Workshop at Salesiano Don Bosco ;)

After a week of travelling we were back in San Jóse and ready for another workshop. This time it was the elementary school of Salesiano Don Bosco's turn.

We started out with some games and different activities to get warmed up. Afterwards they got to try out gymnastics with our equipment we had brought!

After the workshop we had a little performance for the whole elementary school. They were so happy with having us there, and were so impressed with our performance. When we finished our performance the kids came to ask for our autographs! Here is Troels with the first girl to ever ask for his autograph :)

And of course everyone wanted pictures with us!

As long as we stayed at the school kids would keep coming to us asking for our autographs, even if they already got one.

It was a really nice experience to teach at this school, with all the motivated kids!!

¡Muchas gracias!

Surf's up in Santa Teresa!!

After 3 days with gymnastics in Palmares Troels and I decided we wanted to relax at the beach. We drove to Puntarenas to catch the ferry for the Nicoya peninsula, and continued to Santa Teresa! 

Santa Teresa is newly known for its white-sand beaches and world class surf ;) Our first day we walked kilometers of the white beach from Playa Carmen all the way up Playa Santa Teresa, and it was so nice and relaxed!

Of course we had to do some gymnastics on the beach. Further up you find Playa Hermosa and Playa Manzanillo!

After a long walk we found a perfect spot to hang up my hammock and rest at the beach :)

Most of the days were spent on the beach relaxing and surfing, so we didn't bring valuables. That's why we don't have too many pictures from this trip. Never the less we met with some locals who invited us to dinner and a party. It was lots of fun, and the next day they invited us to Montezuma!! We walked into a jungle and found a nice waterhole where we could swing and jump. At the edge there was a waterfall where we could jump off and into the next waterhole 16 meters down!! :D Thank you so much Raquel and Berneth for taking us here!!

After some amazing days at the beach we had to return to San Jóse where a performance and a workshop was awaiting. On the ferry going to Santa Teresa I tried to do the plank, but the captain blew the horn. Going back I tried again, and a bit more discreet ;)

¡Vamos a la playa!

Helping Juanita in Palmares :)

There is another club here in Costa Rica that is doing danish gymnastics! Last week Juanita invited us to help her out in her club in Palmares :) So we jumped on my bike and drove to Palmares where Juanita had organized everything for us to have a perfect stay! Juanita has studied different kind of physical and mental wellness around the world, and has now evolved her own way of training mind and body.

We were allowed to help out and show some of the danish gymnastics, like swing, balance and different exercises across the floor.

The ladies loved to make pyramides, so we finished off the class by making one!

The next morning Juanita had arranged for us to have a workshop at a local high school. This was a fun experience where hardly anyone could speak or understand english. They didn't have any equipment so we had planned some games and activities on the hard floor ;) Some activities like danish swing was difficult for many of them, and many kids didn't dare to try and just sat down to watch. It was difficult for us to make them join and try new things, but we improvised with different games and all in all it was a fun and good experience!

Later in the evening we teached in the club, and there everyone was motivated and happy to have us there! We had 3 different groups of young girls.

There was many girls on each team, and not too much space in the gym! I believe we had a total of around 60 gymnasts on the 3 different groups. It was so much fun, and we could see the joy in their faces!

The next morning there was a new class for body and mind ;)

We also had lots of fun with them!

And built more pyramids, haha!!

¡Muchissimas gracias Juanita!

Some amazing days in Bocas del Toro :D

When Troels headed back to San Jóse I continued my trip and went to Bocas del Toro in Panama. I did not want to take my chance crossing the border with my motorcycle or parking it somewhere near, so I parked it at Marloes' and got a shuttle from Puerto Viejo to Bocas del Toro. A mini van took us to the border where we had to walk across this bridge to enter Panama.

When we got over to Panama there was another mini van waiting to take us to the water taxi for Bocas del Toro. When we arrived on Isla Colon, which is the main island of Bocas del Toro, I must say I was a bit surprised. After all the rumors I had heard about the place I was expecting just beaches and loads of tourists. Instead I got there for the low season and on the main island the coast is filled with houses.

I started out trying to find a place to stay for the 3 nights I was planning to be in Bocas. There are loads of hotels and hostels around, and while walking down the street people would just shout at me and telling me where I should stay. I had brought my own hammock so I just needed a hostel where I could hang it up. Coconut Hostel was the spot, and here is the view from my "room" ;)

After hanging up my hammock and dropping off my luggage I went for a little adventure over to the closest island. I cought a water taxi for $1 and just started walking. It was actually a long walk to find a beach, but I did find it :) A nice and calm beach with a nice reef break where people were surfing the nice waves.

When I was walking back from the beach I meet some of the people I took the shuttle with, and I joined them. Back on the main island we searched for a tour for the next morning. We wanted to go on a boat and see different spots on the different islands. We quickly found Captain Willy who was a nice guy, and had a good tour for us. So the next morning we went with Captain Willy on his boat. The first stop was Dolphine Bay :D There's supposed to be about 400 dolphines in the bay, and some of them came up to greet us!

And show off some of their tricks ;)

We drove the boat in circles and the dolphines would play in the waves we made. It was such an amazing experience!! I just wish I could jump in and swim with the dolphines, maybe some other time!

Next stop was Crawl Cay where we had time to eat lunch and snorkle around :) The water was so clear, and there was so much life under water! I could have stayed snorkeling the whole day, but our next stop was the islands in the background, Isla Zapatillas, which I have heard are unbelievable pretty.

And just as I heard they were like paradise!! So calm, so pretty, so clear and warm water. I would just bring my hammock and live there!!!

And there's always time for some gymnastics ;)

 Unfortunately I wasn't allowed to stay on the island, so we headed back to the main island for the evening. I had a little walk to look what they had around. This is their main street which by night gets crowded by people ready for a party.

I spent a lot of time with a couple from Germany, and we checked out what offers we could get for scuba diving the next day! As a perfect dinner for this day I tried my first lobster. It was a challeng trying to figure out how to eat it, but it was so delicious!

The next morning we decided to go to Playa Bluff on the main island before we would head out scuba diving.

Now I started to believe the rumors I had heard about all the perfect beaches they have here, and still there are so many I didn't even have time to see! I also had a funny experience in the taxi on the way to the beach. When I sat down in the taxi I could here the girls that were sitting there talking swedish. So I started talking to them, and believe it or not the one girl had a sister who went to Ollerup! As if that's not enough, she went there with Maja and Jorge who owns the club I'm teaching at in San Jóse!!

It's impossible to describe how much I am enjoying travelling around!!

Puerto Viejo!!

The weekend I went to the carnival in Limón I met a couple from Canada, they were living in the same hostel as me. They asked if I wanted to join them to a rescue center for needing animals. I joined them, and I loved it. Volunteers from around the world come here to help injured and young orphant animals get back into nature! I was lucky to meet Marloes, who was my guide in the center, on the bus back to San Jóse. We talked the whole bus ride, and I said I would be back in Puerto Viejo soon! So when Troels and I arrived Puerto Viejo we invited Marloes and her friends out for dinner and some drinks. It was so nice, and the next morning we got a tour with Margherita ;)

As you can see from the pictures we got really close with the animals in the rescue center :)

The owner of the center is the mother of all the animals in the center, and they just love hanging around her!

After our group tour with Margherita we got a private tour with Marloes :D

We have never been so close to these kind of animals, and we even got to shake hands with the monkeys.

Also playing around and doing gymnastics with them :D

And hand feeding a tucan!

I have never seen a kinkajou, but the first time I got to tickle him ;)

Taking care of a sloth wouldn't be so bad.

I got a new friend to play with ;)

As this sloth, just enjoy life!

¡Pura vida!

Cahuita!!

From Tortuguero the trip went towards Puerto Viejo where we would stay with a friend I met there the weekend before. On our way we made a stop to walk around in Cahuita national park.

We would still find monkeys ;)

Also some other animals we have never seen before, and some of them were really difficult spotting.

We found a perfect spot to climb some palms and stop for a short swim :)

Unfortunately when we reached Punta Cahuita the trails were getting closed so we couldn't continue and see the whole park.

On our way back to the motorcycle we saw even more new animals!

And also some nice tree fungus :)