Friday, March 18, 2005

For those of you who missed my email, I will share Shaun's email that I recieved yesterday. Here it is:
Hey,

Well as far as sending regular emails goes, I suck. I have been down
here for close to 10 weeks now and not one group email. So here goes the
info on the last couple of weeks of my trip......

At the begining of this month I jumped ship from my Dad's boat and
decided to spend some time with my friends Kim and Morgan, and travel
around a bit. We rented a small house just outside of Jaco and bought
some moutain bikes to get back and forth to town when we need to go.
Our friend Ben, from the Yukon, came down and visited us for 2 weeks and
just left yesterday.

While he was down here we actually rented a SUV and went on a road trip
around Costa Rica for seven days. We headed out to a small town called
Montezuma where we spent our first night. We went out to the bar there
and saw Joakim Phoenix (the bad guy from gladiator) and some dude from
CSI Miami. The next morning we went to a huge set of waterfalls, that
you could jump off of. One was 10 feet high, one was 30 feet high, and
the unjumpable one was 65 feet high. That afternoon we headed out to the
surf town of Mal Pias, where we got some surf lessons and ended up
partying with the surf instructor and his girlfriend who are from
Calgary.

The next day the surf was crappy so we decided to head off to the arenal
volcano. The trip was 172km and it took us over 7 hours to get there,
and that included getting a speeding ticket for doing 109 in a 60 zone;
luckly the cops down here are corrupt and we just paid him 40 bucks and
we were on our way. We got to Arenal aound 6pm and found a spot to
stay; it was pourning and we were worried that we would not be able to
see the volcano the next day.

However, the next morning it was clear as day and we pretty much just
hung out at the observatory and did some of the hikes around the base
of the volcano. The next morning we headed off to a town called
Montreverde to go on a canpoy tour. This is where you are hooked up to a
cable and you coast over the top of the jungle to the next platform;
this was a blast, the longest line was 750 meters and you were over 200
meters off the jungle floor. On a sad note, three days before we
arrived in Montreverde, a group of Nicaraguans attemped to rob a bank
and Nine people died, and 11 were wounded, and the memorial service was
beginning just as we were buying our tickets for the tour. There were
still bullet holes all over the bank and the surrounding buildings.

After the canopy tour, we drove back to our house in Jaco where we spent
the night. The next morning we headed down to Manual Antonio where we
spent two days on the beach and tourning around their national park,
which was full of monkeys and sloths.

We arrived back at our house Sunday night and dropped our rental vehical
off Monday morning, and since then we have just been laying on the beach
and relaxing.

On another note I have decided to change my ticket leaving Costa Rica
and I will now be comming back to Edmonon on the 23rd instead of the
30th. While the sun is great I still want to be able to enjoy the last
of the winter back in Edmonton. Since I have tried surfing I have
realized how much I need to go on a snowboard trip.

Well I gotta get back into the sun and the water!!!!

Now, as for me, I spent an hour in the dentist's chair this afternoon (my Friday off - not good timing). Had a message when I got home that the recliner I am having made is now in town and will be delivered tomorrow morning - I hope my soccer game is late so I can sip my coffee in my new chair as I watch it. Gas prices are rising. Cost is now 99.9 cents a litre which reminds me I just had my furnace oil tank filled - can't wait to see that bill. I do have some news but cannot tell you for a bit yet. I have a few more things to check out before I make a final decision. But when I do, I'll let you know.
That's it for now. Be good so the Easter Bunny will visit you - oh no, that's Santa you have to be good for, so you can have all the fun you want and the bunny will still come.