Travelers Inn San Antonio De Belen

... my connecting flight. I didn't even have time to put my shoes back on following security, so there was me red faced, bare foot, running through the departures hall bag in hand, only to find the connecting flight was running late anyway.

(note to self, fitness must be somewhat regained within the next 10 months)

After arriving in San Jose it was then time for the obligatory and much feared taxi ride ...

... and they had signs informing people of it. We will have plenty of opportunity to see other butterfly gardens, so no worries. We have been consuming a lot of water and stripping off layers of clothing as the day went on. The sidewalks (and I use that term loosely), are extremely hazardous. There are man hole covers every few feet that look precariously balanced. We tried to walk around them, but I envisioned falling to our deaths in to the ...

... it easy tomorrow. I am near downtown and can walk. I must have caught something in Mexico because now I have like athletes foot so I went to the pharmacia and got some pills and ointment. Sounds like a lot to do but just get rid of it. I have pictures and am trying to figure out how to download them from my camera using a strangers computer. Any suggestions, please send my way. Saturday I{m off to Panama early in the morning. Pictures to come

... from her patio kitchen. And to think we left behind ice and snow and were sitting in warm weather. We missed all our family and friends we left behind to cope with winter. Geni and Dave were our hosts "with the most". So nice to have a ride from the airport when we didn't know anything about the city. It was great as they helped us ...

... The marketability of ecotourism seems to depend almost as much on the surrounding nations' failures to preserve their scenery and wildlife as it does on Costa Rica's success in doing so. Whether, when, and how to proceed with such proposals as paving certain roads heavily traveled by tourists, opening or keeping open to the public fragile wetland areas, and allowing potentially damaging (and likely exclusive) resorts to be built on beachfront property is a ...

... very interesting, as well as examples of gold and silver coins and notes you also get information about how it evolved. As an example at one time they used other countries coins by drilling a hole in it and stamping it with the Costa Rican seal. Another example, in the 1950's they used there own money but drilled a hole in some of the coins and these could only be used by Lepers and those in isolation hospitals. They were so good that we spent almost three hours there ...

... each taking a lengthy hot shower. It was around 1:30 pm by the time we were ready to leave the RV Park. Thinking that it was now too late to go into downtown San Jose, we drove the short distance to the internet café to check up with people back home. We were nearly reading to leave the café, when Michael decided to ask the clerk if he knew of a computer repair facility in San Antonio de Belen. The clerk mentioned that they had ...

... photos of the same animal and both anxious to get going, we took turns making moo sounds at the cow, hissed and even talked peacefully to the large animal asking it to move along. Nothing worked. Finally, Geraldine had a great idea and with baseball bat in had she used it as a pointing stick to show the cow where to go. Voila! The cow followed the direction of the bat and walked calmly off the road. Hitting the gas we were back in ...

... for its capital. A group of us ventured out the first night to stroll the market areas to do a bit of shopping, and then we all had dinner at an Italian restaurant. 



The next morning we traveled by van for an hour-and-a-half drive to the La Selva Research Station, which is in the middle of the rainforest and our base for the next five days. Later we relocate to the other side of the Rio Sarapequi for the other half of the expedition. To get to La Selva, we drove ...

... to capture good close-ups of the animals, birds and butterflies, so we're afraid there are no photos to back up our sightings! As you probably know by now, we generally try to avoid the regular tourist activities, but nonetheless decided to experience the cloud forest from above by signing up for the "Sky Walk". Surrounded by the dense, dripping foliage of the forest, the hiking trail took us over a series of eight very long suspension bridges passing ...