route:

• liberia
• rincon de la vieja national park: look out hike
• tenorio national park: rio celeste river hike
• santa elena cloud forest: sevultura zip lines and cloud forest hike
• palo verde wetlands: boat tour
• brasilito and playa conchal

highlights:

• enormous rainstorm hitting the roof at the la carolina ranch in the middle of the night
• maritza wrapping her arms around me and showing me ever so gently where the sloth was
• all the animal viewings
  • sloth
  • porcupine
  • ocelot
  • coatimundi
  • alligators
  • tons of birds
  • jellyfish and little sand worms
  • monkeys
  • iguanas
  • agoutis
  • frogs
  • baby calf
  • cows, horses, chickens, pigs
  • snakes (richard stepped on one)
  • tarantula
  • a surprise bunny
  • and more
• the las pumas animal rescue center
• the sunset in palo verde over the wetlands
• the tarzan jump through the forest in santa elena
• the firewood hot tub along the river at la carolina ranch that richard practically slept in
• birding boat tour at palo verde
• riding a zipline over the santa elena cloud forest
• cazillions of birds flying overhead in palo verde from the bird island finale
• the skies everywhere and the green earth and the white clouds
• in pure darkness and a little afraid, standing at the pier at the palo verde wetland's pier watching the fireflies and listening to the millions of frogs. glad richard made me do it.
• the giant shower in brasilito that adam and i could play in
• the night tour and the guide's voice: the sloth...he is ahhhhskratching
• nicknames: richard A+ for mapping, adam lady boots for his borrowed lady boots, and baby step for my small clumsy hiking abilities
• funny moment when i had to ride with a beefy old man down one of the ziplines and he had to wrap his legs around me
• playing the black ice "is it..." game with richard and adam trying to figure it out
• 99.5 hits radio station "grab your balls, it's 99.5" playing all my favorite hits
• the visible universe in the sky at night
• our awesome car that took us down the craziest roads
• sitting in the nature made hot tub at the end of the hike in our underpants in tenorio
• blueness of the rio celeste waterfall
• horse riding

lowlights:

• the dog that gave me a dirty look!!
• hearing grandma wright passed away when we arrived back in the states
• the roads are rough
• the crazy howler monkey that woke us up at 5am in Brasilito
• breaking my camera at the hot tub (thank you to richard for loaning me his camera)
• stinky sulfur
• the hippies at the pension talking loudly and hanging outside of our room
• injuring myself on the horse
• the beautiful but sad trash bag forest on our way to rincon de la vieja
• no veggie meal on plane but we worked it
• adam's bug bitten arm
• falling on my bumm on the rincon de la vieja hike...saved by adam
• going down the wrong road on the first day but fixing it in time
• itchy bug bites
• getting locked in the bathroom at the palo verde research center. rescued however by adam and richard.
• having a layover in the dallas airport overnight
• adam getting food poisoning at chili's in the airport right before returning home

places we stayed:

• rinconcito lodge
• la carolina ranch
• pension santa elena
• palo verde research center
• brasilito hotel