Santa Fe New Mexico – Thinking of visiting? Santa Fe New Mexico offers exhilarating and enriching experiences year round. From winter sports and summer hiking to the arts, great food, Native Indian and Spanish culture, to history and geology. A treasure trove of adventures awaits you. Continue reading
Vanuatu Islands – Have you heard of them? Do you know about the Vanuatu Islands? Do you know where it is? What makes Vanuatu a desirable place to visit and vacation?
We were excited to go to Vanuatu, a South Pacific Island nation consisting of approximately 80 islands. Few people who we spoke to had heard of it. The Vanuatu Islands offer Continue reading
The Taranaki region is both ‘overlooked and underappreciated,’ according to Lonely Planet. New Plymouth New Zealand, the main town in the region, is a lovely coastal beach town known for sunny climate, art galleries, and Continue reading
If you love the outdoors, beautiful scenery, mountains, waterways, history and culture, look no further than the Lake Taupo Area on New Zealand’s North Island. It brims with outdoor activities, from Continue reading
A top spot on my Bucket List was Valley of the Volcanoes – Ecuador’s Quilotoa Loop. The draw was the many colorful indigenous populations and their markets, the perfect turquoise blue Quilotoa Lake, the art of the Tigua people, and the surrounding snow-capped Andean volcanoes. Get the picture? Here are a few.
In the Valley of the Volcanoes – Ecuador’s Quilotoa Loop is a route around the lake’s remote back country towns off of the Pan-american Highway and Continue reading
This is Part 2 of our post on International Travel and the key things we have learned to do during travel to make it more enjoyable.
[Click here to see Part 1 of this post]
As you may recall from other posts, our home base in Costa Rica was in Guanacaste, on the Pacific Coast. Based on Costa Rica Travel Agents and Accommodations available, we chose the Playa del Coco area, and stayed quite a long walk from town at Ocotal Beach Resort. We chose Ocotal because of the reputation of its dive operation.
It is located on a beautiful site overlooking the Pacific, and not far from town by taxi. 
Since we planned to dive and brought all of our dive gear, it was more convenient to rent one place for the whole time in Costa Rica. Then we did day trips or overnights to other areas, like San Jose, Arenal, and Tamarindo. 
Some people may think it is crazy to pay for 2 rooms, but it is much easier for us to choose our base, travel from there and only pack what we need. (See our separate post for More on Diving in Costa Rica.)
The Costa Rica Accommodations that we chose for this trip were booked through Continue reading
Land Adventures in Costa Rica
Know that it rains more in the central part of the country, in the regions near the Arenal Volcano and the Monteverde Cloud Forest – 2 choice locations. We had wet weather in December around the Arenal Volcano in Costa Rica. You need a rain jacket. The fog will often restrict the view of the Arenal Volcano in Costa Rica. We lucked out and had the volcano come into view while it was erupting at sunset – yeah!
While the coast is warm, 80s & 90s degrees F, the Arenal and Monteverde are Continue reading