Travel Archives - Page 5 of 10 - Tropical Adventures

New Project – Daycare Center

March 25, 2007

We’d like to give a warm welcome to the latest addition to our Tropical Adventures family — the CEN Daycare and Nutritional Centers! Volunteers Kelly and Aisha were are first guinea pigs to go in and work with these kids. And it was a total success! Many thanks to all involved, especially Laura Palomo, for developing and putting into place this new project.

Ujarras Ruins

February 6, 2007

These ruins are right in my backyard, but of course it took me a year-and-a-half to get there to see them. However, it was worth the wait! The remains of this old church sit in the Orosi Valley (Cartago Province) facing the Tapanti Mountains.

Kachabri

January 26, 2007

Wow. I thought that Uatsi was pretty cool, but Kachabri (“Kachabri Arriba” to be exact) was unbelievable. It’s also located on the Talamanca indigenous reservation in Costa Rica, but much further into the jungle mountain range.

Marketing Experience?

December 2, 2006

Some of the women in one of our indigenous tribes living in a community called Shiroles took it upon themselves about 17 years ago to generate an income for their families and community. They maintain crops of cacao, process it and turn it into chocolate bars, liquid chocolate, cookies and other delectable delights.
They have a great system down now through production, but they could really use some more help with the post-production process. They don’t have much experience in getting their product to the marketplace. With the right help, these women could be marketing their products to local stores, restaurants and hotels and boosting their income by leaps-and-bounds.

Cafe Cristina

November 19, 2006

I finally made it over to the farm of one of my neighbors to check it out. They are gringos who have lived here almost 30 years. And they have been growing coffee for over 20 of those years. Cafe Cristina (named after their kids, Cris and Tina) was one of the first organic coffee farms in Costa Rica. In addition to not using any chemicals, they use natural anti-erosion methods, hand-pick their coffee and sun dry it as well. They are incredibly environmentally conscious — and nice people too!

Couch Surfing

October 8, 2006

I ran into a cool website today. It’s called Couchsurfing.com. I can say that I’ve had great experiences with “strangers” coming to stay at my house for a few days. And I’ve had the fortune of other folks letting me crash on their couch for a while in other parts of the world.

Back Home

September 18, 2006

I had such a nice time with my family while I was in San Francisco this last week. Pictured here is me with my new niece, Evelyn. Isn’t she adorable? She’s so tiny!

Isla Tortuga

September 1, 2006

As if we hadn’t had enough excitement lately, we took a trip to Isla Tortuga. We are looking for great, easy trips to send our clients on, and Isaac had been here before and seemed to think it was a great candidate.

Bocas del Toro

August 29, 2006

Our friend, Jason, was here from Long Beach, California. So we decided it would be fun to take a little trip to a place none of us had ever seen before. We’d already heard a lot about the islands of Bocas del Toro in Panama. They are located in the extreme western part of the country, only 40 kilometers (like 30 miles) from Costa Rica.

Safe for Women

August 15, 2006

I was really pleased to hear that USA Today recently announced Costa Rica as the 3rd safest travel destination for women in the whole world! I can’t say that I’m really surprised. Costa Rica, despite our petty crime problems, is still very safe. We have had probably over 100 guests so far in the last 2 years and not one single person has had any kind of safety issue. Now that’s good news! By the way, Amsterdam and Ireland were numbers one and two, with India and Vietnam just behind Costa Rica. I wonder how far down the US is on that list?

In: Travel