Our Time Has Come...

After countless bus rides, hundreds of gallons of bottled water, 5 countries and 4 volcanoes we are finally ready to head back north. It continues to get hotter down here and that makes bus travel rather unpleasant--especially, if you are two softies from Washington. So with dreams of air conditioning in mind, we are making the trek back to Guatemala city where we will catch our airplane. If all goes well we should be in Los Angeles by next Thursday, with plans to visit relatives in California and Arizona before returning to the Northwest.

It is strange and sad and a relief to end this journey. As we buy our last souvenirs, we smile in remembrance of all the memories we have mixed together in the menudo of our adventure. Central America has started to feel a tiny bit familiar from people we´ve met, to strange animals, to songs we know when they come on the radio. Some of it seems so far away already, but I am sure that the jewels will remain in my memory. Then there are the pleasures of home to look forward to--soft places to sit, knowing where we will sleep at night, understanding what people are saying to us and most of all being around friends and family.

We spent the last week in Costa Rica, which was a big shock after Nicaragua.We began calling it "Central America Lite" with cleaner streets, people using garbage cans, nice buses, American style dress, and English often replied to our Spanish. Scenic destinations felt like Disneyland with tours everywhere and high prices for everything. That being said, the wild life in Costa Rica is outstanding. I was amazed at how much there is to see.

Our first stop was Monteverde, with its famous cloud forest preserves. Here we are with a few people looking at the Three Wattled Bell Bird, a very rare species in Costa Rica with only 52 birds counted this year (60 is the limit before a species is considered in crisis).

A dink frog that Kevin discovered inside a bromeliad (they´re call goes "dink dink dink", Kevin thought they were talking to him). I was really enthusiastic about poking around in bromeliads and looking for frogs until our guide informed us that there is a small pit viper that lives inside the plants. That stifled my curiosity rather quickly.

The could forest on a rare sunny day. Pictures will never do this place justice.

One of our favorite trips at Monteverde was SkyWalk. A 3 km trail through the cloud forest using suspension bridges to walk through and above the canopy. It was a treat to look down on the trees and all the birds and monkeys that live in them. Our trip there also included the obligatory zip line tour, which we had to admit was really fun. It was much higher and faster than our zipline in Nicaragua, 300 meters up, 900 meters long at 40mph!

You may need to clean the inside of your computer screen from the belly of a this tree frog. Visiting about 30 species of Costa Rican frogs in a frog museum proved to be the best way to spot these critters who spend the days hiding and nights in the canopy. We got to see the red eyed tree frog and poison arrow frogs, species Kevin has always wanted to see in person. They´re rad!

Apparently, Kevin was aware that there is a dress code for Americans hiking in the Monteverde Cloud Forest. And the frogs say "dink dink dink".

Clouds rolling over the continental divide at Monteverde.

Our next stop was the Pacific coast beaches of Manuel Antonio National Park. What you can´t see is that I am sweating like a pig and it was only 8:30 am. This is one of the most popular parks in Costa Rica and this beach was packed with tourists by 11:00 am. We were surprised how much it reminded us of beaches in Washington and Oregon with sea stacks and offshore islands, except for the water being warm like fresh urine. Ahhh, refreshing.

Kevin and me laying on the beach. This is what happens when you don´t wear sunscreen.

There were huge troupes of white faced monkeys in the park. We had looked for them really hard at Monteverde, but they were everywhere at Manuel Antonio. We also realized that you don´t have to look for them because you can hear them coming from a mile away. They scour every crevice in the forest for food. We saw one monkey find and devour a HUGE scorpion...tail first. Yummy!

I know this picture is sideways, but you´ll have to bear with it. This is the altar next to our room at the Hotel Elvis in San Jose, Costa Rica. Betcha didn´t know there we dinosaurs and alligators present at the birth of baby Jesus. At night it was lit up with blacklights. Viva Central America!

Our next blog will likely be coming to you stateside unless we get roped into some unkown adventure here.

Cheers, Chrissy and Kevin