We eagerly left the Multiplex mall in the capital city and headed for the beach.  It was a beautiful drive through valleys and mountains as we wound through small villages.  After a while we came to construction where we waited in line for about 20 minutes.  As we passed by the loud machines that had finished working with the hot pavement long enough for us to drive on it, we saw a small river and an upcoming bridge we would cross.  As we rounded the corner, we approached the bridge and encountered one of our worst nightmares on our entire trip.  A small stone arch spanned the entrance to the one-lane 100 year-old rickety bridge that precariously hung above crocodile infested waters. (Read on …)

The border crossing into Costa Rica only took about 2 hours. Aaron had crossed 2 months earlier so he knew his way around. If there is only one word to describe Costa Rica, it is GREEN! We couldn’t believe how lush it was so close to the border to Nicaragua which has gotten browner during its dry season. It turns out that we entered the country in the driest part, which is the region of Guanacaste. That region is more like Nicaragua, but the further southeast you go, you get into more lush vegetation. Guanacaste gets the least amount of rain in Costa Rica. Driving along the roads with the old trees soaring so high above us made us feel like we had entered our first real jungle. We really weren’t sure where we wanted to go in Costa Rica. Due to extenuating circumstances, we didn’t have our Central American guidebook; therefore we did not have a lot of information at our fingertips. We decided to head to the area of Arenal Lake and Volcano, which is where our friends Larry and Annie were headed for a few days. Larry told us the volcano had been erupting lava for quite some time and that there were hot springs nearby. Hot springs and volcanoes sounded good to us, (Read on …)

Originally, my mom and Aaron were supposed to fly in and out of Managua on the same days in order to minimize the number of times driving to Managua.  While in the states Aaron decided to extend his trip, thus providing me with a week between my mom leaving and Aaron returning.  After having spent three wonderful weeks with my mom, it was kind of nice to have the time to myself before Aaron came home.  A week flew by with guilt-free lounging, television, reading, working on our website and doing a bit of exercise.  Khorrah continuously got new wounds from scratching at ticks; so I was dressing them twice a day as well as keeping up with picking ticks from both dogs twice a day.  It was hard on everybody (Read on …)