My hostel in Flores – Los Amigos

 Inside Los Amigos – it was packed with tourists, hammocks, plants, candlelights and great food and drinks

The French from Montreal

Somehow the gave me enough food to feed a whole family!

 The streets of Flores

Crossing from Flores over to Santa Elena

 Looking back to the little island of Flores… Flores is located in the middle of a small lake and consists solely of hotels, restaurants and tourist shops. There’s not a single supermarket, the only food shop sells snacks only.

The market in Santa Elena. Someone cooking soup! There were actually carrots in the water in that thing… I stood there for a while but noone came to sell me soup… 

I got a cowboy hat in the market in Santa Elena…

… and one of the bargaining tourist shop guys in Flores tried to buy it from me:)

Shawn, the Canadian who learnt Icelandic in five years, here wearing an Icelandic football shirt. We did a few Icelandic drinking songs and the Icelandic National Anthem for the crowd around the bonfire.

Nigist, Meklit and Juan

Ariga from Armenia

The Deutsch, German, Swiss and Icelandic

Shisha… I want one!

I’ve lost three cameras into the ocean… still I couldn’t stand the temptation of photographing the fish…

Coconot juice…

Opening coconuts with machetes

At first the beach looked isolated

but it didn’t last

The endangered red and deadly frog…

The bridge back to Costa Rica… I accidentally missed immigration and had to go back looking for it for my visa stamp – there was no border security visible!

Nkirote preparing some delicious Kenyan food!

Ciudad Colon, my Costa Rica town

Ross, the Fiddler

Hamish joins the party

“Not friends” he says… we’ll see about that…

Michelle gets some fifty points… game over for everyone else!

Father and son congratulate her… the apple doesn’t fall far from the oak one could say…

Attack of the birds… my little host sister Mari invades my room with her ugly chickens…

I wouldn’t hold them…

but I offered to help her name them…

hence, I called the first two Feo (ugly) and Culo (ass)

Mari, offended, named the third one Birta

Cooking for my hostmother that spoils me seven days a week:)

My hostmother and her granddaughter (my hostdaughter?)

Pina Coladas in Escazu!

El Pueblo… dance competition!!! What the hell was I thinking?

Does this really count as corporate social responsibility? To me, Corporate Social Responsibility is not necessarily about companies caring about saving the world… they may be all about profit for all I care as long as their efforts to generate profit are mutually beneficial to the environment and the people around. People’s criticisms focus a lot on how Dove is not really socially responsible as they will be generating profit but companies are also held accountable to their shareholders… when a company develops a Corporate Social Responsibility strategy, it does not mark the departure from being a corporation to being a non-profit, they’re mission is still profit but their harmful effects are diminished.