We're in da 'Burgh, yinz.

For those of you not fortunate enough to be familiar with Pittsburgh, its culture, and its special language, that translates roughly as "We find ourselves in the city of Pittsburgh presently, all you you." Seriously, it's good to be with family, although some of our relatives' situations are quite difficult, we are being supportive as we can. We are also spending time with my great nephew and nieces, ages 3,6, and 8, all of then delightful. We took the two older kids and their parents for a hike the other day, and the kids LOVED it, so did the parents - a triumph! I have future adventures planned in my head. Pittsburgh, contrary to rumor, is a very beautiful and fascinating city. The design is brick houses and businesses, cobblestone streets, a real central and eastern European feel to the architecture and communities. We'll have a family gathering at a German restaurant on Thursday. There is a strong arts community, and a progressive community. We hope to get some exploring in and see what is what. We visited a science museum with the kiddos yesterday. Kate and I also did a little kayaking on the Allegheny River, which merges with the Mononghela River and a third underground river here to form the Ohio River. And yes, this city is my childhood home, so I do notice lots of small details... need to do some writing. Take care, yinz!

Pennsylvania, my Pennsylvania...

We have totally enjoyed the Allegheny National Forest region in far northern Pennsylvania. This wild and very beautiful area is a place of mountains that were once higher than the Himmalayas, but have been eroded into gently sloping green mountains. Jade forests of birch, oaks, maples, firs, beeches, and more cover the Alleghenies, thick as otter fur. The Allegheny River slowly glides through the valley, catching the mountains' reflections. The forests' floors are made from waves of ferns, interspersed with wild roses, cauliflower fungi (they really do look like gray cauliflowers!), thimbleberries and much more. Glass clear streams flow through here, their soft whispers merge with the wind. Calls from robins, crows, cardinals, and the soft "THUD!" from pilleated woodpeckers hunting for bugs hide in the great silence. Firs, beeches, and ferns grow from boat shaped boulders. Cool air flows from crevices in limestone cliffs. These are the first forests I ever loved, Kate loves them too- but we both love many other places as well. There was one amazing electrical storm today... we stayed in our car and watched constant lightning while hail pounded the roof. There are down sides to this area. Kinzua Dam was built in the late '60s to control floods, and a Seneca community was evicted to make room for it. There are small oil derricks in the woods, we ran into a few yesterday (they weren't working.) Yes, there is fracking in the area, but not as much as in northeastern Pa. All this said... I would highly recommend a visit to this area. We've barely scraped the surface, and definetly want to come back. Tomorrow we will go to Pittsburgh to visit family. Expect entries from there in a few days.

Ok, we are now staying at an Air B&B in a town in the Allegheny National Forest, far northern Pennsylvania. I recommend Air B&B highly, people share their houses with you for a reasonable fee, giving you a deeper understanding of the area you are visiting. I love the Pennsylvania woods, since I grew up in Pittsburgh and fell in love with nature in these forests. They are so different from Central American forests. There are far fewer epiphytic plants growing on trees - maybe a few ferns, etc. The trees are more uniform and tend to be about the same size, rather than the wide range of tree sizes and species you find in Costa Rica. Of course, you don't get monkeys, sloths, etc. - many tropical animals need to live where they can find fruit or leaves year round, and you don't get that in autumn or winter here. The species of plants and animals here are more adapted to cooler climates, and harsh winters. Every place has its own unique character. Our host has been telling us how there can be bears in the neighborhood, red tailed hawks zip through the yard, deer are everywhere. I can love Pennsylvania and Costa Rica. No contradiction there. We have been here since mid afternoon, more to come.

We are, in truth, alive!

We flew into D.C., getting to our hotel in Arlington, Va. around 11. It was utterly bizarre waking up in a world of heavy trafic, condos, fancy shopping malls. The big employer around there is the Pentagon. Our friend Ben picked us up around noon on Thusday, we have been at his place in Virginia since then. Our friends Ellen and Don from the Pittsburgh area have been here since Friday night. Lots of feasting and hijinx. Don and Ellen will drive us to theri place in Butler, Pa today. Tomorrow w'll rent a carn and visit Presque Isle in Lake Erie, then Allegheny National Forest. If I can post from there I will, if not, will post from the 'Burgh around Thursday. Take care all!

Words of wisdom from Ted Geisel...

...aka Dr. Seuss ´´Don´t cry because it is over, smile because it happened.¨ We will try. It should be obvious that we think Central America is wonderful, with all its difficulties, bittersweet as life is. I highly recommend it as a traveling destination. I will be reflecting and maybe sending more thoughts soon. We are in the town of Herredia, a university town near the airport. It is kind of a shock. We thought it would be quiet, but it hass massive traffic, bad air, people rushing about madly. Maybe it is because we haven´t been in a city in more than a month, but it exhausted us and, to be honest, makes it easier to leave. But we will be back in Central America one day, I will share thoughts about that later. We fly to D.C. tomorrow, getting in quite late. Our friend Ben, who some of you readers know, will pick us up at a hotel Thursday morning. We will spend some time at his house, and Don and Ellen, again who some of you know, will join us. We are figuring out time after that... will check in Thursday to let you know we are in the U.S. As they say down here, Pura Vida!

Children´s Eternal Rain Forest

We visited this place, in the Monte Verde Highlands on our last trip, and still love it! It is not technically a rainforest, it is a wet-moist forest, which is dryer than a rainforest and has many fewer epithetic plants, or plants that grow on other plants. They abound in rain forests, we saw many at Arenal and other places. The story here, in a nutshell is that a group of Swedish schoolkids contacted Costa Rican naturalists in the ´80s, saying they wanted to buy land and preserve tropical forests. The project has grown from there, children from all parts of the world have contributed money for more land. Last night we went on a night hike with a guide, which was wonderful. Crickets sang to us while we saw a tarantula, a sleeping mot'mot or longed tailed bird, a sleeping toucan, a large snake far from us in a tree, two porcupines and much more. Night times are very magical in a tropical forest. Today we hiked listening to the song of the bell bird ' ¨GONG! Tweet!¨¨ over and over is as close as I can get. Once again butterflies were everywhere, along with winged walking sticks which look as ethereal as small fairies when they fly.We saw more monkeys, and a mother coati a racoon relative,with two babies, and an agouti, a large but harmless rodent. A wondrous place which I also plan to stay in touch with and revisit some day. We also visited an interesting exhibit with lots of information about bats and many bats flying back and forth. Bats are fascinating, and they share a common ancestor with primates,meaning monkeys, apes, and us. No I am not making this up. Tomorrow we go to the town of Herredia near the airport, and fly back to the U.S. Wednesday. Will check in tomorrow if I can, if not, Thursday from the U.S.

Today we got up at 430 to go birding with Gerald, a wonderful Costa Rican guy who runs our hostel and is a naturalist. He is a huge wealth of information. I wrote copious notes after the trip, way too much for details here, but we will post some photos and info later. I will mention the black faced mannakin. The male of this species builds a structure from three sticks in the forests, dances around it, and vibrates his feathers to make a clicking sound and attract a mate. Birders come from across the world to hear this, we heard two! There is another mannekin species that Gerald says does a version of Michael Jackson´s moondance, dancing backwards to attract his lady love. After this we went to Volcan Arenal National Park. Astounding!! We hiked through thick forest, where cicadas´ deafening calls are the woods´giggling breath. The wind in the trees sounds like a deluge, gurgling Montezuma orioles try to drown out both sounds.Grasshoppers are everywhere, camouflaged on large greel leaves. We also saw a small slug with the shape and color of a dead leaf ' amazing bit of mimicry! The forest is so thick you can´t see what is past the first few trees beside the trail, you are wrapped and nurtured by deep green shade. One tree was huge, with butress roots the size of wooly mammoth trunks. At a certain point, you leave the forest and scramble over basalt, volcanic boulders. Looking one direction you see Lake Arenal. The other direction is the volcano, dome shaped and inconceivably huge. Its sides are volcanic black, with patches of green indicating plant growth, and its peak is wrapped in mist. On the way back to the bus we saw many butterflies, including the red, white and black postmen who fly fast and refuse to be photographed, and green lizards with blue stripes on their backs. I will write more detailed descriptions of all this, but am done for now. Tomorrow we will go to the Monte Verde cloud forest region, Tuesday to the town of Herredia, Wednesday we fly back to the U.S. Ve are very sad, but the adventure will continue. More from Monte Verde.

Some thoughts

First, Kate´s photos are wonderful. The interesting thing about that sloth she posted is that they usually stay high in trees and don´t move much, eating leaves and having a very slow life. We were surprised to see this one so fardown the tree trunk, bt Patricia at Tree of Life Wildlife Rescue told us this happens, that they are comfortable around people. This sloth was gone a few hours later, that surprised us. One of those mysteries. Our departure day is coming, we feel sadness. We love Central America, the people, culture, nature history are wonderful, and the slow, simple pace of life is very fine. Still, there is a lot of poverty and deep sadness here. There is a long history of difficult struggles here. Today, many of the businesses are foreign owned, and money is taken from the countries. It is difficult to come with the best of intentions, as many people do, and realize that our perceptions of ourselves and the region are very difficult from Central Americans´. Much to ponder and reflect on here, which I may do in this blog when we get back to the U.S. One thought re Panama, it is a beautiful country, with friendly people. The government has a policy of attracting retirees from the U.S. and other developed countries, offering them discounts on things like restaurants, movies, and much more. I am sure the idea is to bring money into the country. I wonder how poor Panamanians, who have to struggle for simple necessity and do not have support see this policy. Anyway, much to consider here. Tomorrow we hike on Volcan Arenal ' more after that.

While in Cahuita, we visited a wildlife rescue center. Lots of monkeys, not all happy at our presence.

These are tent bats, which moved into the center on their own. They bite the palm leaves to create a cover for their colony.

This blind kinkajoo was recued from dogs.

This sloth is one of the animals we saw in Cahuita National Park. We also saw monkeys, some amazing birds, a raccoon, an agouti and other animals. We have just moved on to Fortuna, by Arenal Volcano.

It keeps getting better

Let me try to describe a hike in Cahuita National Park, a lovely Costa Rican park on the Carribean´s shores. You walk through costal tropical forest, a more accurate term than jungle. Imagine plants and tree trunks so thick and tangled they resemble a Gordonian knot. There are infinite variations on the color green, and the leaves come in countless variations on shapes like ovals, hearts, five pointed stars, semicircles, and more. This world seems to be built from birdsongs.. whistles, squawks,trills,rythmic chirps, gurgles that crowd the forest so `powerfully you need to wade through them. Fungi hide on the sides of trees, along with brown and green lizards and huge spiders. Everything has the smell and feel of mud after rain. Postman butterflies, small black, white and red ones dart about, along with many, many others. Blue morphs are the most dramatic. They are as big as your hand, and when the sun shines on them, they are iridescent blue. They eat decaying, fermenting fruit, and some say it makes their flight erratic because they are drunk. The ocean grumbles and crashes, keeping everything cool.Cicadas squeaks are constant. Soft rain falls like a massage. The loudest noise is the roaring ÄAARRRGGGHHHMMMMAAA¨from howler monkeys, which are considered the world´s loudest animal. They are really inoffensive little critters, just making a lot of noise to define their territory and avoid disputes. This hopefully gives you some idea of this experience. We also visited a wildlife rehabilitation center that cares for injured monkeys, birds, jaguarmundis, etc. and tries to release them to the wild. Some have been kept as pets and must adjust to being wild animals if possible. The approach is very sililar to the Museum where I often work... with different animals. This is an astonishing area. Tomorrow we head for the Volcan Arenal area, arriving around dinner... we will be there 3 days, I will check in sometime during that time. Howler monkeys just started yelling near our hotel, they say, HI!

indescribable!!!

But I will try to describe it. Again, we are having some trouble finding computers that will upload from our memory cards, but will keep trying. We just came from three days on Bastimentos Island, off the Panama coast in the Carribean. This is a town of brightly painted wooden houses standing on stilts to avoid flooding.There are no cars on the island. A sidewalk leads through small but beautiful Old Town, past homes, restaurants, groceries, hostels, etc. The culture and feeling are really more Rasta than Central American. Most of the people are black,they speak a combination of Spanish and Creole/Rasta English. There are some folks from mainland Panama, Germany, and the shopkeepers tend to be Asian. Kids wander on the sidewalk freely and safe. They play marbles, and push brightly colored plastic boxes around in races. (My personal editorial note:KIDS DO NOT NEED COMPUTER GAMES!In fact, they are more creative, free thinking, connected with nature and their community, and adventurous without them. Enough of that.) People stroll and chat all the time; we befriended some of the local characters - actually everybody is a character! There is always reggae, salsa, or soul music being broadcast from the bars and cafes. One of the most relaxed places we have seen. One day we hiked to an organic cafe high on a hilltop over the jungle. The next we kayaked through an estuary, past short mangroves that border the water from the tropical forest. Yesterday we took a boat deep into the jungle, where we hiked with a guide. He took us to a cave where we waded knee deepp in water, and saw thousands of fruit bats. We may be nuts, but it was fantastic!! We hope to return some day. We are now in Bocas Town, on the main island in this chain, It demands exploration if it doesnot rain. Tomorrow we swing north into Costa Rica, fly back to the US in about 9 days. Believe it or not, the adventure will continue for a while. This is an experiment to see how we handle extended trips at this point in our lives... we will evaluate when we get home. We will first visit friends in Virginia and Pennsylvania, and familt in Pittsburgh - it sounds much hotter in those places than Central America has been! Stay tuned. Photos will come.

Another place we love

Boquete is wonderful. Yesterday we hiked in a tropical forest in the highlands above here. Huge ferns, trees with flowers and other plants growing from their trunks, everything one of a hundred variations of the color green. We were looking for resplendant quetzals, a beautiful and elusive bird species Today we walked, accompanied by a dog part of the way, to a creative park. There is an eco garden where they use things like old blenders for planters. have funny sculptures everywhere, and wonderful views of the local volcano. We are hurrying, have to pack for our next destination. Boquete is a magical town by a river with a volcano towering overhead. Tomorrow we will be on Bastiemento Island in the Bocas del Toro archipelago in the Carribean. I do not know if there is an internet cafe on Bastiementos, but we will be on the main island by Sunday, and there is one there. So worry not... we will be having adventures and check in early next week. And yes, more photos will come!!

Boquete is complex and great.

Conversation overheard at the Boquete Tuesday market yesterday: "Now we should do yoga. We are old enough that it doesn{t matter if we make fools of ourselves." "Yes, and even Fidel Castro says yoga is healthy!" These were Norte Americano retirees, the region abounds in them. The market had some indigenous folks selling beautiful crafts, but mostly Norte Americanos offering wine tasting and selling pies, vegetarian chile, crafts, and more. The conversation and atmosphere felt like Marin County, which we can visit with a half hour drive from home, it was rather surreal. The serious problem is that people pay large amounts for houses, rising property values so locals are priced out and sometimes lose land. This happens in Costa Rica and Nicaragua too. But we explored, and this area has grown on us a lot. The garden Kate photographed is beautiful and bizarre, with sculptures of painted cows, a dodo bird, a golfer, a woman in a bikini and much more. The views of the mountains are wonderful. We walked through an agricultural community where people grow tomatoes, strawberries and more. Kate included a shot of that. We stopped in the cafe she photographed for a strawberry smoothy. The people promote the health benefits of strawberries, and you can get them in smoothies, milkshakes, sundays, with amaretto or kahlua. Fascinating walk. We will stay here and hike until Friday, more to come.

These are photos from our day in Boquete, Panama. A scene from the road we walked along on our hike today.

Paul stands in Mi Jardin es su Jardin, a garden full of beautiful plants and strange sculptures.

The menu from the strawberry restaurant where we stopped for strawberry shakes.

Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama

We are in Boquete, a pretty town in the mountains of northern Panama. We will stay here 2 or 3 days and explore. It is interesting, at first glance, Panama seems more integrated with the US than Costa Rica or (definetly) Nicaragua. They use the dollar, and there are lots of McDonalds, TGIFridays, etc. Part of it is possibly their connction with the US through the Canal, there are also lots of US Retirees around. But this is Central America.There is certainly poverty. There are lots of indigenous people in traditional dress in Boquete, and parts of the town have the same kinds of houses and flavor as anywhere down here. Other sections feel like a coolsville town near Yosemite. More thoughts to come. Costa Rica and Nicaragua are not friendly to each other. Nicaragua is poorer, and traditionally Central American. Granada is a mixture of Nicaraguans with cell phones in cafes and people carrying bundles on their heads, driving cattle through town (small herds), and sometimes sleeping on the streets. Politics are everywhere, any given neighborhood will have pro or anti Sandanista graffiti. Nicaraguans resent Costa Ricans, several Nicaraguans told us Costa Ricans are snobby, and said the country is full of violence. We have never felt danger in Costa Rica, and find the people to be as generous and friendly as Nicaraguans, just more reserved.Politics are less visible in Costa Rica. There was a dockworkers strike and riot in the Carribean city of Limon aten days or so ago (we are not going there). There was also a march of several thousand of the Invisible in the capital... Nicaraguan migrants, displaced rural folk, gay people, etc. That would have been interesting. One issue is that many Nicaraguans come here as seasonal farm workers, and are not well treated. Their experience is obvioulsy different from ours.Another is that there is a long lasting dispute about which country controls navigation on a river along their border. No one has said this, but I wonder if both countries feel mutual resentment that the Nicaraguan Contras (right wing anti Sandanista guerillas in the 1980s) illegally set up camps in Costa Rica. Very sad and complex. Both countries are great, can they get along? More to come, stay cool (especially folks in the East.)

Sad to leave...

This area is gorgeous, and we made some good contacts. We hope to come back one day. Tomorrow we will take a ferry across Golfo Dulce to the town of Golfito, where we will get a bus to Boquette, in the mountains of northern Panama for a few days. Will check in from there in a coupld days or so. Kendra, if you are reading this, getting to Corcovado National Park turned out to be more complex and expensive than we expected. We plan to try another time, knowing what it entails. Sounds like some things have changed since you were there. Still... we had a very nice hike today in the Montapalo Area, down the Peninsula from Puerto Jimenez. We saw many, many monkeys, gorgeous beaches covered with pelicans, more scarlet macaws. At one point, we heard something screaming... my guess is a puma (mountain lion) close to us. They really have no interest in people... kind of exciting once you know that - so we didn´t see it. Anyhow, we are back in Puerto Jimenez safe and sound. And oh yes, we are hoping our hotel in Boquete will have a computer where we can upload pictures. Onward! More in a couple days or so.