Where the worlds collide.
Traveled with a Birthright trip: 01/09/06 - 01/19/06
This is where I will break down my trip to Israel. In the meantime, please take a look at some of the shots I have added to the picture gallery (more pictures to come).
January 1st, 2006
Phew, I finally got my site together and ready for mass-consumption. Took me long enough!
Please run through it and let me know what you think. I am going to be trying to expand on it, so check back soon.
I have a pod-cast idea. Just need to find some time to do it.
Bye all!
-A
October 9th, 2005
Costa Rica:
After checking out this section, please read some more about our trip here.
or
Take a look at our picture gallery here.
Our goals were to spend the least amount on accommodations and have more money to throw around for the fun stuff. Ideally we wanted to spend $10 a night per person. Absurdly, we met these goals and even had our own private room and bath for the entire trip! They were all nice, clean, and some were even cute.
The only nights that we had a reservation were for our first two nights. We did this because we didn’t know where we would end up from day to day. We never had a set agenda outside of the first bus ride. Luckily, we never had trouble finding a place to stay or ran into difficulty figuring out where to go next or how to get there. Check out this map that lays out our route.
We flew into San Jose on the morning of July 17th and took the afternoon bus to Monteverde/Santa Elena. What a long a bumpy ride it was! We stayed at Tina’s Casitas. A very cute place! For our first morning we went on a great bird-watching trip with Freddy (who helps run Tina’s Casitas). We saw plenty of birds- toucans and quetzels- and got to see a few sloths. No one ever really mentions this, but the continental divide is right there, some folks said that the hike up there was nice. Later that day we went on the Selvatura Canopy Tour (zip line) and Tree Top Walk Ways. It was very both scary and exhilarating at the same time. We loved it.
After the second night we were off to La Fortuna which is known for its volcano. We traveled there via Jeep/Boat/Jeep. All of which were beautiful! The drive was through a bunch of coffee plantations and gorgeous rolling hills and valleys. And the boat ride is very nice, as we rode towards the Aerenal Volcano. We ended up staying at La Choza Inn for a 2-night stay. Here we arranged a trip- entrance to a private park around the volcano (not the national park), guided 3hr tour in the park, a stop at the side of the road to view the volcano at night, and entrance to Tabacon. What a time it was! Here we had our first encounter with monkeys, we were right up close to both Howler and Squirrel Monkeys. It started to pour on our ride to the Volcano. We were told that the best time to see lava flow is when the rain passes at night. And they were right, the lava erupted! We thought that the rain would spoil our night in Tabacon. But it passed and it was just perfect! We felt like we were the only ones there. The place is so huge, we actually got lost inside exploring.
The next day it rained a bit more. We used that time to check out town and recoup ourselves. Later that day we went over to the waterfalls. We took a taxi up there and walked back and spotted many beautiful birds flying about in the rain. From La Fortuna we were able to arrange transport (bus to Caliari and a boat down the canals) to Tortuguero.
The next day we were off to Tortuguero. The canal trip was unbelievable! You can see all sorts of reptiles - iguanas and lizards (we saw the Jesus Christ Lizard pictured above)- as well as more aquatic birds during the trip over. We ended up staying at Miss Miriam’s II which is maybe 25 feet from the Caribbean Ocean. For that night we set up a guided tour to see the turtles lay their eggs. This was an amazing experience. Daryl, a highly recommended tour guide in Lonely Planet, set us up with his friend Ross for a canoe tour the next morning. He was great! We saw so much that morning, poison dart frogs cayman, quibbling monkeys and interesting birds. Later that day we went back into the park and walked the trail by ourselves.
The next morning we slowly made our way down to Cahuita. First, we took a boat ride down the canals to Moin. There were so many unforgettable sights- more caymans, lizards, birds and the best: dolphins (swimming right next to our boat in freshwater). The Ocean meets the canals at times, and it is just glorious. From Moin there was a taxi waiting to take the boat load to Limon. Then we took a quick bus ride down to Cahuita. We bumped into the chill guy who works at Atlantic Surf and he gave us a deal at his cabina. We liked it soo much that we decided to stay for 3 nights, (so far the longest we said at any one location). Very chill, and beautiful spot. Our first night we were able to catch the sunset on the Black Beach, with it’s soft as silk sand.
The following day we went back to the Black Beach and than went to the National Park, which spills out onto another beach. After walking a bit we hung out in the Caribbean and got some fried plantains and shakes. Yumm!
The next day we originally intended to go snorkeling, but some travelers said the visibility they had was poor and the water was a bit rough. So we walked most of the park and took a sunset dip in the Caribbean.
From Cahuita we wanted to stay at Finca La Flor, a vegetarian farm outside of Cartago that Lonely Planet mentions. This was the first time that we had to head back to San Jose. But on our way to the farm we wanted to check out the Lankaster Botanical Garden (just outside Parisio) which we read was beautiful. To get there we took a direct bus to San Jose, taxi to the Cartago bus terminal, another direct bus to Cartago, and lastly a bus towards Parisio which let us off up the road from the Lankaster Garden. (My sister works in the Botanical Garden’s in NY and Lankaster wins hands down.) There were so many incredible species of vegetation everywhere. They have bamboo forests which Hay was blow away by. Getting to the farm from the gardens was an ordeal, but we eventually ended up taking a taxi to the farm, just in time for a home cooked veggie dinner.
Our first day we worked pretty hard. Aaron took a machete to plenty of grass and smaller shrubs and Hayley helped prune shrubs. Later we fed the goats, cleaned up after the goats and the Hayley fed the cows. It was fun! Unfortunately, later that night Hay got very sick with a 24 hour stomach bug. We ended up staying an unexpected 3rd night so she could recover.
The following morning Hay was feeling better and well enough to move on. Aaron is a HUGE bird lover and just had to see wild Scarlet Macaws before we left. After some research, Hay found that the only other park outside of Corcovado (which is a ways away) that they can be found in abundance is in Carara National Park. So our travels from the farm looked like this: a bus to Cartago, a direct bus to San Jose, taxi to the Punterenas terminal and than bus to Jaco.
The next day in Jaco we took a taxi to the Carara National Park in great hopes of finding these birds. We were a little disappointed when it started to pour (the animals disappear than) and we still had not seen any Macaws. After all this effort we decided to wait out the rain and went to another entrance of the park and actually got to see several of the beauties, right before it started to pour again! We were very lucky.
On our last day we went to the beach and the pool at our hostel for a little bit. We than packed our stuff and took the bus back to the airport on the 31st for our departure.
Wow, two weeks went by so quickly!
-Hayley and Aaron
(photography by: Carrol L. Henderson & Richard Shirley & David L. Ross, Jr & TermészetBÚVÁR)
October 9th, 2005
Hi all. Hope you enjoy my site.
Want to thanks my man Otto for hooking this whole thing up….programming…concepts…the works! Thanks dawg!
This is very much a work in progress. I will be updating my adventures with the sis in Berlin any day now. So check back very soon!
Send me an email. Let me know what you all think.
Night.
February 3rd, 2003
Where the east meets the west.
Dissected with my sister: 1/18/03 - 1/26/03
Of all places, two Jews set forth to Berlin. Berlin, the capitol of Germany, has very much outgrown its past. It has settled into a somewhat poetic juxtaposition of old and new. Just one example, can be found downtown where Tresor, the techno music mecca, sits just a few blocks from Checkpoint Charlie. We found it to be a young, extremely open-minded town with a thriving art community. Take a look at our picture gallery and see for yourself.
January 26th, 2003