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Blinkman987 posted:I looked at Nicaragua and flights there would cost us at least a day of time (out of our 3 full days down there) and ~$350 each, so that trip will have to wait for another time. Thank you for the recommendation, though. It's not a flight between them—it's only a one hour bus ride from Liberia to the border, and then another hour to Granada, or 30 minutes to Rivas or San Juan. Managua airport is not that much more convenient airport than Liberia, and people sometimes fly to Liberia to get to southwest Nicaragua. But yeah, 3 full days is super short, I think we all figured you had at least a week. In your case it's probably better to just do like... one thing in CR. I guess you can stay at the Rincon de la Vieja resort or something, just be prepared to pay $$$. Your trip is too short really to even consider staying at La Fortuna (Arenal)—this is even further than going to Nicaragua, including the border crossing time. Liberia itself is not a very nice town and there's no infrastructure for tourists there (I went through the whole town and didn't see even a single office for organizing tours). With the exception of San Jose, CR does an amazingly good (or bad, depending on perspective) job of herding tourists into very specific locales and preventing them from mingling with the locals. Saladman fucked around with this message at 19:23 on Jan 18, 2016 |
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Jan 18, 2016 19:15
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Yeah, this is a quick trip because it's so cheap for us to fly in and we have various reasons as to why the trip has to be so short. We're not really resort people, but money isn't the primary factor when making decisions as to what to do. The price of the area is unfortunate but not going to prevent us from having fun. We're probably looking in the ~$75 (the type of place where I'm comfortable staying) to ~$200 range (the types of places she prefers to stay) for hotel per night and spending anywhere between $50 and $150 per day for activities and food. Yeah, it's a wide range. It's not so much as to what something costs, but the value extracted from the experience in relation to cost. Diamante seems like a reasonable place to start for the high-end on that spend, and if we find cheaper/better things to do we'd probably slot them to replace some of the Diamante stuff. Blinkman987 fucked around with this message at 20:19 on Jan 18, 2016 |
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Jan 18, 2016 19:59
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Blinkman987 posted:I looked at Nicaragua and flights there would cost us at least a day of time (out of our 3 full days down there) and ~$350 each, so that trip will have to wait for another time. Thank you for the recommendation, though. It's two hours to the beach areas around San Juan del Sur (Nicaragua) from the airport in Liberia. Around San Juan del Sur, you get incredible deals on accommodations compared to what you can find in Guanacaste. Beaches are less crowded and developed, people are friendlier, and you won't feel like you are in a machine designed to separate you from as much money as you have. I think you're less likely to be the victim of petty theft in Nicaragua than you are in Costa Rica too. Costa Rica is the Absolut vodka of Central America - savvy marketing and PR, without a whole lot of substance. Costa Rica has no colonial cities, no indigenous ruins, and no distinctive cuisine. It's marginally less crowded, expensive, and developed than, say, Florida's Redneck Riviera. That said, it has nothing to offer that neighboring countries don't have better. Ruling out Nicaragua in favor of Costa Rica, especially when you're flying into a place as close by as Liberia, is like an order of diet mashed potatoes, hold the gravy.
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Jan 18, 2016 21:41
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Blinkman987 posted:Diamante seems like a reasonable place to start for the high-end on that spend, and if we find cheaper/better things to do we'd probably slot them to replace some of the Diamante stuff. With such a short trip, Diamante might be too far from other stuff you want to do (waterfalls / canopy tour / etc). Their ziplines are awesome but they only have one days' worth of activities, and there's nothing else nearby--like the rainforest or mountains are ~1.5-2 hour drives away, each way. The Buena Vista lodge in Rincon de la Vieja might be more up your alley ( http://www.buenavistalodgecr.com/ )-- they have enough variety there for three days of activities, and it's central to all of it so you don't have to do long trips to get to/from the things to do. I spent a day up there and didn't stay at the hotel itself, but it looked nice enough and not too nice to be out of your price range. (Edit: Looks like it's $70–$100 a night depending on which type of room you want.)
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Jan 18, 2016 22:01
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TheImmigrant posted:It's two hours to the beach areas around San Juan del Sur (Nicaragua) from the airport in Liberia. Around San Juan del Sur, you get incredible deals on accommodations compared to what you can find in Guanacaste. Beaches are less crowded and developed, people are friendlier, and you won't feel like you are in a machine designed to separate you from as much money as you have. I think you're less likely to be the victim of petty theft in Nicaragua than you are in Costa Rica too. Yeah, I'm not happy about it but I'm traveling with my SO and it seems she's really set on staying in Costa Rica. If I was going solo, I'd definitely push through the bit of headache that it took to get to Nicaragua. Unfortunately, it's not something she's going to compromise on. Saladman posted:With such a short trip, Diamante might be too far from other stuff you want to do (waterfalls / canopy tour / etc). Their ziplines are awesome but they only have one days' worth of activities, and there's nothing else nearby--like the rainforest or mountains are ~1.5-2 hour drives away, each way. The Buena Vista lodge in Rincon de la Vieja might be more up your alley ( http://www.buenavistalodgecr.com/ )-- they have enough variety there for three days of activities, and it's central to all of it so you don't have to do long trips to get to/from the things to do. I spent a day up there and didn't stay at the hotel itself, but it looked nice enough and not too nice to be out of your price range. (Edit: Looks like it's $70–$100 a night depending on which type of room you want.) Yeah, that's awesome. Thank you. Their website seems like it wasn't updated for the last year or maybe a bit more. Information is pretty sparse as well. How did you book your time at the adventure park? I've gathered from this forum conversation with everyone that transportation is expensive. How would you recommend getting to the rafting part of the country? I see it's about an hour drive south of Liberia, 90 mins from the Buena Vista Lodge. Edit: It looks like renting a car isn't prohibitively expensive, especially if we can do an economy car. What's driving like in Costa Rica? Do we have to get a 4WD auto or is a small Toyota fine? Blinkman987 fucked around with this message at 00:37 on Jan 19, 2016 |
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Jan 19, 2016 00:06
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Blinkman987 posted:
Roads are pretty bad in Costa Rica, and theft from cars is very common. If you rent a car (I wouldn't), don't skimp on insurance.
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Jan 19, 2016 01:38
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Blinkman987 posted:Yeah, I'm not happy about it but I'm traveling with my SO and it seems she's really set on staying in Costa Rica. If I was going solo, I'd definitely push through the bit of headache that it took to get to Nicaragua. Unfortunately, it's not something she's going to compromise on. Driving is insane and if you want to go to places like Monteverde, which I recommend, you'll need a 4x4. I'll repeat the advice about theft from cars, because it is very common.
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Jan 19, 2016 02:43
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But... I want to keep digging!!!  Ok, so car rental is out. What's in? Thanks so much for all the help on this. I feel like I can usually do so much more on my own when planning trips, but the online resources just aren't as robust for this location as they are for others. I guess that's one of the reasons it was so cheap to fly there ^_^
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Jan 19, 2016 04:06
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We rented a car; driving is fine, but for 3 days you it's probably better to just suck it up and pay the expensive transport fees, as a car won't be any better really since you won't be traveling that much. Roads are pretty bad but the travel times listed on Google are more or less correct. If it tells you it takes 2 hours to go 80km, then it probably takes 2h15 to go 80km. In dry season you don't need a 4x4 for anything. In April it's kind of a tossup, I guess it depends if it's early or late April. Rental insurance is mandatory in CR anyway, so it's not like you could rent a car without it even if you wanted to (and even if you had your own separate insurance--we did--they were dicks and would absolutely 100% not let us rent without paying them more money for their own insurance, with Dollar). We booked everything directly on-site in CR—we had a lot of time so didn't have to do anything in advance—so I can't really help you out there. Basically every location seemed to offer the same smorgasbord of activities though: places at the beach advertise mountain activities, and places in the mountain offer snorkeling etc, so you don't have to switch hotels unless you really want to. We didn't go to Monteverde but heard good things about it. It's also pretty far from Liberia (~3-4 hr) but if you really wanted you could do that or Arenal.
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Jan 19, 2016 10:34
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Saladman posted:E: Oh yeah I sure as poo poo wouldn't buy property or invest in Nicaragua though. There's like a 50/50 chance the government will go ape-poo poo and confiscate your property. Panama or Colombia would be a much safer buy. If I were moving permanently to a LA country, I would probably just rent forever. Buying seems like such a huge liability in a lot of countries, both because of shifting political sands and because you will probably always be uncertain of the legal system. With that said, are there any countrie's where you'd be on firmer ground? I know you mentioned Panama and Colombia. I'd be worried about someone showing up after a few years saying, "nope, I actually own this property." I almost think a very tourism friendly country might be safe in some ways despite other factors, because they won't want to scare off foreigners and investments. I lived in the Dominican Republic, and while their systems/government are very corrupt and slipshod, they love them some investments, and I could see them catering to you in all sorts of ways. The flip side is that people would probably continue to try to pick your pockets with all forms of legalistic BS.
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Jan 23, 2016 01:41
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The only place in LA that I would buy land is in Chile. Every other country has property rights laws that could leave you hosed over especially if you leave the country for any extended period of time. It's also not always so easy to just pop in and buy land and thinking you're going to live out your life sipping margaritas on your tiny strip of land without knowing what you're doing and not having a job. Most every country requires you to have some kind of monthly income to become a resident, usually between $1500-$2000 USD a month, or invest a sizable amount of money (or a local job, but you might not be able to buy land straight away with that kind of visa). I think Mexico will allow you if you have a bunch of $$$ in bank/ira accounts. Chile doesn't specifically say how much, but I was able to get residency showing I had a foreign job and regular income (after going back and forth a lot with PDI/extranjeria). Actually still waiting on permanent residency to be granted for this reason. On top of that, no bank wanted to even consider opening a bank account due to being a US citizen + only having temp residency. Hopefully I can find one after/if I get permanent. Short version: be prepared for headaches, and make sure you check well in advance how everything works and make connections there. You can ignore this if you are richie rich, you have smooth sailing then
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Jan 25, 2016 23:19
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I'm leaving for Cartagena Colombia at the end of the month, wed thru mon so 5 nights, 6 days. My girlfriend is Colombian, and im half but i look white as hell. We both speak the language. Any ideas for things to do or see? We were thinking of taking a 2hr bus ride to baranquilla. Good idea, bad idea? Any general tips for traveling in colombia?
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Feb 16, 2016 19:22
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I am checking out this thread for the first time, because I just got a job offer in Chile. I am going to be taking the CELTA course in a week, so I decided to do some scouting to look for jobs. I applied to an English language school in Santiago, Chile. I just got off a phone interview, and was offered a job there. Its really exciting, and there seems to be a lot to like about Santiago and Chile. There is beautiful scenery, comfortable weather, its a cosmopolitan town with a modern metro system. But of course, there might be a lot of downsides I am not considering. I also wonder what 7000/hr for 60 hours a month can get me in Chile. What do you think?
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Feb 16, 2016 20:14
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Waroduce posted:I'm leaving for Cartagena Colombia at the end of the month, wed thru mon so 5 nights, 6 days. My girlfriend is Colombian, and im half but i look white as hell. We both speak the language. Is there any reason you want to go to Baranquilla besides to go to another city besides not spending your whole trip in Cartagena? I passed through it (transferred buses there) from Santa Marta to Cartagena a few months ago and looked into Bquilla and as far as we could tell, there's nothing to do or see there. We had 4 months so we weren't exactly pressed on time, and we still skipped it even though we were literally in the city. Looking it up again, I still don't see any attraction to Bquilla except their big festival for Mardi Gras, which you already missed (it was a couple weeks ago). 5 days/6 nights isn't a lot of time, just spend it in Cartagena and enjoy your trip. Looking white as hell doesn't matter—100% of people in the old city of Cartagena are tourists regardless, and anyway I'm white as hell and blond and never got a second look anywhere in the country in 3 weeks of traveling around. Cartagena, particularly Playa Blanca, was the only place in the entire country where any touts bothered us, but even so it was pretty laid back—not Moroccan-style harassment. I found the Rosario Islands tour to be a huge goddamn bust--it's so bad. They just drive you around and fleece you for money the entire trip. You don't even really do a tour of the islands or even get close to very many, because they're all private. Instead you just go to one with bad snorkeling (extra money) or one with a prison for dolphins on it (pay money). The longer tours where you actually spend one night on the big island sounded nice though. Similar deal for Playa Blanca—all the day trip tourists get there at around 10 and leave at around 2:30-3, and it's kind of not so nice then due to how crowded it is. Outside those hours I've heard it's lovely and almost private. The beach itself is amazing and the water is so clear, but the number of touts who want to give you a massage or rent you a jet ski gets exhausting. They never bother you really, but there are SO MANY that every 2 minutes someone will come by and you'll have to wave them off. I went in mid-November so like late February, it wasn't exactly high season. The tourists were overwhelmingly Colombians. We were the only non-Spanish speakers on our entire Playa Blanca+Rosario tour of about 40 people. Edit: If you REALLY want to do something else besides stay in Cartagena the whole time—and Cartagena is indeed a pretty small city and 5D/6N will exhaust it—then you could look into flights with Viva Colombia to Medellin or Bogota. It'll cost you like $50 for a round-trip ticket from Cartagena to BOG or MDE (though unfortunately MDE is pretty far from Medellin--about an hour by shuttle, and Viva Colombia doesn't fly for Medellin city airport). You could do like 3D/4N in Cartagena and 2D/2N in Medellin or something. Saladman fucked around with this message at 20:52 on Feb 16, 2016 |
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Feb 16, 2016 20:46
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Waroduce posted:I'm leaving for Cartagena Colombia at the end of the month, wed thru mon so 5 nights, 6 days. My girlfriend is Colombian, and im half but i look white as hell. We both speak the language. Do you have any particular reason to stay in Barranquilla? It's a big, unattractive port city. It has one of the biggest Carnivals in the world, but you just missed that for 2016. I'd keep on going beyond Barranquilla to Santa Marta, and/or Taganga and Tayrona. Otherwise, head the opposite direction for Tolú and the beach there. Cartagena is without question a gorgeous spot, but also the most touristed spot in Colombia. Prices are higher there (still cheap by NA standards), and it's the only place in the country with annoying tourist touts, especially in the walled city.
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Feb 16, 2016 20:50
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glowing-fish posted:I am checking out this thread for the first time, because I just got a job offer in Chile. 7000 CLP/hr, at a total 60 hours a month? Like, around $600/month? You can live on that, but not well, and you're going to be pretty short on money to do anything much with all that extra time you have, unless you have a second job. I guess you could go to Valparaiso and hang around for free (buses in Chile are crazy cheap) but that'd probably get old after a while. E: I guess if you live in a shared apartment with a couple people you'd have some spending money, but it still sounds pretty tight. Saladman fucked around with this message at 21:12 on Feb 16, 2016 |
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Feb 16, 2016 21:08
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Saladman posted:7000 CLP/hr, at a total 60 hours a month? Like, around $600/month? You can live on that, but not well, and you're going to be pretty short on money to do anything much with all that extra time you have, unless you have a second job. I guess you could go to Valparaiso and hang around for free (buses in Chile are crazy cheap) but that'd probably get old after a while. Yeah, they were upfront with me about that. They told me it would be a "college student" like situation, and that I wouldn't be able to save money. It does seem kind of spare, but on the other hand, it would be a great piece of professional development if I want to be a teacher. Also, the costs are such that I could probably live off my savings (or credit card) pretty comfortably. So basically this makes sense if I treat it like an internship with a stipend, where I get to travel and learn stuff. It doesn't seem like something that is doable as a career. But other than that, any advice on life in Santiago? What type of pitfalls are there? Do many Americans hit a wall when they go there?
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Feb 16, 2016 21:39
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glowing-fish posted:Yeah, they were upfront with me about that. They told me it would be a "college student" like situation, and that I wouldn't be able to save money. It does seem kind of spare, but on the other hand, it would be a great piece of professional development if I want to be a teacher. Also, the costs are such that I could probably live off my savings (or credit card) pretty comfortably. So basically this makes sense if I treat it like an internship with a stipend, where I get to travel and learn stuff. It doesn't seem like something that is doable as a career. Do they set you up with housing? The biggest pitfall is not speaking spanish (not sure if you do or not), still manageable if you don't though. To me, it isn't that much different than living anywhere in the US, but I'm pretty adaptable.
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Feb 17, 2016 22:41
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TheImmigrant posted:Do you have any particular reason to stay in Barranquilla? It's a big, unattractive port city. It has one of the biggest Carnivals in the world, but you just missed that for 2016. I'd keep on going beyond Barranquilla to Santa Marta, and/or Taganga and Tayrona. Otherwise, head the opposite direction for Tolú and the beach there. The walled city (after 1am, to be fair) is the only place I've ever had an attempted mugging in 35+ countries Cartagena is really pricey by SA standards, cheaper than the US but wow, not really a budget destination. My buddy and I went up and stayed at the party hostel La Brisa Loca in the center of Santa Marta and alternated between napping on the roof top hammocks and drinking rum drinks in the roof top hammocks. In 6 days of drinking and eating there, including hostel room costs, i think it was $106. The city is surrounded on three sides by mountains and the carribean on the fourth with a huge rooftop to take it all in, highly reccomended. Beyond that to the north is the national park, which I haven't been to yet but it gets rave reviews. We did go to Minca instead for mountain biking and inner tubing down the river. I would rank them Medellin, Santa Marta, Bogota, then Cartagena There's about three days worth of stuff to see in Cartagena, and the traffic is the worst of any city I've seen besides Manila, due to a bottleneck between the water and the fortress. Whatever happened to Dusting Duvet? He was living in Colombia last time he checked in here, I think. Oh I guess he changed his user name to "R2ICustomerSupport"?
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Feb 17, 2016 23:54
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Yeah, I agree with all that. ^^^^. I didn't make it to Taganga National Park either, and spent 3 days pretty bored in Santa Marta instead. The park was closed for an entire month for some Native American cleansing ritual or something. It'll be open when you go by though. I've heard the beaches there are as nice as Playa Blanca in Cartagena, but with 1/10th the number of tourists and 1/100th the number of touts.
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Feb 18, 2016 10:51
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GF decided she wanted to change our trip to flying into San Jose and going to Lake Arenal / La Fortuna April 16-18 with the day before and after being travel days. Again, just a quick trip away-- which it turns out is our 1 year anniversary. Happy accident! So far, the plan is to do one weekend day at Mistico Park. Looking for lodging and other activity recommendation in La Fortuna-- so far, our lodging plan is the Hotel Los Lagos Spa & Resort at $141 which is towards the top of our range, but reasonable. The general plan for the 18th / Monday is to enjoy a morning in La Fortuna eventually head back on over to San Jose and experience an evening in the city, but I see that Monday is the day the entire country shuts down? Is there anything worth doing on Monday? Should we just spend another day in La Fortuna? We will eventually have to get back to San Jose for our flight the morning of the 19th. Blinkman987 fucked around with this message at 07:03 on Feb 23, 2016 |
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Feb 23, 2016 06:56
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Blinkman987 posted:GF decided she wanted to change our trip to flying into San Jose and going to Lake Arenal / La Fortuna April 16-18 with the day before and after being travel days. Again, just a quick trip away-- which it turns out is our 1 year anniversary. Happy accident! Unless you have some compelling reason to visit San José, don't bother. SJO is west of the city, and coming from La Fortuna you won't need to enter the capital at all to get to the airport. San José (locals call it Chepe) isn't an apocalyptic hellhole like certain other Central American cities (Guatemala City, San Pedro Sula, San Salvador, I'm looking at you), but it doesn't have a lot going for it. It's dumpy, without much in the way of pretty architecture, and overrun with pockpockets and hookers. It's not particularly dangerous, but on a short trip you'll ask yourself "Why are we wasting time here" if you go out of your way to spend time there.
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Feb 23, 2016 16:04
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I spent 4 days in central San Jose a couple months ago, and it was 5 days too many. The city's main sight, an old theater, is comically pathetic. It's a 2 story concrete building with almost no adornment whatsoever. We walked by it twice while specifically looking for it, before realizing we'd already passed it. E: It's not comically pathetic enough to warrant going there though. There aren't really any street markets or any interesting shops in central San Jose either, nor anywhere to get souvenirs that anyone would want. Unless you want a $30 t-shirt with something stupid like "I saw tucans in Costa Rica" on it. Saladman fucked around with this message at 16:08 on Feb 23, 2016 |
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Feb 23, 2016 16:05
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Saladman posted:I spent 4 days in central San Jose a couple months ago, and it was 5 days too many. The city's main sight, an old theater, is comically pathetic. It's a 2 story concrete building with almost no adornment whatsoever. We walked by it twice while specifically looking for it, before realizing we'd already passed it. San José makes you realize what an utter backwater Costa Rica has been for most of its history. Panama has Old Panama City and Portobelo. Nicaragua has Granada and León. Guatemala has Antigua and Tikal. Costa Rica was as obscure as Burkina Faso or Odisha until Tico marketers fed monkeys and "pura vida" to Spanish students who can't speak Spanish and fat retirees from North America, in a brilliant marketing campaign. I like to tell people that Costa Rica is the Absolut vodka of tourist destinations: all marketing.
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Feb 23, 2016 19:00
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Yeah, four days wasn't my ideal length of time to spend there, but day trips to Poaz and Irazu seemed like a pain in the rear end with public transit (well, actually impossible to Irazu since we weren't there on a Sunday), and crazy expensive with tours, and I didn't feel like renting a car again. On the plus side, SJ had a couple Starbucks. BlinkMan, did you look into Poas already? It'd be pretty easy to do with an organized tour from Alajuela (where the international airport is). That's probably the most interesting thing you can do in the area on your limited time. It'll be pricey, like at least $100/ea, but it's your anniversary and it's not really that much money. It's just like 4x more than we were paying in Nicaragua and Colombia for similar trips, so we chose not to do it in CR. E: Although if it's a foggy day, you won't see jack and you'd have more fun instead lighting cigars with $100 bills. Saladman fucked around with this message at 19:20 on Feb 23, 2016 |
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Feb 23, 2016 19:18
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I looked a little into Poas and I read the same thing-- if there's fog, and there's probably a 30%-50% chance of fog-- you can't see anything. It seems reasonable though to get us closer to the airport. I will definitely take a second look at it for our Monday night. We have to end up some place closer to the airport to make our 8 AM flight out of San Jose. To note, my girlfriend's plan is to rent a car/truck for the weekend. Yup, it's shoulder season. Yup, the roads are poo poo. She's determined. I'm hoping the rental agency doesn't force us to buy their insurance. Go go Chase Sapphire Preferred primary insurance! quote:E: It's not comically pathetic enough to warrant going there though. I appreciate the clarification. I am totally the type to go someplace just to see how much it sucks. By the by, I cannot recommend enough the Coca museum in Cuzco to anybody visiting. The absurdness kept building and building until it climaxed in one room where if it was possible to die from laughter, I'd be a loving ghost right now.
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Feb 24, 2016 02:48
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Blinkman987 posted:I appreciate the clarification. I am totally the type to go someplace just to see how much it sucks. By the by, I cannot recommend enough the Coca museum in Cuzco to anybody visiting. The absurdness kept building and building until it climaxed in one room where if it was possible to die from laughter, I'd be a loving ghost right now. The thing about San José's suckage is that it's boring. Some places suck because of horrific pollution or ugliness or danger - San José can't claim any of this. San José is the shabby capital of a middle-income country devoid of historical landmarks or urban attractions. Going out of your way to visit the place is like deciding to vacation in a suburb of Dallas.
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Feb 24, 2016 18:20
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TheImmigrant posted:The thing about San José's suckage is that it's boring. Some places suck because of horrific pollution or ugliness or danger - San José can't claim any of this. San José is the shabby capital of a middle-income country devoid of historical landmarks or urban attractions. Going out of your way to visit the place is like deciding to vacation in a suburb of Dallas. For sure. Sorry if I wasn't clear. I am the type to go someplace that sucks if it's entertaining-suck, not if it's suck-suck. For example, I don't enjoy trips to the Midwest because it sucks, but in a depressing "there are no jobs and none of these people will ever leave these bullshit towns" way. The coca museum in Cusco is very much the fun-suck. So far the plan is Mistico and this: http://www.desafiocostarica.com/tour/arenal-mambo-combo-tour-rappel-raft/ or http://www.viator.com/tours/La-Fortuna/Sarapiqui-River-Whitewater-Rafting-Tour-from-La-Fortuna/d821-6833SARAPI I will happily warn everyone of how much Costa Rica sucks once I get back. Again, luckily we flew in for like $250 each thanks to the Southwest companion pass or else I'd be asking myself why we didn't just fly to SE Asia or some other country that's competitively priced. Blinkman987 fucked around with this message at 18:44 on Feb 24, 2016 |
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Feb 24, 2016 18:35
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Blinkman987 posted:I will happily warn everyone of how much Costa Rica sucks once I get back. Again, luckily we flew in for like $250 each thanks to the Southwest companion pass or else I'd be asking myself why we didn't just fly to SE Asia or some other country that's competitively priced. Costa Rica really doesn't suck. It's relatively expensive, but it does mass tourism very well. Anyone who makes the blanket claim that Costa Rica sucks is really complaining about its lack of street cred among the genre of insufferably pretentious tourists known as backpackers. I've always had a good time in Costa Rica. It has surfing, diving, and volcanoes. Ticas are hot and friendly, and it's a really good place to discover laziness. Ticos have it down to an art form. It's the most stable country in the region, yet somehow Ticos are known for being the most work-averse people on the isthmus by other Central Americans.
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Feb 24, 2016 19:51
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Well, yeah, the price is definitely part of it. For many of the half-day trips, it is within the range of prices I'd pay to do these activities domestically. Yeah, poor me; white (enough) American bouncing around the world like it's my playground. Sure. But, it's still kinda annoying when quoted $180 for like a 2-hour shuttle or $120 for a few hours of zipline.
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Feb 25, 2016 02:50
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The mercado central is an okey half day in SJ, try the ice cream. Day trips in the Central Valley are a bit thin on the ground. Lapaz waterfalls are supposed to be great, I never went, the zoo in SJ is shite but there's a private zoo near Alajula that is pretty decent. I like poas, there's a restaurant about 2/3 of the way up with the most incredible views of the Central Valley and you can get strawberries up there all year round.
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Feb 25, 2016 02:52
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I'm a bit confused about Iquitos vs Puerto Maldonado as a gateway to the peruvian amazon. I'm looking for a remote jungle experience with wildlife spotting. My idea of the trip is taking a river boat to a remote jungle lodge, then going on some trails with a guide/naturalist to spot some wildlife and live there for 4-5 days and then go back. Which is the right place for me?
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Feb 28, 2016 13:13
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Anarkii posted:I'm a bit confused about Iquitos vs Puerto Maldonado as a gateway to the peruvian amazon. I'm looking for a remote jungle experience with wildlife spotting. My idea of the trip is taking a river boat to a remote jungle lodge, then going on some trails with a guide/naturalist to spot some wildlife and live there for 4-5 days and then go back. Which is the right place for me? I know you're asking about Peru, but I found Rurrenabaque in Bolivia to fit that nicely (San Miguel del Bala Lodge). Pretty cheap and quick flight from La Paz if you happen to be in that area.
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Mar 5, 2016 20:10
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I thought I posted here. Must've gotten distracted and closed the post. Anyway I was also going to suggest Rurrenabaque. I've heard Iquitos is kind of awful and touristy, and that Puerto Maldonado is OK but not as nice as Rurren, and you're going to have to take a flight either way. I was around there for about 6 weeks a few months ago but skipped the rainforest and stayed in the altiplano because I hate rainforests, but a buddy I was traveling with spent two weeks in Rurren and loved it. Took a bunch of ayahuasca and saw a bunch of animals, both real and imaginary. He also went to Puerto Maldonado for a few days and thought it was OK but not nearly as nice as Rurren.
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Mar 5, 2016 23:30
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I have some friends going to Nicaragua in April, and they're asking if I know of any services like the ones I used in Asia recently - specifically, a service that set you up with local families where they prepare a local meal, and you get to hang out with some locals and eat good home cooked food. Is there anything like that in the country? I haven't had luck googling so far - but I used things like https://www.nagomivisit.com/ and https://www.withlocals.com/ in Japan, Vietnam and Singapore.
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Mar 19, 2016 05:19
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I took a job in Santiago, teaching English, starting in early May. I am pretty excited, but I have to admit I have some trepidations! I don't speak much Spanish, for one thing. But it looks like the opportunity of a lifetime.
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Mar 23, 2016 18:29
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glowing-fish posted:I took a job in Santiago, teaching English, starting in early May. You'll either live in an English bubble and play charades forever or learn Spanish. Don't live in an English bubble. (Those are the worst kind of foreigners.)
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Mar 23, 2016 22:33
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glowing-fish posted:I took a job in Santiago, teaching English, starting in early May. You can get around without speaking too much spanish, and you can pick up enough of the basics to make things a bit easier. I live in Santiago (not in an expat bubble) so you can hit me up if you have any questions
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Mar 25, 2016 03:21
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I'm now $160 richer https://www.bubblear.com/argentina-suspends-reciprocity-fee/ Edit: Tell me how crazy this is considering that Chile/Argentina transportation infrastructure is pretty loose and that doesn't even consider the weather 12/7/2016 Leave LAX 12/8/2016 Arrive Buenos Aires between 8 and 11 AM 12/8/2016 Fly to El Calafate, arrive mid-afternoon/evening 12/9/2016 Take bus out of El Calafate, arrive in Puerto Natales 12/10/2016 Leave PN, begin Torres Del Paine 5-Day W hike 12/14/2016 Final Day in TDP, Direct Bus to El Calafate arrive late PM 12/15/2016 Fly out of EC to Ushuaia - Arrange for first flight out at 12:10 PM 12/16/2016 Cruise - Boat leaves at 6 PM 12/27/2016 Ushuaia to Buenos Aires, spend 2 days in the city 12/29/2016 Buenos Aires to LAX, fly out 11:45 PM arrive 2 PM on 12/30 Edit: Could also do LAX > Santiago, Chile > Punta Arenas > Puerto Natales but tickets from Santiago to Arenas are $_$ Blinkman987 fucked around with this message at 18:20 on Mar 26, 2016 |
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Mar 26, 2016 04:08
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Blinkman987 posted:I'm now $160 richer I'm seeing SCL-PUQ for 42144CPL (~62USD) with Sky, which doesn't seem that bad, though their website doesn't want to book past September right now. LAN is definitely the more expensive option. Buses between Arenas and Natales are cheap.
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Mar 27, 2016 14:35
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