The quick answer to this question is yes, although logistically it is a little more complicated than that. If you are asking this question then more than likely you already know the background on both volcanoes, so I won’t bore you with those details. Instead I’ll give you some things to consider. Irazu Volcano is the easiest, of the two to visit. You don’t need a guide and you don’t need to hike. However, you do need to purchase your ticket online on the government website here. Be sure to purchase the Sector-Crater ticket. The cost is $15.00 for non residents and 2000 CRC to park. The park i ..read more

Costa Rica has 6 active volcanoes and 61 that are dormant. After seeing the Poas Volcano, I knew I wanted to see as many as I could. Turrialba is another active volcano in Costa Rica and not too far from Turrialba is Irazu volcano. I had ambitiously planned to see them both on the same day, and yes it can be done, but no, I was unable to do it. I will talk more about how to plan that trip in another post. Logistics Turrialba is over 10,000 feet high. It is the second highest volcano in Costa Rica. It is located about a 2.5 hour drive from San José, in the Cartago province, inside the Turrialba ..read more

*This is Part 4 of 4 posts of my trip to Guatemala. Here are the links to the other posts Part 1: Guatemala City, Part 2: Lake Atitlan, Part 3: Antigua The more I’ve traveled the smaller my bag has gotten. This time I wanted to challenge myself. Could I be comfortable and prepared, for a 5 day international trip, with literally only the clothes on my back? The quick answer is, yes, I was comfortable and prepared. So what did I fit into this little bag? Let me first share my mindset behind it all. First of all, Guatemala wasn’t my final destination. After Guatemala, I would be traveling home to ..read more

*This is Part 3 of 4 posts of my trip to Guatemala. I have provided links to the other posts as well. Part 1: Guatemala City Part 2: Lake Atitlan After spending 2 nights in Lake Atitlan, we took a boat back to Panajachel and a shuttle to Antigua. Antigua or Old Guatemala was the third capital of Guatemala. It is an earthquake-prone region and in 1773 it was largely destroyed by the Santa-Marta earthquake. At this point the capital was moved to Guatemala City. Antigua has the reputation of being the best preserved Spanish Colonial city in Central American. Hotel Museo Spa Casa Santo Domingo was ..read more

*This is Part 2 of 4 posts of my trip to Guatemala city. Here is the link to Part 1. You will find the links to additional post at the end. Lake Atitlan There is a 3.5+ hour drive from Guatemala City to Lake Atitlan (LA). You have to drive past Antigua to get there. Small town on the way to Lake Atitlan We would be circling back to Antigua after our stay in Lake Atitlan. Our Shuttle dropped up off at Panajachel. This town is located at the North shore of LA and the only place where private shuttles take you. From here, you go to the Panajachel docks and take a public boat to the village you’ll ..read more

*This is Part 1 of 4 posts of my trip to Guatemala. You can find links to the additional posts at the end of this one. When I moved to Costa Rica, I knew that visiting all of the Central American countries would become a travel priority. What I didn’t know was that it is not always cheap or fast flying to other Central American countries from SJO- the primary international airport of Costa Rica. Guatemala is one of the easiest Central American countries to travel to from Costa Rica. There are direct flights between SJO airport and Guatemala and you can book a flight for around $160 roundtrip ..read more

The first beach I visited in Costa Rica was Jaco. It is one of the most frequented beaches due to its close proximity to San Josè. It’s about a 1.5-2 hour drive away. It’s really easy to get to too, by traveling on toll roads Route 27 to Route 34. You can also get there via shuttle, taxi or bus. The town is small but bustling, with plenty of shops, bars and an abundance of outdoor things to do. The waters are good for surfing, not so much for a timid, open water swimmer like myself. The waters aren’t the prettiest either, rather dark and rocky. In some areas, the sand is white and clean while ..read more

It’s that time of the year again. D and I just celebrated our 11th anniversary on 11/11. We were definitely looking for a fun way to honor this day. We have done ATV riding in the Pocono Mountains in PA several times and we even enjoyed a few occasions of ATV riding in the desert of Qatar so we had to try it in Costa Rica too. I booked us a 3 hour ATV Jungle Waterfall Adventure through Viator and Adventure Tours Costa Rica. Jaco is about a 2 hour highway drive from San Josè so it was relatively close and easy to get to. This is where our adventure began. The excursion was $95.00 each but let m ..read more

It was about 9 pm when I started falling asleep Friday night. It was early but I had a long week and after one glass of Seville and tonic, I was done. I told my hubby, whom I’d been video-chatting with, I love you and called it a night. I’m a light sleeper and any light or sounds awaken me, so I put in one ear plug and covered my eyes with my blinders. About 4 hours later, something scared me half to death. I was awakened to my bed being shaken. I felt it once and thought I was dreaming until, it happened again. This time I jumped up because I thought a monster was under my bed. Half asleep, I ..read more

The Ring of Fire is a string of volcanoes and sites of seismic activity, or earthquakes, around the edges of the Pacific Ocean. Roughly 90% of all earthquakes occur along the Ring of Fire, and the ring is dotted with 75% of all active volcanoes on Earth (Nationalgeographic.org). Costa Rica is a part of the Pacific Ring of Fire and has over 200 identifiable volcanic formations. Today, however, only 100 or so show any signs of volcanic activity, while just five are classified as active volcanoes (govisitcostarica.com). So visiting volca ..read more