We're safely back from Costa Rica!
Lots of fun, lots of rest, some good food, many, many birds and beasts, lots of reading... not a cheap vacation, but memorable! A few highlights:
* A couple of full-day birding tours with
Johan Chaves, a very friendly and skilled guide; by full-day, I mean that he picked us up before sunrise, 05:30, and dropped us off after sunset, after 18:30. We saw all kinds of birds;
soul_diaspora will likely post a list soon. The macaws and toucans ("the Froot Loops bird!") get lots of attention, and are certainly good to see, but there are many, many less well-known ones well worth seeing.
* Dining at
Rancho el León, a great little restaurant close to our resort (about half an hour's walk) which had very good typical Costa Rican food at quite reasonable prices, and a very friendly owner to boot.
* A ziplining outing to remember at
El Santuario, with 9 lines in and above the jungle canopy, several so long that the end couldn't be seen from the start (the longest was almost a mile), plus some very neat cable bridges.
The bit of Spanish I learned through
Duolingo came in quite handy... I generally didn't need to carry a phrasebook, between the bits of English many folks spoke and my rudimentary Spanish.
And now, back to Canadian weather, work, and laundry... pictures may appear sometime, as a follow-up!