WE'RE BACK !!

Somebody said they were going to make daily postings on a blog, complete with photographs, while they were traveling. Hey .... that was me! I hadn't realized that when you travel to a Third World country things do not necessarily function the way they do in the good old USA. When I did encounter places that had Internet access it was of the dial-up variety with the computers running Windows 95. That combination did not allow me to post anything on Blogger.

But the trip was great. We definitely lived the "PURA VIDA". When we re-entered the US we had 1,066 photos on our three cameras. And that was after deleting at least 200 shots that were blurry, or the subject flew..ran..dove...whatever, just as we were clicking the shutter. We saw an incredible amount of exotic wildlife and got great shots of some of it. My wife is in the process of organizing all the pictures on her computer and we will be making a site on Flickr for anyone who wants to view the photos. (I make sneak a few into this blog as well).

The place we stayed at in Tortuguero was like the United Nations. There were people there from England, France, Germany, Spain, Canada, Japan, and two Chicago Bear fans from Northern Illinois. And that doesn't even consider guests from Costa Rica and Nicaragua! Bird Nerds come in many different nationalities.

Our day-hike at the La Selva Biological Station was tremendous. They are doing some very important rain forest research-work there. Our personal guide was extremely knowledgeable and found many things for us.

Our stay at the Selva Verde Lodge was very enjoyable. They've made many upgrades in their facilities and we felt pampered. The trip they arranged for us up the Sarapiqui River produced many species we never dreamed we'd see. We met a fascinating woman there as well. She was German born, married to a Cuban born gentleman, and currently lives just outside Washington DC. They had worked in the US Diplomatic Service and had been stationed at many exotic posts such as Cusco, Peru and Bangkok, Thailand. Her husband no longer likes to travel so she goes on her own to her favorite places such as South Africa, India, and Costa Rica. She is a very good birder.

Costa Rica was very kind to us, and we can't wait to go back.