I've spent the better part of the last two weeks at Caño Palma, a biological research station run by the Canadian Organisation for Tropical Education and Rainforest Conservation (www.coterc.org) on Costa Rica's east coast. They call this the Caribbean coast, but other than sand and some coconut palm trees, this place bears no resemblance to the tranquil beaches and turquoise waters that folks typically envision when they think of the Caribbean. This place is C...

A bonus blog for you this week! No big lessons or self discoveries - just a travel report from my last few days in La Fortuna and Arenal volcano. I have a bit of extra time to post today since I'm here in La Fortuna a bit longer than expected. As per an earlier blog post, you learn to roll with it here in Costa Rica. My "daily" shuttle to Tortuguero - my next stop - in fact is not running today. So, I'll head out tomorrow and in the meantime, take advantage ...

Much like one of my earlier posts, this is more of a reinforcement of an idea than an adjustment… but being understated is underrated, especially in the U.S. Coming from a country that seems to be obsessed with keeping up with the Jones' (as evidenced by the number of recent foreclosures demonstrating how many people live beyond their means just to keep up with the other guy… who is also probably living above his means…), Costa Rica stands out in stark con...

There's a saying here that I've been hearing a lot lately: "Poco y poco" or little by little. Our Spanish teacher has said it when she senses my eyes glazing over as I look at the list of new vocabulary words to memorize as part of that day's homework assignment. I rented a surfboard at the beach one afternoon this week to try to apply my newly-acquired surfing knowledge and ended up wiping out multiple times and only managing to get up on a couple waves. Whe...

Greetings from Quepos and Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica! This week was the beginning of my solo travels, and it got off to quite an exciting start. After surf camp ended, I stayed an extra night in Nosara before heading out on a 10AM flight on Monday. At least… that was the plan. My taxi dropped me off at the Nosara airport (and I use that term loosely - it's a gated field with an airstrip and a little covered area for waiting passengers). The lone guard on d...