Through a glass darkly

Nothing but Poas

cara — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 20:27:18 +0000

We flew from La Fortuna to San Jose. Since we were flying to Puerto Jiminez, we took advantage of the Nature Air All You Can Fly Pass. For 7 days, you have unlimited plane travel, for $282, which is less than what it would have cost us to book our tickets to Puerto Jiminez separately. [...]

Pampered in Arenal

cara — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 21:21:41 +0000

In 1968, the quiet town of La Fortuna experienced an event that changed their existence forever: a massive eruption that buried over 15 km of land and killed 87 people. Little known to the outside world prior to the eruption, tourists have since been flocking to Arenal to see its mini-eruptions. When we arrived, we [...]

Extreme in Monteverde

cara — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 05:12:15 +0000

We arrived in Liberia around 6:30 pm. After clearing customs, we were greeted by our driver whom we had hired to take us straight to Monteverde. Since we were on a limited schedule, we did not want to waste our time commuting during the day. Although the ride was not cost-effective at $180, it was [...]

Rio de Janeiro in miniature

cara — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 19:33:25 +0000

Here is an an amazing tilt-shift time lapse of Rio de Janeiro during Carnaval. Even though I felt like I spent too much time in Rio, this video is so beautiful it makes me long for the city. I want to be walking along the beach, singing Girl from Ipanema, eating Acai shakes while looking [...]

Costa Rica bound

cara — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 18:45:56 +0000

In less than two weeks, I am headed to Costa Rica. The second half of 2011 was an emotionally draining and stressful one for me. Initially I was planning to go solo in November for a week but instead I delayed a bit and decided to go for 2 weeks in January (and a friend [...]

San Francisco

cara — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 04:00:36 +0000

Whenever I ask people to list their favourite cities, San Francisco is often listed. I had a week off between jobs which coincided with my friend going to SF for work so I decided to tag along. My stay there also coincided with Pride. The SF pride parade was surprisingly small compared to Toronto’s and [...]

Bossa Nova: A playlist

cara — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 21:01:53 +0000

I’ve created a YouTube playlist of some of my favourite Bossa Nova songs on the site. Gal Costa – Wave This is a great rendition of Antonio Carlo Jobim’s Wave. Gal Costa’s voice is both polished and expressive yet sensitive. Ella Fitzgerald – Dindi Ella Fitzgerald is cute as molasses and this version is an [...]

Brazil’s Exploding Economy

cara — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 00:46:45 +0000

Brazil was much more expensive than I ever imagined it’d be. I got a hint of what I was going to encounter by the prices of hotels in Rio, but I didn’t imagine that the prices would be nearly on par with Canadian ones. Brazil’s economy is the world’s sixth largest economy and growing at [...]

Paraty: Place to go in 2012

cara — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 01:22:24 +0000

The New York Times has named Paraty as one of its places to go in 2012. They have a slideshow here.

G(AP) Adventures

cara — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 19:12:15 +0000

Despite having a lot of experience travelling independently, I decided to do a group tour for part of my vacation to Argentina and Brazil, for many reasons. First, my travel partner had never been outside of North America (and had never backpacked either) so I thought a group tour would make him more comfortable. Second, [...]