After we stayed 1 week in Playa Hermosa, it was time to move to greener pastures, in Monteverde region. Monteverde is not a village with a real center, but rather a patchwork of group of houses on hill tops, giving it a distinct flavor. It contains a lots of activities for the whole family, and you could stay there for a week doing different things every day! We stayed in a rented house, a bit before Monteverde's reserve on Bajo del Tigre road. There were forest trails all over the place, so it was simple to take forest hikes at any time. Convenient and full of animals! We didn't visit Monteverde's reserve as it was crowded, but rather the Santa Elena, with similar look but more peaceful! In the reserve, we did Quetzal sounds. We didn't ... read more

We decided to take a little tour of North Nicoya's peninsula. More than 10 years ago, I did something similar between Samara and Montezuma, and really enjoyed it. You pass through ranches, isolated forests, ford rivers,etc.. real adventure. This time, we would go from Playa Hermosa to Ostional and come back by a shortcut through the mountains. WE stopped at different little villages, looked for animals, and finally reached Ostional. Sadly, it wasn't the turtle 'arribada' season, but it's a beautiful place anyway. The big fun was to come back through the mountains. The first part of the shortcut is paved and okay. But then, it gets very narrow and seems more like a moto cross trail. At one point, you reach the watershed line and see lots of telecommunications antenna. Then you go down, first ... read more

In this trip, one place I really wanted to go was Santa Rosa national park. It is a good example of well preserved dry tropical forest. In these forests, during dry season, most of the trees shed their leaves. It's like fall season in temperate places, except that it's scorching hot! On the plus side, animals are easier to spot and photograph. The park is not busy like Rincon de la Vieja, and you have some trails all for yourself. We entered from South side, and did all the trails before arriving to the coast. You can visit part of the park with a car. But the last kilometers before the sea is really rough. We did not regret the 4WD. We saw many animals, and some I never saw before. It's a relaxing place and ... read more

This was part of my trip to Thailand. I stopped one day in China. ( I did the same thing almost 20 years ago on a trip to the Philippines, where I stayed one night in Tokyo and explored downtown a bit. It was very cool!!).The airport is very modern and spacious. There are replicas of pagodas in the airport with little ponds and it's nice place to relax a while!! As we dropped from the plane, I noticed that air pollution is very severe, as a constant yellowish cloud was hanging in the air!! I slept in an hotel close to the airport. I had to get a temporary visa to get to the hotel, and it took very long to get it in the airport, (be wise and ask for it in advance)!! I ... read more

After 3 weeks in the country, I really wanted to go to Kuiburi park to end it well. Remember in my 1st blog on Thailand, my objective was to see and take pictures of 5 different wild animals. Only one animal was missing from my 'list': the elephant. I saw so many signs of their presence in Khao Yai park that I felt that with 2 or 3 days more a that place, I would have succeeded!! But finally, I have reached my objective, (YAHOO!!!), in Kuiburi. And I didn't only see one elephant, but 17.... Park rangers told us we were lucky that day because we began to see animals around 2pm, and usually, tourist begin to see animals at end of the afternoon. Is it because of the many storms there was the day ... read more