• Mexico

    Spinning Tops & Movies

    I LOVE going to the movies overseas - such a completely different experience. Still remember the first time I saw a movie in the UK but my BEST movie experience was in India seeing an Action/Romance Bollywood movie - didn't understand a word of it (and no sub-titles) but it was so entertaining.

  • Mexico

    Mexico … take two

    So after our harrowing taxi ride, we arrived at the hotel in Puerto Vallarta and I'm delighted to say it is wonderful. We dropped our bags, caught up on urgent emails, bank transfers etc then took a walk to check out our new surroundings which, by the way, are worlds apart from Bucerias. It's hard to believe we're in the same country ... never mind just 22kms up the road!

  • Mexico

    Thank God for Sergio

    After two days in transit, a 3 am start on Monday and a very scenic flight over huge mountain ranges (who knew?) from Mexico City to Puerto Vallarta, we were just a taxi ride from our home for two weeks in Bucerias. After reading warnings about timeshare scams at airports and KNOWING there's no such thing as a free lunch (in this case ... breakfast) ...

  • Costa Rica

    Rio Celeste Waterfalls

    We were up at dawn (almost) on Saturday morning for a 2.5hr drive to Tenorio Volcano National Park to hike to the Rio Celeste Waterfall. The pool at the base of the waterfall as well as the river have aluminosilicate particles in the water which helps to create an optical phenomenon called Mie Scattering (Google it) ...

  • Costa Rica

    Monkeys & Mangroves

    On my walk into "town" on Friday - came across these Howler Monkeys ... not very good footage of monkeys as they were high up in trees. Videos are more to give you an idea of the noise they make (somewhat startling when you're taking a short cut through shoulder-height grass). Hard to believe that such a racket can come from such small monkeys.

  • Costa Rica

    Arriving in Tamarindo

    Arrived in Tamarindo, Costa Rica at our second Airbnb on Sunday. Travelling from the airport at Liberia to the coast, I commented to Jarrah that the vegetation looked very similar to the eastern Transvaal in South Africa (where the game parks are). So not too much of a surprise to learn that there is an African Safari Adventure park here with giraffe, oryx, wildebees and ostrich! No mention of the Big 5 though :)