Sorry! been so busy getting all the yard work done, seems every year this place gets bigger, or I am just getting older LOL! havent been crafting, nothing seems to jump out at me and say make me! want to make some flowers for my moms grave, always feel down this time of the year, when everyones makeing stuff for Mothers day, I will get it together soon! I hope, thanks for asking about me. oddie

I went to CR four years ago and had a spectacular time. Flew to San Jose, went to Arenal / La Fortuna, Monteverde, and Quepos / Miguel Antonio Park. In 9 days, I saw a volcano, hiked around the volcano and through the jungle and the rain forest, rode zip lines across the rain forest canopy, swam under a waterfall, went to the mountains, went to the beach, heard and saw monkeys, lizards, sloths, and many other animals, rode horseback through the mountains and across a river, took a three hour sailboat ride, went to the famous hot springs, got a reflexology massage in a grass hut, toured a coffee plantation, rode a bus with locals and their chickens, had great food, did a little shopping, went to a couple cool art galleries and musuems, wore a t-neck and jacket and 2 days later a swimsuit, learned a little Spanish, learned a lot about the country, people, and environment, and always felt safe and comfortable. I went on a guided tour with Gap Adventures (gapadventures.com) on the 9-day tour. I think it was called the Quest adventure. They have dozens of differenet tours in CR, guided and independent. THe one I did was great, because they arranged everything from hotels to transportation to entrance fees to reservations. They got you to an area, told you what cool things there were to do, and then arranged for you to do whatever you were interested in. It was not a tour where everyone does the same thing at the same time and you are kinda trapped and on someone else's time table. You get the same guide for the whole tour and she knew the areas well and knew everyone in the areas we went, so she could always point us to the right people and places for what we wanted to experience. I frankly do not think I would want to try to navigate and drive through the country without a knowledgeable guide-- it's not like AAA will come get you if there is a problem and there is no mechanic or tire store around the corner. The roads are VERY rough and not well marked-- it would make a heck of an adventure, but just think about if that is the adventure you want, or if that would detract from the adventure you really want. I thought the loosely-guided tour was perfect and would highly receommend Gap, although there may be others that are just as good (I am not connected with them in any way, just a happy customer.) OH! One word of advice for San Jose-- If a man pinches you on the arm downtown, just say "No!" firmly and move on. That is the customary way that a man tells a uh, shall we say "lady of the evening" that he is interested. Some men just pinch anyone they think is cute, hoping she's a "lady of the evening"! You'll only experience it right in the center of downtown by the square, though, and if you say no then they apologize and leave you alone. Frankly, you likely won't want to hang out much in San Jose. One day for a musuem or two and the flea market is plenty. It is literally hard to breathe in the city because of all the pollution. Hope this helps. I'd be happy to answer any specific quetions if I can. --A.

We went to Costa Rica in 2015, and the highlights of our trip were the La Paz Waterfall Gardens (huge collection of bromeliad, which I grow a lot of), Selvatura Park, and the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve, which has great ziplines. The zip lines at Selvatura are in Monteverde, and the jacket I bought there said Selvatura. You will need windbreakers or raincoats, and we went in the dry season but it still rained every day. The only beach we went to was Jaco, which had great seafood but not that great of a beach, but then we spent most of our time in the mountains. Here are some photos from our trip:Here I am just before I got thrown from this horse.Howler monkey at Monteverde. One of a pair of Quetzals birds that we saw. We hired a guide for this who was recommended to use by the hotel manager - he was a free-lance guide. Hummingbrid at La Paz Waterfall Garden. Coati Mundi crossing the road. We had to stop while they blocked the road. While I enjoyed the trip for the most part, I would probably not go back because my allergies bothered me there more than any place else I've ever been - much worse than Brazil. If you do have allergies, take a huge supply of allergy medicine with you as it is much more expensive there, and the drug stores run out.SStairs between zip lines.Waterfall at La Paz park. We rented a car while we were there; in fact we bought a travel package that had hotel vouchers that included the car rental. The car had GPS, and we would not have found anything without it because streets and roads are poorly marked, if at all. We were there for 12 days in all, and the volcano erupted right after we got there, and the airport closed right after we arrived. Some of the sights will be difficult to see if there is too much rain or fog in the mountains, especially at Arenal Volcano. Do visit a chocolate factory there if you find one - the chocolate is the best (and freshest) I've ever had, but the coffee was disappointing. I had better coffee in Hawaii, Italy, and Guatemala. I normally don't drink coffee unless I am in a special place. Shrimp is great wherever you go in CR, and in general we had excellent food there, but then I'm partial to seafood, which is abundant there. The beaches may be a bit of a disappointment to you if you are used to the white sands of the Caribbean. The sand is dark (like Hawaii) and not cool.

All the more so when it is something growing in the tropics, where there are so many plant species that new ones continue to be found you're just not going to hit on the same kind doing a web search unless you are using search terms sufficiently unique to the subject that it pops up. However there are about 6 different visual recognition services in operation now, where users present their own pictures of mystery plants to software and it is actually able to identify them in many instances. Of course, this time somebody here was able to tell you what your plant was.