Stories From Month 1

First flight of our trip... Sunset over Cuba. A universe of stars in the darkness below. Crescent moon hangs in deep blue sky. A bright redyellow horizon splits my vision.

Since our arrival in Panama, we have been relaxing and enjoying ourselves as guests of our friends Gordon and Antonio. Their comfortable apartment in the heart of Panama City has a wonderful open feel

Off to the beach. Gordon, Antonio, Michelle, and I packed into a 4x4 with a ton of groceries and a dog. One and a half hours later, we arrive. Through the front gates stands the house we wi

All good things must come to an end - so we left the beach house. On the way back to Panama City, we had an opportunity to visit El Valle. "The Valley" is surrounded by beautiful mountains

Planning, planning, planning - we are spending today plotting our trip through the interior of Panama to Costa Rica. We leave tomorrow and plan to arrive in San Jose by Thursday. More late

Leaving Panama City for Costa Rica presented a daunting 14 hour bus ride. So we decided to break the trip into two sections, stopping for a day at Boquete. Boquete is a small town sitting in a mountai

Off to Costa Rica! It was still dark when we hopped on the 6 AM bus from the town of Boquete to the regional capital of David. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to drink coffee. (Coffee is

It rains a lot in the rainy season. Go figure! San Jose is a lively town. The large pedestrian-only area in the center of town is great place to drink coffee and people watch. Some neighbor

We arrived in La Fortuna in the afternoon. It's a small town that has become popular with tourists since it's neighboring volcano, Arenal, erupted in 1968 and now has lava flowing down its sides daily

This morning we decided to take "The Safari Float" - a river rafting and jungle trek trip. After a walk to the bank in heavy mud, we dropped our boat at a point in the Penas Blancas River

I can't believe I'm 30! It seems like only yesterday I was 29. Oh yeah, I was. On my birthday we are traveling through the beautiful Costa Rican country-side on our way to hike the Santa Elena rainfor

We took a morning hike to Santa Elena's Butterfly Garden. What a wonderful walk. Clear blue mountain skies during the rainy season must be appreciated! The guided tour of the garden started

We started the morning on a 6:15 bus/taxi to the Reserva Santa Elena. The Santa Elena cloud forest reserve offers over 12 km of trails winding through dense Costa Rican rainforest, complet

We are in San Jose again before we head back to Panama. Costa Rica is truly a beautiful country. Tomorrow we head to Cerro Punta, a town on the edge of a rain forest in Panama. We will meet our frie

We ate a leisurely breakfast here in this Panamanian mountain town called Guadalupe. The slow pace and relaxation was well deserved after yesterday's 13-hour return trip from Costa Rica by cab, bus,

Our friends Gordon and Antonio met up with us a couple of days ago to travel across Panama. This morning we drove from Guadalupe to the provincial capital of David, dropped off their rental car, and

The hazy moon lit our way along the beach as four of us walked behind our two guides. We were in search of sea turtles coming ashore to lay their eggs in the sand. Our surroundings seemed surreal wit