TravelStream™ news feed for member eobrie16 on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/eobrie16 en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Tue, 07 Jul 2009 09:34:38 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/eobrie16/2/1246973678/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/eobrie16/2/1246973678/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/eobrie16/2/1246973678/tpod.html Tue, 07 Jul 2009 09:34:38 -0400 Costa Rica 2009

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San Jose, Province of San Jose, Costa Rica

So I woke up early on my last morning here and thought I'd post some comments about the trip. I had s lot of fun and learned a lot. I just need to beef up my Spanish before taking another trip.

Yesterday, I checked out San Jose a bit. I suppose it's a pretty city when it's clear (which likely isn't too often). Otherwise it's just a city. Half a day was plenty. I suggest taking cabs as they are cheap and plentiful. 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
other cities and very crowded of course. The pedistrian street had lots of vendors (mostly selling pirated DVDs). Anyway I had dinner and walked back to my hotel. Tilapia cerviche, btw, which was really good - raw, I think.
Spent the rest of the night in my room.

To sum it up, I had a wonderful experience in costa rica. The people are so kind and genuinely seem to want you to enjoy their country. They almost all speak at least some English. Every tour I went on was really good and I learned a lot and saw lots of tropical beauty. I think there is a conception that there is wildlife everywhere which isn't the case - this is not a zoo! And the Osa truly was the costa rica I'd dreamed of! It was difficult getting there but well worth it in the end.

I think that about covers it. I had fun but can't wait to get home!!
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Drake Bay, Province of Puntarenas, Costa Rica

I didn't have any internet at my hotel in Drake Bay so this will serve as an update for the three days I spent there.

My flight left on time at 9am (the taxi guy asked me about this and I couldn't
remember for anything what "nine" was en espanol). Anyway, the plane
was tiny! 1+2 configuration. Wonderful scenery on the way. Palmar Sur
airport was really tiny.... In the middle of some palm plantations -
it was at this point I really wondered what I was doing....

But not 15 minutes later my taxi (a Toyota pickup) arrived to take me
to Sierpe. He stopped in the road to introduce me to the captain, then
I was dropped at some restaurant at the end of the earth for like 3
hrs - I'll admit to some slight nervousness here. Our boat was the
last to leave (maybe it was the cheapest?). The boat ride itself was
fine. Nice dude next to me kept pointing out things I should take
pictures of (in Spanish of course). Lots of "si's" back from me. After
the long ride through the mangroves, we eventually got to drake bay
where the guy pointed at some random building and said "jinetes". I
hopped into the water hoping I would find the place...

Since you are reading this, I obviously did! Now that I'm finally here
I can report that it's absolutely amazing. I can hear the waves
crashing just outside. The staff here is really friendly too. They
offer lots of tours or you can just take it easy. Reminds me of summer
camp.

Since it was almost 3pm at this point, I just took a walk along the
beach. There are a LOT of crabs here!! And all kinds of other little
critters as well. I spotted a bunch of monkeys - they are so cute!!
Hopefully those pics will cone out. It is really humid here. I think 3
days will be plenty. I was absolutely dripping after my little hike.

The next day I took a long hike down the beach. The beach is lined with little eco-lodges, with lots of empty beaches in between. It was a really nice walk as the scenery was really breath-taking. The lodge packed me a lunch to take along with me and I head out around 8am. It was a pretty easy hike -- mostly flat and not too bad. I saw a ton of monkeys along the way. They seemed to like throwing fruit at me! And more crabs than I could count! I took oodles of pictures so hopefully they will come out... i hiked about 6 hours roundtrip, then took a nap and took it easy the rest of the day... it's good to be in paradise!

The last day started out bright and early at 5:00 with a wake-up call!
Yikes! But we had to leave early if we wanted to see wildlife. I had
my breakfast at 5:30.

Anyway, the boat ride took like an hour and a half - it was rainy and
really choppy. I wonder how much worse they could have went out in?
Clearly it's not called the pacific because it is not peaceful! We arrived
via water to the beach. It reminded me of something out of Jurassic
park. The entire beach was moving (hermit crabs again) and you could
literally see the jungle steaming.

Anyway we hiked for several hours and saw tons of wildlife! We saw all
for species of monkey: squirrel, spider, howler (sleeping), and white-
faced. Aparently they are the most intelligent and adaptable. Spider
monkeys are very endangered. We also saw the very rare tapir - our
guide knew just where to look and got us really close. There was a big
croc in the water there too. And up in the trees, a scarlet macaw.
Very exciting. There were also coati, deer, and this rodent that
escapes me. All in all, an amazing day. Our guide said we were pretty
lucky given the bad weather. We then had lunch and another really
choppy boat ride back.

After resting and showering (I did that a lot here), I thought I'd
take one final hike down the beach. It was nice to dip my foot into
the ocean. Of course I went too far as usual and was sore and sweaty
when I got back (another shower).

But that wasn't all! I managed to finally get in on a night hike! This
one was really cool. It's so much more fun when you have guides who
are really into it. Basically we were hunting for bugs, spiders,
frogs, snakes, etc. And in the osa all of these are rather common.
Especially it seems this odd looking scorpion thing - they were
everywhere! We saw a bunch of frogs too - the guides really knew their
stuff. Lots of facts about the creatures. The bug lady was fascinating
too. It's neat to see how little fear you need to have of these
things. Anyway it was a ton of fun!

So that was my last, busy day in the Osa penisula. On to San Jose
tomorrow, then home...


]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/eobrie16/2/1246118847/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/eobrie16/2/1246118847/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/eobrie16/2/1246118847/tpod.html Thu, 02 Jul 2009 13:05:19 -0400 Costa Rica 2009

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La Fortuna, Province of Alajuela, Costa Rica

But it doesn´t rain all the time! Always in the afternoons... and really, really hard. But it´s okay because hopefully you did all your siteseeing in the morning and all is well. It rained for hours and hours yesterday, hopefully today is a bit better.

My first day here, i hiked up to the watefall. It was just up the road so I thought it would be an easy walk. Turns out in order for the water to ¨fall¨ you have to walk up up up up.... but eventually i got there and it worked out okay. It absolutely looked like paradise, with the huge watefall and people swimming in the lagoon underneath it. Breathtaking.

In the afternoon, i attempted to go to this Hanging Bridges place. Only $22 to get in but it cost me $50 in cab fare to get there and back!!! I think the guy wanted to take the next day off or something.... anyhow, live and learn, i suppose. This place was pretty neat too with all these bridges suspended high over the jungle. Another watefall as well. Lots of ants!!

Yesterday, i went to the cano negro wildlife refuge where they have tons of birds.... all kinds of waterfowl imaginable. We also saw some monkeys, and caimans. And a ton of iguanas on the way there. So all in all, it´s been a neat trip so far.

Next, I did a white water rafting trip which was really, really fun. Awesome. It was class II-III, which is pretty mild but was more than thrilling enough for most people. We had really excellent guides too, which was awesome. By the end, they even flipped us over. Really refreshing considering how darn hot it gets there!

I also went to the Baldi hot springs, which was really neat too. Kindof a unique experience. They have like 9 pools of varying temperatures, etc. I had dinner too, for $30. It even was raining and thundering at the time, but you still do it for some reason or the other.

Anyway, i think that covers everything I did... until next time!



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Santa Elena, Province of Puntarenas, Costa Rica

So I finally found a real computer and for not too much money I get to post a proper update. Probably in reverse order, so everybody gets up to speed.

So this morning, I took a canopy tour (i.e. ziplining). This was an absolute blast as they had like 14 different zips that went over the jungle, some really, really high. The longest one was a full kilometer long!!! They also had a rappel and a tarzan swing. The swing was freaking awesome!!! Anyway, I bought the CD so I have pictures.

Yesterday, I think I posted an update, but I hiked in the Monteverde Cloud Forest, and even got to see a quetzal. That was pretty neat. I also hiked at another little reserve, where I saw a bunch of little animals. Speaking of animals, there was a monkey at my hotel this morning! Very exciting. The coati things are like everywhere.

I did a coffee and sugar cane tour the first day I got here, which was really interesting. We made some uber-sugary stuff too. And he took us all around the place.

My hotel here is a real bargain -- only $25 a night. It costs 800 colones to get into town (just over a dollar). And it has this awesome view over the valley. The owner is from Minnesota, and is really nice.

I'm going to try to make another update about what I did in La Fortuna now.

]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/eobrie16/2/1246407788/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/eobrie16/2/1246407788/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/eobrie16/2/1246407788/tpod.html Wed, 01 Jul 2009 20:23:08 -0400 Costa Rica 2009

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Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve, Province of Puntarenas, Costa Rica

I'm rather behind on these updates by now - guess proper update will wait untili get home.
Anyway, to pick up where I left off, I did some white water rafting the other day in arenal. It was so much fun! It wasn't too hard and the guides were great. I went with s fun group of people too - might even get some pictures to share....

Since my food just came, I'm gonna have to make the rest a bit brief. Anyway, took the jeep-boat-jeep from la fortina. Met some interesting people that u hooked up with later for a coffee & sugar tour. Cool stuff.
Today I went to the monteverde cloud forest with a guide. We saw lots of birds, a monkey, some bugs, and a quetzel. Hope the pics come out! Hotel is beytiful - on the ridge overlooking the mtns. Saw sone animals this morning. This afternoon, I went to the frog pond which was cool too. Bniw it's raining again and my pizza is getting cold!!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/eobrie16/2/1246042205/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/eobrie16/2/1246042205/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/eobrie16/2/1246042205/tpod.html Fri, 26 Jun 2009 14:50:05 -0400 Costa Rica 2009

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San Jose, Province of San Jose, Costa Rica

So far, so good! Flight from Houston was uneventful - flew over some really pretty coast (Belize, I think). Customs was easy. Everybody speaks good English. I'm eating at dennys - only because it's right next to where I need to catch the shuttle to arenal. And that isn't until 3pm so I have time to kill yet. It's really green!!And looks a bit like rain but otherwise all is well.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/eobrie16/1/1246024504/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/eobrie16/1/1246024504/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/eobrie16/1/1246024504/tpod.html Fri, 26 Jun 2009 09:55:04 -0400 Europe 2008

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Farmington, United States

Well, I'm in Houston trying to post another update! I'm on the plane
ready to head to Costa Rica. I think it should be an exciting trip and
I will poet as many updates as possible.
What I want to know is if travel is down, why are the planes all still
full??
Sent from my iPhone.

]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/eobrie16/2/1246006959/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/eobrie16/2/1246006959/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/eobrie16/2/1246006959/tpod.html Fri, 26 Jun 2009 05:02:41 -0400 Costa Rica 2009

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Detroit , United States

Check in was uneventful so here I sit st the crack of dawn ready to board my flight to Houston where I will connect to costa rica!!

I didn't check any bags and ended up taking two backpacks. Hope that works out for me. I thought I'd need a daypack for hikes and such. I hope you can see my itinerary - there should be a map already.

First order of business in San Jose is to take a taxi to dennys of all places, where I pick up my shuttle to La Fortuna. I'm stating at a little cabin just outside of town. Hopefully it is nice!

More later.... Hope to sleep on the plane.
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Farmington, United States

I'm about to go to bed, but am realllllly excited about the trip! I
can't wait to get away for a week and enjoy all the nice hot weather.
Hopefully I remembered to pack everything I need. I'm emailing this
update just to see if it's working. I promise for more exciting
updates in the future. I promise!

]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/eobrie16/2/1245960546/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/eobrie16/2/1245960546/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/eobrie16/2/1245960546/tpod.html Thu, 25 Jun 2009 16:10:12 -0400 Costa Rica 2009

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Detroit, Michigan, United States

I thought I should get the blog ready for my next trip!! I'm off to Costa Rica tomorrow, so I will try to post lots of updates from the road!

I have lots of packing to do so until tomorrow......

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