Can it be?? A....a post in English? Part 2

March: My friend Eva from Germany came to visit me, and her, Ulla and me travelled around Costa Rica a bit during the Easter holidays. I finally got to see more of Costa Rica, e.g the National Park Tortuguero and the Arenal Volcano. We also went to Puerto Viejo and Playas de Coco. Lots of sun and heat, swimming, snorkeling, bumming around on the beach… fotos HERE

April: Another seminar, this time in Nicaragua close to the Costa Rican border organized by a fellow volunteer’s organization JAZON. They develop and support a form of sustainable rural community tourism and we got to try part of their programme and discuss their work with participants from Costa Rica, Germany and Nicaragua. Our trip to the Solentiname islands in the Nicaragua Lake was amazing and I saw more wild animals than anywhere before (fotos HERE). Living four days without cellphone service, internet and only two hours electricity per day wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. We wouldn’t have made it without torchlights though. I also went on a day trip to the Poás Volcano with my two flatmates (FOTOS).

May: On the 1^st of May I went on the annual Labour Day march/parade/demonstration through the city centre with our host organization. We also went paragliding with some friends in Caldera. It was amazing but less exciting than I thought and not scary at all. I’m actually more into high adrenaline things than people (including myself) think. At work we went to a centre for road safety with our kids and spent a great day learning about crossing roads and stuff and using their playground extensively (FOTOS).

June: June started with a trip to the beach in Montezuma to celebrate my flatmate’s birthday. Then both our day cares went on another trip, to the INBioparque which is a kind of zoo/wild life centre. The kids learned about animals and nature and got to pet and feed goats and bunnies (FOTOS). The biggest adventure so far was probably my trip to Guatemala with Ulla. We decided to go by bus because it’s cheaper than flying. After crossing Nicaragua, Honduras and El Salvador we spent ca. 8 days in Guatemala. In Antigua we climbed the Pacaya Volcano, did a tour on a coffee farm, watched bull “fighting”, enjoyed the pretty town and did lots of souvenir shopping. On the island of Flores we went canoeing, went to the zoo and, most importantly, visited the old Maya ruins in Tikal and Yaxhá. Before returning to Costa Rica we spent one day in Guatemala City walking around in the rain looking for sights, getting our hair cut and shopping. Like all other Central American countries, Guatemala is much cheaper than Costa Rica. We really had a great time and everything we had planned worked out surprisingly smoothly (fotos HERE).

July: My time in CR is slowly coming to an end L July is full of saying goodbye. I’m leaving two and a half weeks later than my flatmates, so I do have some time left but everybody is talking about us leaving already. Farewell party at work, at home, a last time at the beach etc. I’m sad to leave but also looking forward to Germany and studying in the UK. Definitely looking forward to living without ants, mice and cockroaches.