Category Archives: holidays + events

Relating to holidays, events, vacations, short trips or maybe just big get-togethers.

So I should have kept my mouth shut…

Posted on January 4, 2007 | Leave a comment

So after talking about the wonderful weather this morning, this afternoon the last few hours of daylight were the cloudiest I’ve ever seen while I was in Costa Rica. I actually thought it might storm. It was still gorgeous (and the lack of sun did make it more comfortable), I just thought it was weird after I mentioned it this morning.

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It’s Beautiful Out (again)

Posted on January 4, 2007 | Leave a comment

I never mention the weather her because it’s always beautiful in Costa Rica. It’s always warn, hot or very hot (sometimes too hot). It strangely cloudy for a little more than an hour late yesterday afternoon but otherwise it’s always sunny (they’re might be clouds but the sun always wins!).

A side note regarding the heat – Mark and I both like it cold in the room, we had it a little too cold yesterday and we had condensation on the outside of our hotel room windows (we check the other rooms and we were the only one). So we raised to temperature a little to avoid suspicion…

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The long and winding waterfalls.

Posted on January 3, 2007 | Leave a comment

lower fallsSo we took a walk up to the lower waterfalls which were really small but were nice to swim in. It was just up the street and was pretty easy to get to. I’ll have pictures later, but the bandwidth here is very slow (it’s all dial-up).

Cr-Montezumafalls-2003Then we decided to hike it up to the bigger falls. This really was a hike but worth it. The falls were at least a hundred feet high (I’ll see if I can get a real number) and there was pond to swim and jump into from the surrounding rocks. You could also climb up on the rocks and get behind the falls and jump out through them. It’s really hard to swim around since the falls are generating current and huge amounts of spray and the closer you get you can feel the pressure(?) of the water impacting on the pond as you (try to) breathe.

Cr-Montezumafalls-1963It was a blast! I jumped off the rocks a few times and through the water fall multiple times too (Mark did no jumping). One of the thumbnails links to a photo of me diving in from top the rocks (not all the way up!) click for larger images of all the photos.

The we decided to climb up to the top of the waterfalls This was more of a mountain climbing expedition, it was tricky navigating the “trails” and twice I thought I’d lost Mark but he managed to hang on and we continued our quest. Once we we got to the top it turns out we were way above the falls. So then I had to go down two more levels to the top of the falls and then I was at the top, so if anyone took pictures of the falls at the time I was standing right there where the water came over the edge.

Getting back was another quest, some of it was much harder but it was shorter (and mostly downhill) so we did (eventually)make it back home alive!

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Things to look for in a hotel when traveling in a foreign country.

Posted on January 3, 2007 | Leave a comment

As we know standards of living varying from place to place and so must our expectations as we travel. Most of these issues don’t apply when staying at a hugh hotel chain, but it never hurts to ask…

  • Air conditioning – Ceiling fans may sound quaint but if that’s all they’re listing then that’s probably all they have.
  • Private bathrooms – This isn’t anything exotic, it just means you don’t share it with any other hotel guests. This isn’t as bad as it sounds, if it’s a nice place then they they probably kkep it nice.
  • Number of beds – You never know how many unless you ask. And if you ask if it has two beds, they will respond with “no” if it has four beds.
  • Television – This is a luxury, but you can’t assume they have it. You also can’t assume they have cable, some areas just don’t have cable.
  • Telephones – Unless it’s a huge hotel many will not have them in in the rooms Iand if they do, rates are out rageous even to us a calling card).
  • Internet – If they say they have Internet it may only be one computer in the office (and it may be dial-up).
  • Water – If you’ve gone for some of the above “luxuries” you probably have hot water (but you never know). The “hot water” is generally some kind of electrical attachment to the shower head. Sometimes looking kinda scary but it heats the water. You can’t really count on too much water pressure; last night there was no pressure (no water) and this morning was the best shower I’ve had in a long time (even in the states).
  • Washcloths – Don’t assume the hotels will have washcloths. And don’t assume that if you have one that ater housekeeping comes that they’ll replace it (I’ve seen this at several places).
  • Hangers – And while there may be a place to hang clothes, there generally isn’t any hangers :)
  • Stay another night – Don’t assume you can stay another night. They may be full or have a reservation for that room. It seem like many places reserve you a specific room and juggling the rooms aroound later is a difficult concept for some.

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    They Danced with Fire in the Streets!!!

    Posted on January 3, 2007 | 2 comments

    dancing with fire 3Picture 8So we’re in Montezuma (Costa Rica) now. A great little town on the peninsula (more on that later). We had just kinda given up on the night and were heading back. And there was a group dancing in the street so we started to watch. Then they started using some sticks and some chains with weights and then they lit them on fire. And then they danced around some more. It was very very cool, eventually the crowd was huge. I did run up and get the video camera but I’ll have to put that up later (if it came out).

    The pictures are clickable to get larger images.

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    Connecting from Costa Rica

    Posted on January 2, 2007 | Leave a comment

    So wireless Internet connections are limited around here (all of Costa RIca). There are computers at Internet cafes (all over) but most don’t have wireless (WiFi), actually I haven’t seen any cafes with that yet (just a few restaurants). Some are willing to let me plug in my laptop (which is almost as easy as wireless) but many don’t understand the concept. I want to do it this was because I type and pick photos before I ever go to the cafe, I don’t want to sit at the cafe, I just do it when I have a few minutes here and a few minutes here and there (99% of what you read and see is picked and typed already). Then when I get to the cafe I hit send and I just have to wait a few minutes to send/recieve e-mails and post items (photos take longer).

    FYI, Internet is way cheap everywhere here, about 20 colones a minute which is about $2.40 an hour. Some are very slow though…

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    Leaving Jaco

    Posted on January 2, 2007 | 1 comment

    So we needed to stay another night at the Hotel Balcon del Mar and we had to transfer to another room. That was a little trickier than we thought it would be. Checkout is at Noon and checkin is at 2, no one seemed to have the ability to make sure the room we were transferring to was cleaned first and our old room cleaned after we moved. It finally worked out, we just didn’t bother to checkout so when the room was ready we moved. (It worked for us at least).

    Cr Montezuma Jaco BoatSo we got moved from the new wing of the hotel to the old wing. (Just to give you some perspective on the hotel there is probably only 50-60 rooms in the whole place and it’s shaped like an “L”) The old wing definitely needs to be renovated. It’s not awful it’s just not as shiny as the new wing. But I’ll come back, the location and setup works well for me.

    So in a few minutes we’re off to taxi a “Taxi Boat” up the coast to Montezuma, which is on the peninsula on the north pacific side of Costa Rica. I’ve wanted to go to this area for a while now! See the image on how we’ll cut across the ocean to get there. The boat is an hour instead of the many (treacherous) hours driving up the coast, and probably more scenic :)

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    New Year’s Eve

    Posted on January 1, 2007 | 1 comment

    Img 3956So it was crazy here on New Year’s Eve. People all over the beach: camping, parked on the sand, surfing, anything you can think of. Way more people than I’ve ever seen and it just got crazy as the night went on. There didn’t seem to be an organized fireworks, just everyone was launching there own from all over the place. It was all totally unsafe. The one (blurry) picture shows people, cars, music and fireworks all on the beach. It was crazy!

    Img 3900A lot of the restaurants were closed, having private parties and the rest were full. Some of the bars were totally packed (generally the ones that were normally dead) and one was flowing out into the streets.

    We just hung out with the beach madness and watched all the fireworks and (of course) people watched. I went back out later and road the scooter around to see what was going on, but other than a few hot spots, it had died down (a bit) by about one-thirty am. But I could still hear music and fireworks while I was in bed. A lot of people we still on the beach in the morning but it had all cleared out by noon. It looked like great surfing for the people that hung around today though…

    I have two photos here and I’ll post more on my Flicker page.

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