Hotel Le Priss Inn Quepos

... for the sunset. No luck unfortunately, but it certainly was beautiful. I eventually found him at a local bar having mojitos with Debbie, Laurie and Brian. It causes me some anxiety not having a cell phone when I'm trying to find Sean or whomever, but it has been remarkably easy to find one another when we separate. They are such small towns, it's a breeze. In fact it's kind of fun to think, 'well he's not at the restaurant yet, where would he have gone...' Wonder around a ...

... in a plastic bag and a racoon was trying its utmost to extract the bag from my rucksack, literally at my feet! Shy is not a word to use to describe these animals. We had a good tug-of-war going on but in the end the racoon won when he finally extracted the plastic bag and scampered off into the undergrowth. Even me giving him a kick or two did not deter him from his goal!

... lane bridges to the north. If we had seen a similar place in Detroit, we would have locked our doors and left town. But in the next few days we got used to the town and shopped and ate there (amazing what happens when you adjust to the environment). The town and park of Manuel Antonio is up the hill and above the town of Quepos. We called and got directions to our lodging at Blue Banyon Inn. We found out it was outside the city ...

... While on the tour, we learned about the plants (both indigenous and not), and also saw a number of different types of lizards, monkeys, bats and sloths. The only down-side of the tour was that it was brutally hot if there was no shade. As it was that hot at 9:00 a.m., I could only imagine how hot it would be later in the afternoon. After the tour, we stayed in the park and whiled away the rest of the afternoon at one of Manuel ...

We finally made it to Manuel Antonio park for the first time on this trip. We walked through the park, wondering why we hadn't come earlier, looking at sloths, monkeys and Iguana. We saw 2 and 3-toed sloths high in trees, lots of Iguanas of all sizes, a Jesus Christ lizard, hermit crabs and white-faced monkeys putting on a show for the tourists. We also saw a Ringed Kingfisher at the beach. A lot of the animals seemed to ...

Part of my occasional exhaustion here has come from living life carpe-diem style (as in seize-the-day-right-here- right-now-as-you-don't-know-when-it's-g oing-to-end style). Part of it is from going on hours-long hikes, and then returning to a world where my brain is constantly working (I am now conjugating verbs in my dreams -- no kidding). And part of it is from a dramatic shift in diet -- to one that is extra-low on ...

In spite of being exhausted Wednesday night, I attended English classes for adults at my school. There I met Dayana, a 19-year-old sophomore at a university in a nearby city who is studying natural resources. Her English is excellent and we had a good time talking about life in college for students in Costa Rica and in the U.S. We also made a plan to go hiking to a place called the Yellow Church the following day. My family told me it was ...

... rules almost simultaneously was, to say the least, an optimistic endeavor. The rum and coke did not help! From rural Ometepe to urban Granada, a very charming city with Colonial architecture, power cuts and water shortages (despite torrential rains). From Granada to Leon, a much grittier place once a hotbed of political activism and with a magnetism all its own. It was a bit like visiting Edinburgh then Glasgow, I thought, as far as "character" goes. From Leon ...

... to gather strings for to make jewelry and the pocketbooks. I was the only person there so all of their attention was on me :), it was really cool. From there I went back to La Palma on horse back and after a day and a half of traveling I am in Quepos which is where Manuel Antonio National Park is located. When I got off the bus I ran into someone I roomed with in Bocas, Panama so she took me up to her hostel and we went to the national park. We only ...

... the park.... and saw some Howler monkeys distantly in the trees ... (gotta go, at a hostel now, and some friends showed up, finish soon) OK... running out of time to write, and since a picture is worth 1000 words, I'll just post a few pictures. Lets just say the morning turned out great, and I finally got to see the white faced monkeys! Took some really good pictures, up close and personal.