Enjoying ourselves still!

This is a very cool part of Costa Rica, although getting around it a touch tricky. Today we kayaked in an estuary and in a river that is bordered by mangroves. These trees are adapted to living in the salty water that flows up the river from the ocean at high tide. Some have leaves that actually gather and release the salt, other species have tall roots that hold them above the salt water. They provide habitat to crabs, fish, birds and many other species, and create a shadowy, mysterius, very beautiful forest. We saw several white ibis, ringed herons, green backed herons, a tiger heron, and many flycatchers. At one point a brown pelican landed near our kayaks and swam with us for a while... it seemed curious! We also saw a Pacific Ridley sea turtle swimming in the estuary... it would lift its head above the water for a few seconds, then dive. I also talked with a woman who is involved with the Community Rural Tourism movement. We stayed on a farm that is connected with this movement in Bijuaga a few weeks ago. The idea is to use tourism to bring income into local rural communities where farmers are losing their land to agribusiness interests. Visitors learn about local peoples´lives and share information with friends at home. We are both very interested in this movement, and plan to promote it when we get home. Tomorrow... the JUNGLE! Monday we will start to head south into northern Panama for a week or so. Then we will move north through Costa Rica again, to catch our plane back to the States. I will try to check in tomorrow evening if we are not too exhausted. What is going on in the US anyhow? We have heard there are huge wildfires in Colorado and other western states, and that the Supreme Curt upheld the health care plan. Other than that...¿Que pasa?

¡We love Puerto Jiminez!

Getting to this town was an adventure in itself. We took a very slow bus, feeling very nervous that we would miss our transfer. We were on time and wound up waiting for an hour at a crossroad of two highways, with nothing around but a restaurant, a gas station, and a stand where a woman was selling bean tamales (quite yummy.) We knew we were ok because other people were waiting. The bus took us on winding jungle roads, and we arrived at dinnertime. This town is amazing... very relaxed, and very pretty. It is on the shores of Golfa Dulce, one of the deepest gulfs in the world. Today while biking around town we saw scarlet macaws, caimans, a huge blue morph butterfly, a colony of nesting white ibises with cheeks, and more!! We are planning further adventures, and will update. Again, it is a comfortable and safe town with lots of infrastructure... pix will come!

We love Uvitas!

This has been a really nice kickback stop on our way south. We got drenched in a downpour on Monday, our first real soaking. Yesterday we hiked to a lovely waterfall and a bamboo forest, accompanied by a mischevious and friendly black dog who we named Noche. He seems to get a big kick out of hiking with touristas. In the afternoon, we found ourselves at Ballena Parque Nacional, an exquisite place. There is a long peninsula stretching to the ocean, it splits into two parts at the end and resembles a huge whale´s tail... hence the name! This is a place where high hills covered with tropical forests reach the ocean. The beach itself is bordered by forests and palms, and there are clear, winding rivers that wander from the trees to the sea. The beach is covered with yellow, tan and ivory clam shells. Red and while burrowing crabs scurry to the holes where they hide. Vultures, royal terns and other birds hang out in small groups like political caucuses on the beach. Quite a find! We are now heading for Puerto Jimenez on the Osa Peninsula. This region is one of the wilder parts of Costa Rica, but the town has lots of infrastructure - hotels, food, internet, busses, a small airport, health services, etc. We expect to be in the region a week or so. And yes, we will get photos up when we find a computer that is compatible with our memory cards. ¡Adios para ahora!

´We´re in the town of Uvita for a couple of nights. It´s on the coast, mostly agricultural but with an expat community. Lots of birds and butterflies. This afternoon we plan to hike to a bamboo forest and a waterfall. Tomorrow we hope to make it to the Osa Peninsula.

¡Una dia fantastico!

People will tell you not to go to Manuel Antonio National Park, claiming that it issmall, crowded, and surrounded by chintzy development. Do not listen to them! These comments are true, but irrelevant. You can hike the trails and hang out on the beaches on one long day (we just crowded),but our day was superlative! The scenery (tropical forest next to the ocean with offshore rockformations thrown in) is superlative! We saw three species of monkeys today... howler monkeys staring at us, spider monkeys swinging high in the trees, and a troupe of white faced cappuchine monkeys... including a mom with a baby on her back. Sloths (very slow moving mammals that look like big, shadowy furballs in the trees) were everywhere, as were iguanas and many other lizards. We also saw a monitor lizard - this is the species that runs across water on two legs, looks like a small dinosaur, and has a tail that actually mimics the shape of leaves so it can hide in trees. This one jumped out of a tree, hung out close to an amazed group of people before scurrying off on two legs. We saw much more - flowers, many wild fungi, a toucan, woodpeckers, and a huge pelican flock over the ocean. We will get some shots up when we have a dependable computer. We are making our way south to the Osa Peninsula, the real wilderness of Costa Rica, where we will hang out for a week or so. We will stop halfway in between, after a 3 hour busride tomorrow, and stay in a town that sounds great, but whose name I can{t remember. We will be there one night, maybe two... if I have a computer I will check in. Internet cafes may get a touch spotty... but I am hoping not, will check in when we can. Oh yes, happy belated Summer Solstice!!

Howler Monkey, Ometepe Island

Volcan Concepcion, Ometepe Island

Butterflies and wasp on mango, Ometepe Island

Ay Nicaragua, Nicaranguita...

Many of you probably know that song. Yesterday was a series of misadventures. It was HOT!!! and everything we tried to go to was closed. We did have a nice walk through a forested area.Today we visited an anthropological museum on Ometepe. Very interesting. The guide spoke Spanish and minimal English, but I followed the gist of what he said, Kate did better. People may have come here from central Mexico. At any rate they traded with the Mayans, there is a big Mayan influence on their art, and ceremonies. They did some agriculture, corn and cocoa, and traded with places as far away as Columbia, and possibly Baja California. We both love Ometepe Island, and Nicaragua, but the heat here is driving us mad. We plan to come back sometime in the winter when breezes make it a bit cooler. Today we will cross the Lake, and stay one night in the town of Rivas. Friday we will catch a bus and head for coastal Costa Rica, which looks like it is cooler (we hope. ) We will be in Manuel Antonio National Park on the weekend, another place we have lots of nostalgia for... next post will be from there. Yes we will get Ometepe pix up, we have some good ones. ¡Adios para ahora!

Ometepe

First, a note to Kendra, who asked if Kate and I were kayaking through mnangroves. Some of the trees, like mangroves, have buttress roots that lift them out of the water, probably to let parts of the roots get oxygen. Lake Managua is freshwater, mangroves live in brackish estuaries, with salt water on the bottom and freshwater on tops. We will be seeing mangroves later, hopefully kayaking through them, and will definetly post. There is supposedly a male witch on Ometepe Island who will give you a life of luxury in retun for your soul. At the end of your term, you become a cow in one of his fields. We haven´t encountered him. Today we visited Charque Verde, an ecological preserve that has been reforested after its use as a farm. There were fantastic views of Volcan Concepcion, as well as many new butterflies, red dragonflies, green lizards with blue tails (green anoles), many birds, and howler monkeys. A mother and two young ones were in a tree twenty feet above us, and they seemed to think we were pretty interesting. It is astounding to meet our tree dwelling cousins in their natural habitat... makes you feel like you are dropping all your problems and old patterns, and leaping out to meet the forest. After that we swam at Ojo de Agua, a mineral spring. The Nicaraguan man who sold us the ticket said it makes 70 year 0lds feel like they are 40. I will have to come back when I am 40 to test that hypothesis. All I can say is it was a sublimely relaxing swim. More adventures tomorrow, buenas noches!

At the base of a volcano

We are on Ometepe Island in Laga Nicaragua (Lake Nicaragua). This land form was originally two islands, each with its own volcano; my understnding is that lava flows from the volcanoes connected the islands. We are in a hotel at the base of Volcan Concepcion, the taller one. It looks something like an inverted cone with the tip torn off... craggy and rough. Lava flows cover its flanks. Forests reach half to 3/4 of its slopes: plant communities on the margins of the forests give some of the dark rocks a green tint. There must be streams in some of the lava flows, trees border them. Clouds sometines cover the peak, sometimes form a ring around it... astounding! It changes all the time. I will post photos! We walked a long way on a dirt road near the lake today. We say literally hundreds of butterflies of all sizes and color: gray, black and white, pure white, bright yellow, pale yellow, iridescent blue. There were also astounding birds: many vultures, an osprey (aka fishhawk), herons, and some astounding birds that we think are blue and white magpie jays. We will try to include a photo of them sometime, they don´t stay in one place long. They are beautiful, huge, and loud! We got here this afternoon, and will be here until Thursday. We hope to connect with the agricultural collective, but decided our Spanish is too weak for us to base ourselves there for a homestay. Expect more from here. Last comment: IT IS HOT AND HUMID!!!

Heron on lily pads, Las Islettas.

Las Isletas!

Today we kayaked through Las Isletas, small islands near Granada in Lake Managua. I have to research this, but I believe they are volcanic formations. This was fabulous! We saw small herons walking on lily pads, kingfishers chasing each other among the forested islands, cormorants and an ibis on the shores and in trees. Butterflies and dragonflies of all colors crossed the lake with us. People live on these islands - we passed several farms with chidkens, and childen who called, !Hola! Later we visited Parque Sandino. This park celebrates Nicaraguan poetry; there are sculptures of poets´faces, with a poem carved into the sculptures. Fascinating to this writer! We leave Granada tomorrow and will go to Ometepe, an lsland in Lake Managua for 3-4 nights. We may stay on an agricultural coop there, and may not have internet access. There will be internet cafes. I will post in a few days, if not before.

Here´s Paul on our kayak trip at Las Isletas.

Kate and the school she helped to build, Pio Dolce, Nicaragua

Kates Special Day

Today we took a bus to Pio Dolce, a village where Kate lived and helped build a school years ago. It was a very special visit... we found the house where she lived, and the mother of the family was there. Kate recognized her immediatly, and gave the woman photos of her family from years ago. Tme woman was very happy to see Kate! It was a really exciting encounter. After that, we walked up to the school, which is functioning very well. Kate says the village has changed. There used to be no paved roads or phone wires, and people were always walking their cows through the village. Many changes. It is wonderful that we found this place! The bus ride was an adventure in itself. Many Nicaraguan busses are aging school busses from the U.S. This one had stickers of Jesus and the Holy Family on the door; stickers of Spiderman, Snoopy, the main characters from CARS and many others were above the dashboard. People were crammed in so tightly that three shared a seat while others stood. The sound system blared loud hip hop, Cumbia, and other music the whole time. Intense though this sounds, it was fun. The ride back was less crowded and crazy. I hope everyone is well, it feels like rain in Granada.

Granada, Nicaragua

This colonial city, founded in the 1500s, was partially destroyed by the North American madman William Walker, who tried to set himself up as emperor of Central America in the 1850s. He failed in that task, but did make a mess of things. Today, Granada has a beautiful central square where kids do acrobatics and dance. Many neighborhooda have stucco row houses, brightly painted - green, orange, one pink on top and brown on the bottom. Many people ride about in two wheeled horse carts, also bikes, and motorbikes. We walked through a market where people sold fruit, sandles, pants, electric fans, and much more on the street. Parque Sandino -Sandino Park, dedicated to the national hero of Nicaragua, has sculptures where artists have inscribed poems. I couldn´t translate them, but one line stuck with me... ¨yo soy triste con un policia´- "i am sad like a policeman¨. we met a street poet today who is a local legend, and he created a poem for us on the spot. Lake Managua is beautiful: We could see the volcanoes of Ometepe Island, which we will visit in a few days. With all its beauty, this city is very stratified economically, and very divided politically. Daniel Ortega is president of Nicaragua; we have heard from a trustworthy source that he and the Sandanista Party are considered corrupt. Still there is a lot of pro-Sandanista graffiti, and what could be anti Sandinista graffiti too (hard to tell with our weak Spanish.) We will do some research when there is time. We will post pix when we have a computer that will upload them reasonably quickly. It is HOT here... hope you are all well.

We are alive and well...

I have had trouble with this site... sorry for the delay. We have been at a wouderful B&B called Caasitas Tenorios for the past few days. This is a organic farm owned by a Costa Rican named Donald and his wife, Pip, who is from Austrailia. They run it as a way to bring steady income to farmers in this region, while working to preserve the environment. The issues here are deep and complex. We had long discussions with Donald about their work (Pip is in Austrailia). Louis feels that most of the tourist industry in Cost Rica is owned by people from other countries, and that the money is taken out of the country. Casa Tenorio wants to bring stability to the coutryside in tbhe face of all tbis. See www.casasitas tenorios.com for details. The farm is beautiful. The rainforest was cleared from this region for farming decades ago, some of the old forest still runs through this property. Donald and Pip work with a local youth group that wants to reforest the area and create a wildlife corridor between two volcanoes and wild areas. We saw sloths in the trees, and howler monkeys woke us at dawn. A flock of parakeets flew loudly over the farm all the time. There wee so many bird songs that it was hard to distinguish among them, although we were doing it by the time we left. The same held true for flowers, trees and other plants. We could see the two volcanoes from the property. One is Volcan Tenorio, I am forgetting the name of the other. We miss this place, I will post pix soon. We wre now in Granada, Nicaragua, which is both a place where traditional Nicaaguan communities thrive and a center for the international party crowd. It is beautiful, and rather overwhelming. We will be here until Monday, more details to follow. For now... I gotta mellow out! More to come, stay tuned.

Estamos aqui!

First of all, thanks again to Mayf, Pam. and their son Mike for the hospitality in Ft. Worth. We really like the Nature Center, with its cottonwood and oak lined river, and air filled with butterflies and dragonflies of all colors! We are in Allejuela, a relatively small town outside of San Jose, the capital. We first came here in December 1001, shortly after 9-11, our hearts shredded by the madness of terrorism and the corresponding madness of war drums. It was great to get away. It was ChristmastimeÑ santas danced on the streets, houses were decorated, people were in fiesta mood. It{s still an interesting town. It feels more congested. We don{t remember the barbed wire on walls around houses, there are more beggars on the streets than then. It seems the world wide recession hasn{t missed Costa Rica surprise, surprise! Still, this is the same town in many ways. We found people gathering in the central park. A clown made an egg appear in a kerchief held by a delighted girl, while other children cheered. A group of people played traditional music on a glockenspiel while others danced. We had a Chinese dinner last night. The walls had pictures of traditional Chinese art, a poster of the rock band AAerosmith, and a poster for the old Oliver Stone film, [The Doors. Note... there is a problem with some of the punctuation keys on this computer. Allajuela is a town of narrow streets, many practical, day to day shops. There is a nice cathedral in the town square, I will post pictures if I get a chance. Birds call from all trees... I want to see who is talking but they stay hidden. People are as friendly as ever, and sppreciate that we try, sometimes successfully, to communicate in Spanish. Today we found a bilingual bookstore run by an expat. It had Costa Rican literature in Spanish, books like WHAT{S WRONG WITH KANSAS, and books from the U.S and Central America. The background music was a collection of Joni Mitchell{s hits. The highlands are in the distance, covered with clouds. We are getting ready for wild places, still considering where tomorrow will take us. I will let you know.

Egrets, by P.G.

Thanks, Kate, nice shot. This was a remarkable boat ride. At one point we pased an islandnwhere hundreds of great egrets were nesting. As we approached, they looked like smayy pearls flying about and resting in trees. As we got closer, we were surrounded by hundreds of them flying in all directions. Allwere great egrets, the big ones with yellow beaks. I don't know where the smaller egrets nest, if anywhere around here, There was a constant blast of bird calls and songs... the squawking of egrets, "conk-a-REE!" of redwinged blackbirds, the occasional "pretty-pretty-pretty!" of cardinals, and many I don't recognize, We did put ashore on the islkand to hike, but didn't find trails and didn't want to go off without serious shoes.. it's not wise to disturb a water moccasin! Many thanks to Mayford and Pam for this adventure.

I've brought many books along;I have been feeling like my love of science has trumped my love of literature for too long, so I will concentrate on literature to get some balance. I do have some nature essays, poetry, short stories, travel literature. Also, a novel by the late Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes which includes travel themes. And yes, ON THE ROAD by Jack Kerouac. I dicided to reread it after many years because a movie version is coming out soonm and just because I've needed to check it out again.

I could say much about Kerouac and his fellow Beats (DON'T CALL THEM BEATNIKS!!!) who I used to idolize and still respect. They were sexist, and had huge problems with substance abuse. They could be self pitying, and overly impressed with themselves. The wisest among them knew it; Allen Ginsberg's poem "Howl", along with its brutal honesty and fury, also has a tongue in cheek, "we're all kind of ridiculous!" tone.

The Beats were also one of the damaged, shadowy sides of the WWII generation. They were also deeply intellectual and curious, compassionate to the most down and out people they met, open to all experiences and very aware of the contradictions in the consumerist 1950s. And many of them could write!

Kerouac's prose is exquisite. It is melodic like the jazz he thrived on,often perfect in its descriptions of people and places, full of twists, astonishing metaphors, and uinsights. Many people in the '50s saw it as lurid; today the descriptions of drunken parties and quick changes of sexual partners seem kind of repetitive and tedious. The real theme is Kerouac's search for epiphanies and connections, moments of astounded fulfillment in the bittersweet rollercoaster of life. This was his odessey. There is a melancholy feeling to this. I am taken by this piece of dialogue between Sal Paradise (Kerouac) and Carlo Marx (Ginsberg):

"'There's one last thing I want to know.

"And I said, 'The last thing is what you can't get, Carlo. Nobody can get to that last thing.We keep living in the hope of catching it once and for all.'"

I will be thinking of that as we travel. Will we find a ast thing? Most likely not, but we will find a widening of our world - another goalof travel. Stay tuned,

Paul G.

Ok, here we go again...

One thing about travel, especially world travel is it becomes a drive, a huge need. After my first real international trip (Costa Rica in 2001), I felt like my passport was frustrated, and so was I! We went to Ireland and France a few years later: tremendous times! Since then, our experiences have been pretty huge. Here comes another big adventure... but there are never enough! So here we go to Central America. Again, we visited Costa Rica in 2001, right after the 9/11 attacks. It was the best thing we could have done for ourselves at the time. The combination of a different culture and totally different ecosystems really distracted us from the extremely despairing mood in the U.S. at the time. Costa Rica abounded in wild places, and prided itself on being a peaceful, egalitarian culture... one of the hopeful signs in the developing world. I have not had time to research it in depth, but it appears, from a superficial look, that many American and European expats have settled there, and have set up gated communities, malls, golf courses, etc. Sighhh. Some of our beloved places may have changed a lot. Still... there are others. We plan to visit some of the more remote and undeveloped parts of the country, especially the Oso Peninsula/Corcovada National Park area. People have worked hard to preserve this area, and we will send reports from there. One thing is we will be there in rainy season, which will make it difficult to do serious treks into the jungle there and elsewhere. But who knows what we will do??? We will also visit Nicaragua. I have never been to this country, but Kate spent time there during the 1980s. We plan to visit the village where she lived and helped build a school. We also plan to see some other fine places. From everything I have seem, Nicaragua will be beautiful, and welcoming. Daniel Ortega is, again, the president. Intriguing, but we have heard from others that there is corruption in his party. Sighhh. Still... it is intriguing that cooperatives abound in Nicaragua... they do in Costa Rica as well. We also hope to make it to northern Panama. We know relatively little about Panama, but judging from some research, it is unbelievably beautiful. Also, it sounds like indigenous communities are involved in preserving wild ecosystems. I do hope we can discover what is happening here. There will also be adventures in Pennsylvania afterwards... details to follow. I used to know quite a bit about Central American history... some folks reading this will know more than I do. I will share thoughts, and hope others will as well. I have been glancing at some summaries; I am sure more ideas will occur to me when I am there. Oh yes, if anyone is wondering... these are considered the reasonably safe countries in Central America. Honduras and Guatamala appear to be experiencing drug violence and other disturbances. And there is our beloved Mexico, which is experiencing a major trajedy (the drug cartel wars)... ... so we expect to be safe. We do know how to watch for danger, and will be avoiding large cities. We will visit a few medium sized ones, but know (as Oaklanders!) how to watch out. So here we goo... expect more next weekend. Our first stop will actually be to see Kate's brother and his wife in Texas for a few days; we will fly south from there. So expect more next weekend, if not before. Adios para ahora!