Sadly, our week in Costa Rica ends tomorrow.  This is truly a beautiful & developing country.  

There is good & bad with that "developing" part, I suppose.  As we have travelled about on the west coast of CR, I have had to sharpen my driving skills considerably.  Road challenges take many & surprising forms.  First of all, narrow roads - paved & not paved - twist along mountain sides.  There are no (or few) sidewalks.  Pedestrians & bicycles seem to have equal rights of way.  I watched frustrated drivers pass on BOTH sides of stopping busses at the same time, making roads where there weren't any.  Any those bus drivers?  They're fearless.  They'll pass vehicles on blind curves going down the mountain crossing a double yellow line to do so!  Those yellow lines & traffic signals, you know, the stuff the "law" is made of in our country?  Well, they're merely "suggestions" here.  By late morning in the dry season, many of the locals are burning their fields, effectively creating "smoke screens" to further complicate driving on the highways.  Then, as if then isn't enough challenge, several of the river crossings here are made on one-lane rickety-old bridges.  On the five such bridges we crossed yesterday (en route to a beautiful park called Manuel Antonio), many of the "rickets" holding those bridges together were missing!  Lots of airy spaces under one's tires but apparently close enough together to allow passage.  Nevertheless, all eyes - except mine - in my vehicle were glued to the brown, crocodile-infested waters which sluggishly flowed beneath us.

So, I guess you've figured out that is the "bad" part of the "developing country" comment.  

The "good part" has been just about everything else.  Beautiful seaside parks & vistas.  The Canopy tour was a great deal of fun.  We happened to go through at the same time as a large group from the states.  My 78 year-old mother strapped on the harness & flew 40mph from platform to platform - sometimes 1000 feet in distance - through the trees, always between 100-200 feet up in the air off the mountainside.  We covered 13 such cables on the way down from the top of the mountain, much of the time overlooking a gorgeous blue bay with white wave spray jetting over black rocks.  We encountered a tree sloth somewhere near the top.  Various jungle & sea birds flew above us, below us, & with us on our way down.  Mom earned loud applause from the entire group when she finished!  If you get to CR, DO the Canopy Tour!!!!

There is lots to see & do here.  Yesterday we visited the Howler Monkeys down at Manuel Antonio Park.  Somebody from another group slipped on the steep path & fell into the jungle-growth just below them.  The rascals up in the trees went berserko on that one!  I guess they're territorial.  Then we walked over to a nearby fine white sand beach & body-surfed some super waves.

There have been NO bugs & little rain.  Food is quite good & very inexpensive.  Beverage choices for beer are limited but Imperial & Pilsen aren't bad.  The locals are very friendly but remember (if you come down here)...they are ALL fearless when they get anywhere near a public road!  It's Costa Rican roulette on those roads, folks, so beware!!

Jimbo