Don’t try this at home… (Pt 2)

 Adventure Holidays, Costa Rica Holidays, Nicaragua Holidays, Self drive holidays, Tailor Made Holidays, Travel musings, Walking Holidays, Wildlife Holidays  Comments Off
Oct 012012
 
canopy Dont try this at home... (Pt 2)

Dave is hard at work in Costa Rica, testing out the canopy

 

Unleash your inner Tarzan

Zip Wire. Zip Trek. Zipline. It goes by many names, but it basically involves wearing a rather undignified (and rather uncomfortable to certain areas) harness by which you get attached to a steel cable in order to sail through the upper reaches of the forest. Costa Rica (and, increasingly, Nicaragua) are nuts for it – here it goes simply by the name of “Canopy.”

Depending on your appetite for heights and adrenaline, this is either one of the most fun and exciting things you can do on your trip, or something not to be touched with a bargepole. In Costa Rica you can literally find this everywhere you go, often having been extended to incorporate abseiling / rappelling / hanging bridges / “Tarzan Swing” (you swing attached to a rope hanging vertically) / and sometimes even climbing.

Having tried this out once before (in British Columbia, the home of the concept), I was delighted to see this on offer all over the place. Certainly surprised though to see it even at Tortuguero, given its absolutely flat, sea level location! As Tortuguero is often featured at the start of a Costa Rica trip though, it’s a great chance to have a first taste of the fun for those a little unsure of the benefits…

Don’t try this at home… (Pt 1)

 Adventure Holidays, Costa Rica Holidays, Nicaragua Holidays, Self drive holidays, Tailor Made Holidays, Travel musings, Walking Holidays, Wildlife Holidays  Comments Off
Sep 282012
 
ashboard Dont try this at home... (Pt 1)

Now that's just showing off...

Unless you happen to have a suitably sized volcano in your back garden.

In this Central American realm of mountains, rivers and jungles, it seems there’s no limits to the ways people will dream up to hurl themselves up / down / along / over and through the natural terrain. While some people may look up at an active volcano and admire its form, others feel that the best thing they could possibly do would be to climb to the top. However, what goes up…

But how to come down? For most of us, the logical thing to do would be to walk / scramble back down as best as our feet can carry us. At Cerro Negro Volcano just outside Leon though, they have a different idea in mind – “ashboarding” (aka sandboarding in some places).

This, fairly obviously, involves something akin to snowboarding the descent, although most people invariably end up taking a rather more “posterior-centric” approach – volcanic sand and rocks not being quite so easy to turn on as fresh powder!

So if you’re looking for a speedier way down after having slogged up the volcano, make sure you remember the ashboarding option. They’ll give you some great protective gear, consisting of knee and elbow pads, goggles – and a really fetching boiler suit.

Do take a look if you’d like to hear about more of the Nicaraguan adventures you could have with Pura.

How many leaves does it take to make a hotel?

 Costa Rica Holidays, Nicaragua Holidays, Self drive holidays, Tailor Made Holidays, Travel musings, Walking Holidays  Comments Off
Jun 292012
 
totoco1 How many leaves does it take to make a hotel?

"Eco" certainly need not mean shabby!

I was not surprised, during my travels in Costa Rica, to hear the words “green,” “eco,” “sustainable” etc at pretty much every turn. Long held as a pioneer and world leader in the field of responsible tourism, the Costa Ricans have earned the right to bang their drum on this subject – commendably so – but they do bang it pretty hard at times.

What became evident, over the course of my time there, and moving into Nicaragua, was that you did need to read between the lines on occasion to ascertain the true eco-value of the property in question. A lot of buzzwords were much bandied about, but sometimes it could be questioned as to how much environmentally conscious work was actually being undertaken.

This mainly came to light after having seen a couple of really exemplary hotels, who were obviously going the extra mile in minimising waste and making themselves sustainable – yet one or two hotels were prone to a bit too much spiel, without much in the way of evidence. We heard a lot about leaves – in Costa Rica, there is a “Green Leaf” system appointed to hotels – like the star rating, but wholly concerned with eco matters. 5 green leaves are hard to come by, and harder to keep, yet some people seemed strangely proud of their 3 leaves!

Although they couldn’t tell me how many green leaves they had (no such system exists in Nicaragua) one property in particular stood out. The Totoco Eco Lodge, on Ometepe Island, is a shining example of what can be achieved. Properly thought out from origin, every design, development and action within the property is founded on sound principles of waste reduction and beneficial products – in a 3-pronged approach. Aside from the very low impact accommodation, there is an organic farm and a development centre designed to improve the lives of those throughout the community, not just the employees and owners of the lodge.

After a lot of the buzzwords bandied about, it was great to see somewhere which really put some substance into the sustainable. Read more about our Nicaraguan holidays here.

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