For that trip, one of my goals was to find scorpions or tarantulas and take pictures of them. I can't help it, I love these critters!! I succeeded with the scorpions! I found one in the jungle at night, and the second one, my wife found it in her bed! But for rest of the trip, I can tell that's it's a beautiful and varied region as for the landscapes and nature, culture, food. In Yucatan peninsula, we visited Merida and Campeche cities, Celestun, (biggest concentration of pink flamingos in the world), Calakmul region where you have a cave with hundreds of thousands of bats that go out every night, and pass right by your face, (Cooool!) and also the ancient city of Calakmul deep in the jungle and with myriads of animals to see, and ... read more

This was my first time in Mexico. We wanted to see certains things in particular for a long time, like the winter home of the monarch butterflies. We also took the challenge, (kidding :-) ), of visiting places in Mexico city. The horror stories about that city, are exagerated. The city of New York is far more dangerous statistically speaking. In Mexico, like other big cities, you need to avoid a few neighbourhoods and use common sense not to attract thieves. We arrived in Mexico city. We stayed in a small hotel named Milan, in the "zona Roma". The area was nice, kind of middle-class neighbourhood, with business people and restaurants and plazas. We visited the "Bosque Chapultepec", a big park in the heart of the city. In the park, you have a mix of little ... read more

At last we were able to come back to Costa Rica, 2 years after the firs trip in 2005! Between the 2 trips visited some places in Quebec and in the states, (kentucky), but i really wanted to come back - Mi paraiso! We began by going to Carara national park, making sure to stop on the bridge over rio Tarcoles. One of the stop to easily watch a big group of Crocodiles. We then headed to Manuel Antonio park, a famous and small park, yet very interesting. Wildlife is easy to see here, at least the most popular ones. Moved south to Uvita and Marino Ballena park, and stayed in Uvita. The beach is superb, with the jungle in background! One entrance of the park leads to the Tombolo, a liitle strech of sand, when ... read more

Last time I visited a cave was 3 years ago in Virginia, and I still had vivid memories. Visiting a cave is like entering a totally different world, not spooky but fascinating. At last minute we decided to go to Kentucky state, mainly to visit the Mammoth cave national park. In Virginia, the cave was small but full of stalactites, stalagmites and other cave structures. In Mammoth cave, it's totally different as its more the sheer size of the cave system that is impressing. During a 2 hour tour, you visit only a very small fraction of the cave system. Some rooms, are big like the biggest concert hall you might imagine, while between them, very narrow passages, (vertical or horizontal), separate them. The forest above is also very beautiful, consisting of very old oak trees. ... read more

Whale watching, what a cool experience! We went to the little town of "Les Escoumins", just a few kilometers after the very popular Tadoussac. As soon as we arrived, we could see whales from the shores. We saw 3 species: the fin whale, (2nd largest after the blue whale), the mink whale abd the white beluga. We went East on the coast, until the Islands of Mingan: a collection of islands with naturally sculptured lime monoliths, lots of birds. Also, there's a mix of mixed pictures at the end.... read more