Cyndi and I went to Costa Rica in January, and had a fantastic time! We traveled with 3 of our college classmates, and met two new couples from Hawaii and Maryland. Wildlife Planet Adventures provided the itinerary, transportation, lodging, food, and best of all: a tour guide(Mario), and bus driver(Nicolas).

Those two made a great team. Mario was talented, knowledgeable, passionate, and had a great sense of humor. Nicolas was very careful, smooth and courteous driver, and also had a great sense of humor, despite the fact he was not comfortable with English.

Mario was our tour guide through all our hikes and excursions, except two: 1) at La Selve Biological Station, and 2) white water rafting. He explained the history of Costa Rica, its geology, the climate, the various cultures, and of course, helped us spotting all the wildlife. He was especially good at spotting tiny birds deep in the dark forest, using his ears to recognize certain calls, and then his experienced eyes to find it. Then he would point it out to everyone else, set up his spotting scope, and we would take turns looking through it, through our binoculars, and through our cameras.

Speaking of which, I took nearly 1,300 pictures and videos. This is taking a while to choose the nice ones to share, then post process those. To break up the routine, instead of waiting to process all 1,300 items, I’m going to go through a day’s worth of shooting at a time, then share them as I go. Stay tuned, some of them are fantastic!

PS: Did you spot the lizard in the photo?