As folks back home were getting ready to gather for Thanksgiving, we left the Arenal lake and volcanoes behind and headed east into the lowland farm country and rainforest of north-eastern Costa Rica. Our next destination was a special rainforest eco-lodge on the Sarapiqui River near the port town of Puerto Viejo (old port). The…
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After 3 nights in Monteverde, we drove down the eastern slope of the Tilarán Cordillera to Lake Arenal. This stunningly beautiful lake sits in a basin formed by the Tilarán mountains to the south-west, some gorgeous, hilly country to the north and east and two towering volcanoes, one at each end of the lake, Volcán…
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Yesterday afternoon we tried out ziplining at Selvatura Adventure Park, which claims to have one of the longest cables in Costa Rica and to be the only one truly immersed in virgin forest. It was the first time for everyone and we all had a blast! They have 15 cables and 18 viewing platforms, traversing over three kilometres of forest,…
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On Saturday, we left the beach and drove about three hours inland up into the Tilarán Cordillera to Santa Elena, the small town perched on a ridge overlooking the Pacific coast which serves as the base for exploring the Monteverde Cloud Forest. The roads up into the mountains were rough and tortuous, but the views were…
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“Graduation” Ceremony Last day of our Spanish course! We were each presented with certificates for completing 20 hours of instruction. Here we are with all our teachers: Henry, José, Alexi, and Iliana. After our last afternoon of surfing, we went for dinner to Cala Luna, near the point to the south end of Tamarindo. The…
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3rd day of surfing lessons today… the surf was the biggest yet with quite a strong sideways rip and we were down one instructor. Gwynne was finding it hard to swim out past the breaks of the big waves but once out there she has something like a 95% success rate at getting up ! (with…
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After our morning classes today, we drove about 20km up the coast to explore some other nearby beaches. Playa Flamingo We stopped for lunch at a little restaurant in Playa Flamingo called ‘The Beach House’. It was pretty idyllic with the boats anchored in the bay and the sound of waves gently breaking on the shore. Playa Conchal…
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After a 5hr drive we made it to the Pacific coast around dinner time yesterday. This morning we started a 5 day “Spanish and Surf” program for the whole family. The program is run by the “Coastal Spanish Institute”, right on the beach in Tamarindo. It was a really lovely place to study with a staff of…
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“Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir [one]’s blood” – Daniel H. Burnham. We made it into as a San José last night around 9:30pm local time. Costa Rica is on central time but does not observe Daylight Savings so it is 2 hours behind Toronto. We grabbed a shuttle to the…
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Made it to El Salvador. Just a 1h20 flight to reach Costa Rica!
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