We woke up at 6:30 am to catch our bus at 7:30 am. We had to lug our luggage about 100 yards down the poorly paved road from the hostel to the bus. We need to rethink our packing. It is hard to lug two suitcases and 4 heavy backpacks around. We opted to take buses to the border because of…
We had not made it very far in our travel plans when the Coronavirus hit. We set out in December to explore the world and by mid-March, we found ourselves in Nicaragua while the world was shutting down. Deciding to Stay Our plans to travel to Mexico in April are not happening. We talked about going back to the United States,…
Sweaty palms, elevated heart rate, a pit in your stomach the size of a small watermelon, a lump in your throat the size of an avocado pit. You are decked out in a helmet and a harness. Two people have checked to make sure the harness is secure. You walk across a narrow bridge and approach a small platform with…
There is something that draws us to mud. We found more of it while hiking at the Santa Elena Cloud Forest Reserve. There are three main cloud forests in Monteverde. The most popular is the Monteverde Cloud Forest Biological Reserve. We chose the Santa Elena Cloud Forest to avoid the crowds. There were still plenty of people there, but we…
Our destination in Costa Rica after Puntarenas was Monteverde. Monteverde is a wonderful break from the heat on the coast. There are sun showers every day. Did I mention the breeze! Monteverde is up in the clouds and close to heaven. Our Airbnb was perfect. It is a small two-room house with two beds, a small kitchen, and a couch.…
The trip from San Jose to Bocas Del Toro when we first arrived was long but easy. We were on a fairly empty, air-conditioned bus and had quick transfers. The trip back to Costa Rica from Bocas Del Toro was not easy. We woke up at 6:15 a.m. to finish packing and be out of our Airbnb by 7 a.m.…
On our last day in Bastamente started as an easy day. We were packing, finishing laundry, doing school work and other work. Before lunch, we hiked up to the little school on the hill. It was summer vacation when we were here. The school year is from March to November. We were told that the school is for grades K-9…
Day 4 in Bocas Del Toro started out rough. There were yelling and negativity from the start. The kids were whining about doing school and begging to watch. Henry took forever to get ready to go. We locked ourselves out of our Airbnb. Lucas, Henry and I (Judy) went to check out a small island that and ended up getting…
Day 3 in Bocas was a zero-day for us. We only left the house to go to the grocery store. The boys did school in the morning and we played cards and had some screen time in the afternoon. Zero days are critical for us since we are now traveling long term. I (Judy) did laundry. We have a cute…
On Day 2 in Bocas Del Toro, we hired a boat with a Dutch family staying near us that we met the day before. They have two boys ages 4 and 2. We set out around 9 a.m. with our boat captain Maya. He planned a great day for us. Our main destination was to Zapatillas Island. The first stop…