Nice weather, sunny (old news), +30C and some wind. Beautiful weather for a boat trip.

Today I have spent the day in Palo Verde National Park.
About Palo Verde
The area is comprised of both deciduous and evergreen tropical dry forest, brackish and fresh water wetlands, mangrove swamps, and the tidal estuarine ecosystem of the lower Tempisque River. This area provides an important wintering ground to migrant North American waterfowl.
The Palo Verde National Park of Costa Rica protects forested areas as well as an extensive marshland between the Tempisque and Bebedero rivers of Guanacaste. Palo Verde National Park is a diverse patchwork of habitats located in the heart of the Tempisque basin near the mouth of the Rio Tempisque River.

It has been a wonderful boat trip on El Bebedero River. We saw american Crocodiles (in CR we have crocodiles in the west and aligators in the east - no caimans), iguanas, bats, lots and lots of different herons and other bird species. We also saw both howler monkeys and cappuchin monkeys (whiteface).
One of the crocodiles even has a name: Tyson - after Mike Tyson. He is a fared croc since he 2 yeas ago had an 11 year old kid for dinner.
After a day in the sun I have really worked on my tan - I think I got a small sun burn on one of my knees. I must have not remembered to put on sun block there.

Read more about Palo Verde in these links:

http://www.ots.ac.cr/en/paloverde/
http://costa-rica-guide.com/parks/pl_vrde.htm
http://www.costaricamap.com/ing/bioppalo.html

Pictures will come later.

Today I started my day off by going to Canas witch is a city about 45 minutes from Liberia. I went to see Dona Xinnia that just came back from Norway 6 months ago, where she spent 3 years working as the embassador of Costa Rica in Scandinavia and the Baltic countries. When arriving Canas I was greeted by her, her daughter Silvia, Laureano, David and German (grand children). Xinnia and Celia took me on a round-trip with Davida and Laureano. A round-trip all over the northern part of the country. It was a marvellous day with sun, rain, wind and more sun.
From Canas we went to Upala in the Alajuela province and stopped by a friend of Celia from when she studied in Russia.

From Upala we went toward Guatuso and on the way, in a place called Catira, we found this gorgeous garden with trees shaped like different figures like dinosaurs, kids, spiders etc. We entered the garden to enjoy the wonderful figures and the owner toured us around. A really nice man that had made all the figures himself - with a little help from the son.
Suddenly Dona Xinnia spots a huge tree with huge mandarines from witch she wonders if he could give us some. Of course.. We dont need them. If you want them you can take as many as you wants :) Then he sends his son up into the tree :)
Honestly I could not care less about the mandarines hehe.. I wanted to ask if he would give me his son instead. He was gorgeous. Nicest smile around.

From their place we continued to Guatuso where we had lunch. Real nice meal witch we all enjoyed a lot. The Guatuso area inhabits a lot of indians.

From Guatuso we went to Fortuna de San Carlos. A city that in the last 7 years has changed incredibly. I am amazed by the changes. I know I have been there before but I did not recognize the city at all.
Fortuna is a city located close to the world famous Arenal volcano. Arenal is one of the 7 most active volcanoes in the world. Just by the few hours we spent in Fortuna and driving around the volcano to come to Lago Arenal (witch is an artificial lake) the volcano has about 5 minor erruptions. You can hear the rumbling and see the lava running down the hill side at night. In daylight the lava looks more like rocks running down the mountains with huge steam clouds to show them. It is an absolutely marvelous sight. The rivers close around smells of sulfur.
We tried entering a lava trail but some guides that were close adviced us not to enter to far since it was getting dark and all the snakes and animals would get out from hiding to hunt.
We will leave it for another day.

In Fortuna I also got to buy some souvenir pictures that I found. By the time we got away from Arenal it was darkening and it started to rain. When it rains - it poors ... etc and it rained until we got to the Guanacaste province again.

When we got to Canas we were all very tired and I was trying to get the bus home to Liberia but I did not have any luck on that one. Around Miramar, Puntarenas, there was a huge car accident that closed ALL traffic in both directions. Celia decided to drive me home witch I will be forever thankful for. :) It was a wonderful day and I fell asleep almost as soon as my head landed on my pillow.

Nice weather, sun, +30C and some wind.

We had decided to go to the beach but waited for Federico to get the car fixed. It has been bad for about a week. Well. At noon we had lunch and then set for the beach. We got about a km before the car broke down. It made strange noises and we headed for the "taller" to get it fixed again. Some part had fallen off that were not possible to get a hold of in the whole city of Liberia. We gave up and went to the swimming pool at Hotel El Sitio instead. We stayed there until the sun dissappeared and went home. I went to bed really early.

Sunny and no skies. Very warm. Over 30C today - again.

I woke up with a bad cold and cough. Again. I have spent most of the morning in bed but I managed to take a small trip downtown to update my webpage and meet a couple of my friends. We sat to have a few papaya drinks and a sandwich at "Las Tinajas" (very popular cafe - restaurant by the central park).

We had a family dinner with in-laws and uncles and aunts and some friends at 8pm. Delicious food. Lomo and Pork leg with a lot of wonderful belongings. Good drinking and a lot of fun. Roxanas housband, Jorge, practiced his english with his sisters housband. The problem was that he did not know any english. The gringo looked at me with HELP in his eyes and everyone laughed at Jorge. hehe. Poor thing. But it was so much fun.

Read more about Costa Rican Christmas traditions.

+30, sunny and warm. Little wind.
This morning I woke up and did my laundry, slept a little, watched a movie and waited for Federico and Yehudy to wake up and get finished to get going to the beach. They lasted and lasted but finally we set off. We picked up Veronica, a friend of Federico, and Johan and his daughter Madeline (7) and set off.

We picked up beer and soft drinks, cookies and ICE and cups. Its really necessary to have ice for the drinks or the beverage reaches boiling point soon hehe. The road to get there was really really bumpy. I must admit I am not a great fan of driving and drinking but I do use my seatbelt. Arriving at the beach Madeline and I spent most of the time we were there in the water. The water must be at least +25/+28C. Great day for swimming. We tried to jump the waves and teach M to swim properly and to float. At least she managed to float by herself by the end of the day. We walked along the beach and had a couple of drinks before watching the gorgeous sunset. Along with the sunset we were attacked by the mosquitos and decided to retreat.

When getting home I had to rush to get my shower and dress for party. Its Angelicas 28th birthday today and she had invited me to her birthdayparty at 7pm. Obviously i did not manage to be there at 7 since we got home at 7 but I was there before 7:30pm witch I am impressed by. :)
They served a gorgeous pork leg dinner and chocolate birthday cake and we had a nice party with Angelicas mom and boyfriend, Alberto, and one more of her best friends, Libia. It was really nice to be able to participate especially since 13 years ago when I was living here I was also invited to her birhtday but could not participate. Thanks and happy birthday Angelica !.

Sunny, +30C. Windy. Hehehe. One can say many things about the weather in Norway. But stable it is not. Here in contrary.. It seems very stable and ME LIKE.
Today all my day was spendt just by hanging around downtown Liberia. I started the morning by the daily routines like having breakfast, washing clothes and stuff like that. Then I took off downtown and did some shopping before I found a tattoo store and decided to get my seahorse (on the ankle) some color. So, now guys, my seahorse is orange/brown and surrounded by some bubbles. About same size as ever. The bad thing is that I now have a 1 week curfue to go swimming at the beach or in a pool. Just safety precautions so it wont get infected.

For lunch I headed for Las Tinajas and had a "Casado" with chicken. A casado is a typical lunsch with rice, beans, meat, chease and maduro (fried cooking banana) with natural juice made of Papaya to accessorize. Alexis, one of my friends here stopped by and kept me company until he had to go to work. After that I wrote about 20 postcards. I still need a couple of adresses but they will get sent soon. Then headed home for dinner and went out with Manuel, Kerry (his girlfriend) and Enrique for the night.

Another wonderful day :) +30C Sunny and wind.
Today at 1:30pm I got picked up by Dona Xinnia and German and we drove off to Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz has been nominated to the most folkloric city in Costa Rica. We went there for a Prayer seremony honoring Santo Cristo de Esquipulas. This is one of the saints that is worshiped largely amongst indigenous Indians, some coming from far afield, eagerly await the moment where they may share a second or two face to face with the Black Christ. Reasons behind the colour of the statue are multiple. No one accredits the fact that it may be the balsam wood which the statue is made of. Nonetheless, there is no end to how many followers the figure has won over the years.

Santa Cruz is located about an hour from Liberia in the Nicoya peninsula. We walked around to get to know the place before going to the "Rezo" (the prayer seremony) at 6pm. They had Marimbas (typical music instrument), Clowns chasing the people and food that they shared amongst all the ones that had showed up to pay respect to the saint. We were served a typical indian drink "chichime" made of fermented corn. It tasted "not too bad" Incredible enough but I was not too impressed. It was way to sweet, but after the tradition the indians used this drink to get drunk whenever they had a party before the licor came.

Dona Xinnia, German, Laureano and Julio drove me home when it was over and I have had an amazing day ! Thanks again.

+30C and sunny with rare precense of skies. Windy but great.
Yesterday I headed downtown about 9 am. My brother and his girlfriend were preparing the car for a day at the beach. I told them that due to my tattoo I would not go with them since i still have to stay out of the water and sun for another 7 days (well at least for another 4). I went to the internet cafe and updated my page, did some chatting and headed for the travel agency. Stayed there a few minutes since they could not give me the information I wanted before jan 2 and headed for the bank. After the bank I went to get my nails done and during the session my mom called to say my brother were looking for me since they were going to stay over at the beach and that I had to go with him, Yehudy and Diana.

So. Well. Off we went. Hehe. I am so hard to ask about going to the beach.
It was a long bumpy, dusty and windy trip (It gets that way from driving with an open car) but finally we got to Playa Potrero where Federico has his apartment at "Villagio flor di Pacifico" and got installed there.
We had picked up food and beverages on the way here and headed straight for the swimming pool until dark hit us. Then we went to get some dinner. Playa Potrero is a small fishing village with a lot of nice hotels and condos.

Federico, Yehudy and Diana went to Tamarindo to party that night but Ive still got a cold and stayed home.

In the morning of course I woke up way earlier than the others since I also went to bed way earlier than them. I went hiking at the beach (Playa Potrero and Playa la Penca) for a couple of hours before going back to the apartment. Diana had just gotten out of bed and we went to the swimming pool together to work on our tan. Around mid day we picked up Federico and Yehudy and went to a beach restaurant to have breakfast. After the resturant visit we went back to the pool and we all jumped in the jacuzzi and during the afternoon we managed to make 6 new friends from Heredia (another province in Costa Rica). We had a small party in the jacuzzi until the italians found out they wanted in as well and security told us we should not drink in the pool. It had been a nice party but it was time to go back to Liberia. It is Roxanas housband, Jorges, birthday today so we rushed from one party to another and met up with the family there. Even some of our cousins from San Jose, Jessica and Paola, had shown up.
It was a nice party with barbeque, Karaoke and Pinatas.

Nighty nighty :)

No clouds today. But heaps of wind. Wonderful. It makes the +32 feel a little colder. Hehe. Not much though.
Started off the day washing clothes before heading out to run some arrands. I have bought some clothing so i can get some hand made new pants and shorts.

I met up with Manuel at 11am and we went to Tinajas to chat and have some refreshments.
At noon Gustavo joined in and we had a real fun afternoon. We decided to go to the beach at night, but we finally ended up staying in Liberia.
I went out with Manuel, his girlfriend and Enrique, "el mudo", that is actually Jorges (roxanas housband) brother/cousin (not that I know what that will be exactly) so he is family. hehe. Family here is very complicated. I have no idea how many brothers and sisters nor mami nor papi has. that is bad. I should get that information on a paper so I will remember for later. And everybody is somebodys cousin. Nice though. We went to a bar called el Chaparro and later to hang outside Kuru, the disco. hehe.

Hey friends. Today is the last day of 2006 and It has been a strange year. It has been filled with work and work and work but also travels. I have been able to go to Gran Canaria (islas canarias), London (England), Kiel (Germany) and my big trip to Costa Rica that has been like GOD-sent. I have managed to meet many friends this year that I have not seen for very many years like on my way to CR I met Alexis in New York, Mariann in London and if I calculate since last october I got to meet Dionne (my Canadian sister), Meghan (One of my good friends from my Costa Rica stay in 1993) and Jennifer (another of my friends from Costa Rica stay in 1993). It has been a somewhat hard year. I have been tired and exhausted due to amounts of work during the start of the work and It has been a year where I have found out who are my real friends and who are not. It has been filled with joy and sad feelings and decisions. To all my friends at Astrup Fearnleys: Thanks for all good memories:) It has been a pleasure working with and for you.
It has been a very interesting year and I am really looking foreward to 2007 and for it has in mind for me. I am very exited about getting a new job and starting a new path in life.

As for this christmas it has been a very strange holiday vacation considering I am very far away and we have had a lot of family stuff going on at home.
One of my aunts is getting a divorce and my grandmother was sick from before I left Norway to come here. Then she became worse and worse and they all gathered together and my father got sick so he could not stay with her. My baby sister Linda spent some time at the hospital being sick and then my aunt got sick as well. Then Grandma Johanne died on christmas eve. My grandmother was a very dedicated woman, to religion and to her family and It feels kind of like the destiny that she died on christmas eve. She will be missed.
Luckily my moms family has had no big problems. I think they have been all good :)

As for myself, I got sick 2 weeks before travelling and I have pretty much stayed more or less reduced since then. Coughing and if its not sinusitis or bronquitis, then it is an eye infection or throath infection. At least they know I am not faking. hehe.. Like the sayiong. When you are sick during the hollidays you are really sick. hehe. I just hope It stops soon.

Anther thing here is that since everyone is always so wonderfully nice and happy and the sun and temperature is around 30 and happy music is playing from every corner it is very easy to forget that a distant place called Norway exists. It is easy to be a part of the flow. A flow I just love and being relaxed and enjoing life like I do here is rare I do there. I am having a great time friends ! I am enjoing life and hoping to get tickets to the Ricky Martin concert in febuary.

Apart from that.
To all my family, friends and dear ones:

I wish you a very very good and happy new year in 2007 and I send you all my best regards and hugs and kisses !! I love you all !

Same wonderful weather as It has been for the last 3 weeks. Sun with +32C and some wind. The day started off with me being able to sleep 4 hours longer than normal. !!! wow.
When I did wake up I looked like I was originally chinese since due to an eye infection the skin around my eyes were swollen. It looked kinda funny actually hehe..

I spent the morning updating the web page and writing home. We had a very nice family dinner in the evening and mami and I spent the night wathcing movies. At midnight we went out to watch the fireworks that in comparison with Norway just lasted for 20 minutes. At home it sounds like a warzone for hours. :)
It was a nice and kozy evening even though I was kinda moody beeing far away from home :)