Bienvenido a Sarapiqui

Okay, so I am actually at an internet cafe in San Isidro on the way to the beach (Dominical). I am typing on a Spanish-adapted keyboard and I don´t have the time or the patience to locate certain buttons so excuse typos and the like.

The last week was splendid. A bus from San Jose to Puerto Viejo de Sarapiqui takes 90 short minutes and cuts through the heart of the thickest rainforest you could fathom. When I got to Puerto Viejo (town and surrounding area pop. 40,000) my host Dad was waiting to pick me up in his small and nimble Suzuki SUV. We drove around and he showed me the sites, recounting perfectly all of the times the Rio Sarapiqui had flooded the area in the past few years. Then we returned back the house I visited a week earlier and I dropped my luggage in my room and enjoyed a fabulous lunch made by new host mother, Levinia. I have a prodigal 12 year old brother who is dominant among his peers in Uno, Dominoes, and, less important to him, academics (he is a real smart cookie).

Later that day I went for a walk in the rainforest with my host Dad Danilo and we saw hundreds of poison arrow frogs, howler monkeys, bullet ants, and tons of plants of which my dad new the latin name for every one. I fell in a swamp crossing a narrow bamboo bridge and flooded my rubber boots with water but it only added to the experience, the squish squosh of me eagerly following my host dad through previously unexplored forest.

We did a lot more and I would love to tell you about it but my time here at the internet cafe is up and I must scurry. Never fear, I will tell you about falling Caimitos and other adventures ASAP.

Scott