Three weeks later . . .

Hola mi familia y mis amigos! How time flies when you're having fun (or grading papers or dealing with sick students or whatever issues happen to come up). I'm going to do a few different posts from the last few days to catch you up on life down south.

The most important news is that Landis returned home safe and sound, and it's only a few days before the other half of our family arrives. Hurray!!

Before Landis left, she, I, and one of the students went on a most exciting and busy overnight adventure to the area of Tortuguero, on the northern Caribbean side of Costa Rica, best known for its turtle nesting. Unfortunately, the only turtle we saw was a little river turtle since the big sea turtles aren't around this time of the year. We left San Jose early on a Friday morning on a tour bus and traveled through the Braulio Carillo National Forest for a good part of our day and eventually down a very narrow, gravel road until we reached a Del Monte banana plantation--a fascinating thing to see, but I'm not sure I'd appreciate busloads of tourists snapping my picture all day long. From there we traveled through interesting little villages until we reached the river and canal systems of Tortuguero and the national park. From that point we traded our bus for a covered boat (much appreciated with the rain) and traveled with a new guide to our lodging for the night, the Evergreen Lodge. We were welcomed with a fruity drink and shown to our cute little rooms, had lunch, and got back on the boat for a tour of the canals. I don't have a lot of pictures of the birds and animals because a) it was raining and b)you need a really good camera--and some luck--to capture them. And I'm starting to favor the philosophy that you can either watch them or snap them--it's hard to do both. Suffice it to say that I wrote down over 30 birds named by the guide, marveled at him when he literally pulled a caiman out of the water because some of the tourists couldn't see it (he promised us that no animals were harmed . . .), lizards, one turtle, Spider and Howler monkeys, and some huge, scary crocs (two separate canal visits). We visited the Caribbean Conservation Center and learned about the sea turtle rescue and research that takes place there, walked along the beach to the village of Tortuguero and looked around there for awhile. Back at the hotel we swam in the turtle-shaped pool and enjoyed more wonderful Costa Rican food.

That night at dinner, I looked up and who should be walking by but Terri Kirchen (a retired friend from Elon and avid birder who was there with her husband and friends on a birding trip). Es un mundo pequeno! I saw my first toucans and several other beautiful birds around the hotel grounds and trails. The next morning we set out again for more water travel, but were not able to walk through the national park because of the rain. We did stop once to walk around a glade to find poison dart frogs (also called blue jean frogs), tiny one-inch red frogs with blue legs. Landis got some good pics, so maybe she'll send me one to post. After lunch we traded transportation again and had a rainy bus ride home. Since it was Saturday, we saw local residents socializing, couples riding bicycles, and cowboys herding steers in the road. All in all it was a fine couple of days to a place full of really interesting critters. A highly recommended place to visit in CR.

Scroll down for pictures.