WhereAreWe

This morning we left the hotel at 7:00am to head to Monteverde Cloud Forest (a tropical rainforest). There is all kinds of plants, birds and mammals (sloth, monkey, ocelot, and pizote) that can be found in this rainforest. The drive took about 3.5 hours and the last 1-1.5 hours was uphill, curvy, bumpy (partly unpaved) road. The parking lot at the reserve was full, but the adventure tour company had room in their lot and were shuttling people the last kilometer to the reserve. The tickets were $22 for each adult. We started our walk towards the waterfall and It was a beautiful easy walk. We could hear so many different birds singing. This took around 45 minutes. We then headed towards the other side of the park and the suspension bridge over the cloud forest. ... read more

When booking our airport transportation I also booked a tour with the same tour company, Maleku. It turns out that we had the great fortune to have our tour guide be the same person that we were coordinating with in advance. Eugenia definitely made this a special day! From the moment my wife and I got in the van, I knew we would be instant friends. Though she was born, raised and live most of her life in Costa Rica, her English is a perfect Midwest accent thanks to a year as a foreign exchange student. The adventure tour we booked was a day at Rincon de La Vieja Volcano Area which included a plethora of activities: horseback riding, zip lines, water slide, visit to the old fashion sugarcane mill, and visit to the old kitchen ... read more

Left on Southwest at 8:30 this morning from Dallas love. We were a little nervous Because my passport expires in less than 90 days. Often airlines won’t let you fly if it expires too soon. The person who checked it at love Field had to ask a supervisor. He came back and said it was OK and put a big red stamp on all of our boarding passes. A short layover in Houston and we were on our way to Costa Rica. Diana was still worried that they wouldn’t let me in to Costa Rica, but I figured since were arty there they probably would. Luckily I was right. We had pre-arranged for a private driver to pick us up at the airport in Liberia and take us to our hotel, the RIU Guanacaste. The ... read more

We got a late start today, getting packed up for our flight latter in the day. We took the train into Manhattan and went to the Chelsea Market for lunch. This is one of those places that has a ton of little restaurants that just have counters or bars and they generally specialize in a few things. At first everyone was sort of put out by all of the confusion and a lack of places for all of us to sit down (this city is just not setup for families of 5) but we managed to find a stand-up table where we could park. We all had different stuff. I had a Thai noodle bowl and Di had a Banh Mi sandwich. Both were awesome. We didn't get a ton done today, just a short visit ... read more

Had a slow day today, so I'll make this one short. We had INCREDIBLE lobster rolls at Bostwick's in East Hampton and went to the Montauk Lighthouse. The lighthouse was very interesting with a long and detailed history. It was actually commissioned by George Washington while he was president and used as a lookout during WWII. We also saw Jackie Kennedy's house (when she was growing up) and is for sale... 52 million dollars if you have some spare change laying around.... read more