Costa Rica - Lili on the Loose

29 08, 2016

Travel Missteps: ¿cómo se dice “Hangover”?

By Lili|August 29th, 2016|Categories: Travel, Travel Missteps|Tags: 2012, bar, Central America, Costa Rica, Costa Rica & Orlando Adventure, Costa Rica Adventure 2012, drinking, hangover, Orlando Adventure 2012, San Jose, security|0 Comments

The first night's hotel. Wonderfully big beds! My first night in Costa Rica was in a 5 star hotel because my original hotel was overbooked. Fluffy big beds, clean sheets, fresh flowers in the room, AC; that hotel was heaven. The breakfast was amazing and the hotel's decor natural but also stylishly modern. Weird Egyptian themed hotel room art in Costa Rica. My last night, was in the original hotel...was quite the opposite. For one, the room was strangely decorated in an Egyptian motif. The beds small and uncomfortable. I also drew the short straw and got

8 08, 2016

Museum Monday: Stone Jaguar

By Lili|August 8th, 2016|Categories: Museums, Travel|Tags: 2012, Central America, Costa Rica, Costa Rica Adventure 2012, Jaguar, San Jose, statue|0 Comments

This stone Jaguar is from the Museo Nacional de Costa Rica in San Jose. A cute stone Jaguar Museum Monday is an every other week series about museum news, objects, and reviews.

24 06, 2016

Pura Vida – Pink Sunset

By Lili|June 24th, 2016|Categories: Nature & Outdoors, Photography, Travel|Tags: 2012, beach, Central America, Costa Rica, Costa Rica & Orlando Adventure, Costa Rica Adventure 2012, G Adventures, Gadventures, GAP, Montezuma, ocean, Photo Friday, sunset|0 Comments

This was a peaceful beach near the hostel I was staying at in Montezuma, Costa Rica. I found a lot of sea glass on this beach while I watched the sun set. Every Friday Lili shares her favorite photography & the stories behind the photos.

10 06, 2016

Close Up – Hibiscus

By Lili|June 10th, 2016|Categories: Nature & Outdoors, Photography, Travel|Tags: 2012, Central America, Costa Rica, Costa Rica Adventure 2012, flower, G Adventures, Gadventures, GAP, hibiscus, Montezuma, Photo Friday|0 Comments

Walking along the hostels of Montezuma beach I saw this beautiful Hibiscus flower, and attempted this close up. Every Friday Lili shares her favorite photography & the stories behind the photos.

8 06, 2016

Under the Sea – World Oceans Day 2016

By Lili|June 8th, 2016|Categories: Nature & Outdoors, Travel|Tags: 2011, 2012, 2013, Bacalar Chico, Bacalar Chico National Park, Bacalar Chico National Park and Marine Reserve, Belize, Caribbean, Caye Caulker, Central America, Coral, Costa Rica, Costa Rica Adventure 2012, Flounder, Isla Tortuga, Mayan Encounter 2013, ocean, Sea Grass, Sea Turtle, Sergeant Major, St. John, St. John 2011, Starfish, Sting Ray, The Little Mermaid, turtle, UNESCO, UNESCO World Heritage Site, USVI, Waterlemon Caye|0 Comments

Today is World Oceans Day. With so many news stories of rising ocean temperatures and bleached corals, now more than ever is it important to protect this important part of our ecosystem. So today I share some of my favorite snorkel photography and hope we can all help protect the oceans. Above is Waterlemon Caye, off of St. John USVI. The large school of fish you can see are Sergeant Major, my favorite fish. Here you can see more Sergeant Majors near Isla Tortuga, Costa Rica. I like this fish as it reminds of me the coloring of Flounder from the

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

17 02, 2016

30 at 30: Best Experiences So Far

By Lili|February 17th, 2016|Categories: Travel, Travel Memories|Tags: Abu Simbel, Africa, Anaheim, Antigua, Asia, Aswan, Bath, Belize, Belize Barrier Reef, Bent Pyramid, birthday, Bostan, California, camping, Canyon Ranch Spa, castle, Caye Caulker, Cenote, Central America, Champ de Elysee, Chino, chocolate, Christmas Market, CIE, Concert, concert photography, Costa Rica, Dahshur, Dashur, DC, Disneyland, Egypt, England, Epiphany Night, Europe, Ewok, fireworks, Florida, France, G Adventures, Gadventures, GAP, Germany, golf carts, Great Britan, Guatemala, Harry Potter, haunted, Ik Kil, Ik Kill cenote, Ireland, Island of Adventure, Italy, Japan, Karnak, Lake Placid, Las Vegas, Latin America, lightsaber, Luxor, Massachusetts, memories, Mexico, Middle East, Munich, museum, Nagano Prefecture, Nevada, New York, North America, Orlando, Paris, photography, Playa Del Carmen, Pyramids, racing, Red Pyramid, reef, Rome, San Francisco, sharks, sheep, Sister Cities, snorkeling, Spa, St. John, Star Wars, Suwa, swimming, temples, The Vatican, Tokyo, tombs, tour, Trafalgar, Trajan's Column, travel experiences, trolly, Tucson, UK, UNESCO, UNESCO World Heritage Site, Universal Studios, USA, USVI, Vatican, Vatican City, Washington DC, white water rafting, Wizarding World of Harry Potter, yukata|1 Comment

Today is my birthday, and I've hit the "Big 3-0". I wanted to look back at 30 of my favorite travel memories in my life, in no particular order: Fulfilling my dream of going to Egypt, seeing so many amazing tombs and temples Sitting alone in the temples of Abu Simbel and Karnak Climbing into and on top of a pyramid Wandering the Christmas Markets of Munich Seeing the castles of Germany Taking a haunted trolly/walking tour of Boston graveyards. Seeing as many museums as I could in Washington, DC Swimming with sharks in Belize Racing golf-carts on Caye Caulker Making

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.

31 08, 2015

Travel Missteps: The Early Shuttle

By Lili|August 31st, 2015|Categories: Travel, Travel Missteps|Tags: 2004, 2012, Asia, Bath, button, Central America, Colorado, Costa Rica, Japan, North America, packing, pants, sewing, shuttle, Sister Cities Japan 2004, Super Shuttle, USA|0 Comments

I use to be a horrible packer, waiting until the last minute. This lead to many sleepless trips such as the time I finished packed at 4AM for my trip to Japan. Unfortunately my shuttle was picking me up at 4:30 AM so there was no point in sleeping. But one day that changed in me. I started to have everything packed and ready in advanced. And then I started cleaning my entire home and having it ready for when I returned. That was always nice as now when I get home, no matter how tired I am, I unpack

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