Pura Vida!!!

Craig and I have just returned from a most incredible trip to Costa Rica and Nicaragua. Did you miss us??? I hope so!!!!

There were 14 of us on the tour and 9 were "family", whether it be siblings, inlaws, or cousins. The beauty of it all was that we ALL got along famously...even those of us who were not part of the family! When I say that I married well, I mean it in the sincerest form of the word. I want to thank my brother-in-law Chris and his wife Molly for making this all possible, and also our tour leader Cindy and our guide Sergio for making it so interesting and unbelievably fun!!

I hope to share more photos of this journey with you over the next few days. Craig and I go birdwatching as often as possible, so I may bore you to tears with bird photos...and pics of birdwatchers as well! As I look back on our trip, I realize that we spent an incredible two days in the very small community of Tortuguero, which is on the Caribbean coast. We got up early on the first morning to go out on the river to bird watch...we saw tons, including Montezuma's Oropendula, Ringed Kingfishers, Blue-Grey Tanagers, a Crested Owl, Collared Aracari, Olive Throated Parakeets, Mealy Parrots,a Green Ibis, several Bare-Throated Tiger Herons, many Keel-Billed Toucans, Mangrove Swallows, Chestnut Mandibled Toucans, and the Northern Jacana, which my sister-in-law Molly named the Mall Walker Birds because the females leave their mates to tend the nests while they go shopping! Seeing the Howler Monkeys, White-Faced Monkeys, Caymens, Grey Otter, Spider Monkey sand Three-Toed Sloths were a few more highlights!!! Sometimes it was difficult to believe that we weren't at Disneyland, but actually seeing these fabulous animals in the wild!!!

WOW!!! It's been an unbelievable couple of weeks!!!

Thanks Craig, for the trip of a lifetime for me!!!!