never&nbsp;had a wheelchair to encourage a good posture or anyone show them how to&nbsp;properly support themselves.&nbsp; many&nbsp; were partially or fully paralyzed by&nbsp;MS or MD and had spent years lying down on couches or beds or pillows and their&nbsp;musculature had frozen into place.&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;there were about 4 teams working at the same time, and between us we saw about 40-45 patients each day.&nbsp; i worked with mel, a tech from south carolina, and mickey, whose dad runs a non-profit that collects and remanufactures chairs.&nbsp; they were both great guys, and the team meshed well.&nbsp;&nbsp; mel&nbsp;was easy to get along with, and good at solving all sorts of situations--from a patient with a tough tone to&nbsp;having to&nbsp;improvise for a missing&nbsp;chair part.&nbsp; every bit as easy going as his&nbsp;slow, deliberate southern drawl, he's an unperturbable atticus finch of wheelchairs.&nbsp; daniela worked with chris, who was about our age, and works with mel back in carolina.&nbsp; he was a good guy and the two of them worked furiously all day every day.&nbsp; the three of us got along very well from the git go (that's dooown sooowth talk for "get go") and had a good time hanging out after work and on the busrides.&nbsp; many people showed up early in the morning and waited for hours to be seen. there were plenty of patients getting their first chairs.&nbsp; so their parents or other relatives had carried them for their entire lives--we attended to 25 and 30 year-olds in this condition.&nbsp; there were plenty of young children, too. one boy, who was hydrosyphallic (suffering from fluid build up in his head), blind, and had a bone disease had&nbsp;us cracking up.&nbsp; he had charisma like conan.&nbsp;&nbsp;someone on the team&nbsp;remembered seeing him playing with some other kids earlier and asked if he liked playing futbol. he sighed and said, "well, sometimes...today i had to play because they didn't want to attend to me", referring to his long wait.&nbsp; at one point he started yelling, "<i>mocos...mocos" ("snots...snots") worriedly.&nbsp; his mom headed over, and we thought, "hmm, that's a funny nickname for his mom."&nbsp; his mom got there just in time to supply a tissue to catch the <i>mocos from his runny nose.&nbsp; he was very eager to get rolling in his new chair, and he was moving before we adjusted and tightened the last bolt. as we sat one little girl in her chair she kept saying, <i>"no me caigo? no me caigo?" ("i won't fall? i won't fall?") in a very calm voice. she was a spina biffida patient,&nbsp;and the disease affects her sense&nbsp;of balance.&nbsp; as soon as i told her she wasn't going to fall, she was at ease--for about 10 seconds. then she started asking, calmly, again. finally, daniela convinced her that there were four people holding onto her chair and that there was no way she could fall.&nbsp; she seemed very impressed by the presence of four people holding up her chair.&nbsp;&nbsp; sunday was our last day as a group, and the&nbsp;team leaders took us to some hot springs (see the next entry)&nbsp;to relax.&nbsp; the drive out was beautiful, and we got a little hiking in on our way up to the&nbsp;pools.&nbsp; the drive home was a bit grueling, and we shivered in the&nbsp;foggy mountain air at a rest stop.&nbsp; back in san jose we all had dinner together and said our goodbyesyou can check out the trip from their perspective at www.mobilityforum.org and scrolling down to 'costa rica'.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/danielaccg/latin_america/1170809340/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/danielaccg/latin_america/1170809340/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/danielaccg/latin_america/1170809340/tpod.html Wed, 28 Mar 2007 19:28:33 -0400 Follow Bob and Daniela around Latin America. We are looking for voluteer oportunities and any travel tips people would like to share.

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Tula, Mexico

today we took a daytrip to tula with chelo, mario, and daniela's dad today, and returned via some nice hot spring-fed pools.&nbsp; before all that madness, though, we stopped in town to try some bug tacos--at last.&nbsp; apparently daniela's uncle is somewhat of an afficianado of exoskeleton tacos, and i was in a good state of mind until the buggy little taco was in front of my face.&nbsp; daniela dove right in, and i finally worked past years of my mom telling me not to eat bugs and took a bite.&nbsp; i took a few bites, actually, and crunched down on some <i>humiles (worms that live on the agave plant--the plant from which tequila is distilled) and slathered a salsa&nbsp;impregnated with&nbsp;cooked beetles on my tortillas.&nbsp; the experience was really more about overcoming a psychological/cultural hurdle than taste--the bugs were fried crispy and really didn't taste like much but pure protein.&nbsp; we went to tula not just to eat six leggers, but also to see the ruined pyramids&nbsp;of&nbsp;a toltec city (home to 30,000&nbsp;or more people&nbsp;during the 9th and&nbsp;10th centuries)&nbsp; and the famous (4.5m tall) statues of toltec warriors that stand on top of one of the pyramids there.&nbsp; very good atmospheric walking around and pyramid climbing, although the smoke and sight of a gigantic&nbsp;pemex&nbsp;(the national petroleum company) refinery from the tops of the pyramids dented the mystique a bit.&nbsp; still, climbing all over ancient&nbsp;pyramids&nbsp;does not get old.&nbsp; maybe it's&nbsp;because in new england the closest things we have to ancient pyramids are stone walls (although we do have america's stonehenge/mystery hill in new hampshire...).&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; on the way back we stopped for a dip in some&nbsp;tibid pools allegedy filled by natural hot springs.&nbsp;&nbsp;since it was&nbsp;the middle of the week and&nbsp;there were&nbsp;only a few people at the park, though, the pumps weren't circulating the water.&nbsp; so it was warm at one edge of the big pool and cold in all the other pools.&nbsp; we huddled against the warm edge.&nbsp; when we finally rambled back into mexico city and its constant traffic, we stopped for tamales and atole at a little place that mario knows well.&nbsp; a nice, filling end to the day.&nbsp;
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/danielaccg/latin_america/1163473860/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/danielaccg/latin_america/1163473860/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/danielaccg/latin_america/1163473860/tpod.html Tue, 05 Dec 2006 19:11:08 -0500 Follow Bob and Daniela around Latin America. We are looking for voluteer oportunities and any travel tips people would like to share.

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Paraiso, Costa Rica

today we went on a field trip with the students (1st through 6th grades) and staff of costa rica's only all-deaf school. the trip was a part of "students with disabilities week" here in costa rica, and took us from the school in cartago (just next to san jose) about 45 minutes away to a small town in a scenic mountain valley called paraiso. there, a group of the deaf students performed a traditional costa rican dance in full costume--the little boys even had mustaches painted on. at the beginning of the ceremony, an honor guard brought in the costa rican flag and the deaf school signed the national anthem. before the deaf students performed their dance, one of the mc's taught the hearing students how to clap in sign language by putting their hands up and waving them back and forth from the wrist. so after the kids finished their dance, the whole outdoor courtyard of the was ringed by students and teachers waving their hands and smiling in silence. after the danes and a skit by some other students, the school served lunch to our whole group. later we walked over the the football (soccer) field with the kids and they got autographs from members of a local club team. the kids were excited to be rubbing elbows with the footballers, who were pretty grimy after just having played a game. after the footballers got onto their bus, we got back onto ours for the trip back to cartago.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/danielaccg/latin_america/1160624820/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/danielaccg/latin_america/1160624820/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/danielaccg/latin_america/1160624820/tpod.html Tue, 05 Dec 2006 18:57:26 -0500 Follow Bob and Daniela around Latin America. We are looking for voluteer oportunities and any travel tips people would like to share.

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San Jose, Costa Rica

i don't think i can effectively cover all that we've done here in costa rica in detail. we have been staying with daniela's aunt rhoda and uncle stan, and besides being our hosts, rhoda has been our personal tour guide and volunteer coordinator. she's taken us all over the place, and hooked us up with the opportunity to volunteer as translators for a wheelchair distribution. for the first few weeks of our stay, there have been few moments that haven't been filled by visiting a volcano, working on wheelchairs, or watching sloths at inbio parque. here are some of my notes on our time here:monday, 30 october: went to church w/rhoda to fold and sort donated clothes.31 october: visited drug rehab center with workshops that recycle lumber, furniture, scrap metal, etc. fed oxen bananas. met costa rican american who was working as cook there, he gave us some very good sweet potato pancakes. 2 november: went to irazu volcano, visited deaf school where rhoda's friend is principal, walked to a market. 4 november: went to puerto caldera and helped paint rooms in a children's shelter. 5 november: picked up amanda at the airport, bday party at house for some american girls who've been living here, saw a mot mot (a tropical bird) while walking around the condo complex where daniela's aunt and uncle live. 7 november: with amanda here for only a few days, we want to pack as much as we can into a short time. today, got up 6 am, headed to poas volcano. got great views of the crater in between rolling fog. hiked a bit around the volcano park. went to a luxury resort called peace lodge and hiked waterfalls trail there, visited frog and butterfly exhibits. saw a big black snake on trail. visited cafe britt factory and bought coffee to send home. 8 november: went on a field trip with the deaf school students and teachers to a school about 45 minutes outside of cartago. there a group of deaf students performed a traditional costa rican dance, and other kids put on skits. the kids also got autographs from some football (soccer) players from one of the local clubs. 9-10 november: manuel antonio national parkthe next week we worked with the wheelchair project, and the week after that we housesat for rhoda and stan; stan went to peru for work and rhoda went to the states for thanksgiving. we have undoubtedly been able to see much more (for much less) than we would have without the benefit of daniela's family members being here. most backpackers kind of cruise through costa rica, as it's more expensive than lots of other places in centroamerica. but we kept a full schedule complete with home-cooked meals at the end of the day.
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