Costa Rica Adventure 2012 - Lili on the Loose

14 03, 2016

Travel Missteps: Swept Out To Sea

By Lili|March 14th, 2016|Categories: Travel, Travel Missteps|Tags: 2003, 2012, all inclusive, Arenal, Central America, Costa Rica, Costa Rica Adventure 2012, fear, Holiday in Rivera Maya, kayak, La Fortuna, lake, Mexico, ocean, Rivera Maya, sea kayaking, white water rafting|0 Comments

My first trip to Mexico I stayed in an all-inclusive hotel with my family. My mother certainly had an interesting birthday! But she also saved me on this trip. My sister and I had taken a sea kayak out on the beach of our Rivera Mayan hotel. It wasn't much fun as the waves kept hitting us. So my sister turned around. I kept going further out, trying to see the island of Cozumel better. But as I turned around and attempted to come in, I realized frighteningly that I was stuck in a current...that was taking me further out

14 12, 2015

Museum Monday: Decked in Gold

By Lili|December 14th, 2015|Categories: Museums, Travel|Tags: 2012, Central America, Costa Rica, Costa Rica Adventure 2012, gold, San Jose, statue|0 Comments

I didn't make it to the official Gold museum in San Jose but the Museo Nacional de Costa Rica had a small section on gold. Museum Monday is an every other week series about museum news, objects, and reviews.

20 07, 2015

Travel Missteps: Ripped Off

By Lili|July 20th, 2015|Categories: Travel, Travel Missteps|Tags: 2012, cabbie, cash, Central America, Costa Rica, Costa Rica Adventure 2012, delayed, Denver, DIA, exchange rate, flight, hotel, late night, money, robbed, San Jose, scam, taxi|0 Comments

Budget travel means that you are trying to stretch your money as far as you can. Which means in my case, I often choose the cheapest flights, even if they aren’t ideal. Which is why I found myself at DIA late at night getting ready to catch a late night flight. But what I hadn’t counted on was my flight to Costa Rica to be delayed. Which meant I arrived in San Jose after 1AM, and found that that my hotel was completely full for the night. They kept speaking Spanish, and it sounded like they wanted me just to

22 02, 2014

Souvenir Saturday: Volcano Snow Globe

By Lili|February 22nd, 2014|Categories: Souvenirs, Travel|Tags: 2012, Arenal, Arenal Volcano, Central America, collectable, collection, Costa Rica, Costa Rica Adventure 2012, G Adventures, Gadventures, GAP, glass, group, La Fortuna, memento, memories, rain, San Jose, shopping, snow done, snow globe, snow globes, souvenir, tour, tour group, travel, unique, volcano|2 Comments

My latest snow globe souvenir is a unique find. While on my last full day in Costa Rica, my group asked our tour leader Randy where the best place to buy souvenirs was. He knew that we would be getting into San Jose really late and since most of us had an early flight the next day would not be able to get anything. So on the way back Randy had the van stop at a large and fancy store. He said it was usually frequented by the all-inclusive hotels and so would have the best selection of souvenirs, however

6 01, 2014

Travel Missteps: Una blosa con hielo, por favor?

By Lili|January 6th, 2014|Categories: Travel, Travel Missteps|Tags: 2013, ankle, Antigua, Central America, cobblestones, Costa Rica, Costa Rica Adventure 2012, duck tape, G Adventures, Gadventures, GAP, group, Guatemala, ice, injured, injury, Mayan Encounter 2013, soda, spanish, sprain, tour, tour group, UNESCO, UNESCO World Heritage Site|0 Comments

Getting injured can be one of the worst things that can happen to you on a trip. For me, it is becoming a standard fact of travel. After spraining my ankle and then nearly fracturing my nose in Costa Rica, I decided to be extra prepared on my next trip. So I brought a thorough first aid kit and 2 ankle braces (so I could swap them out and not wear one every day). I thought I was prepared, little did I know I was wrong. On my second day of exploring Antigua, Guatemala I sprained my right ankle just

5 08, 2013

Travel Missteps: Memorializing Everything

By Lili|August 5th, 2013|Categories: Travel, Travel Missteps|Tags: 2012, accident, camera, Central America, Costa Rica, Costa Rica Adventure 2012, fear of heights, filming, G Adventures, Gadventures, GAP, injured, injury, Montezuma, nose, photo, photography, tour, video, zip line, zip lining|0 Comments

Tourists are criticized for having their camera plastered to their face for their entire trip instead of interacting to the world around them like a normal person. I can attest I've been on both sides of this argument, there has been trips I haven't taken many photos, and other times I've returned home with thousands of similar images. But sometimes the dangers of over-photographing a trip has little to do with missed moments vs lasting visual memories. Sometimes the dangers are very real, from tripping on things you aren't aware of, stepping out into traffic, or in my case: getting a fractured