The following is from a series of emails sent out during our three week trip to Costa Rica in January 2004:
Hello once again!
Sometimes you hit a better internet spot than others ,and sometimes you get a bit more free time than others to send out an iupdate. Also sometimes ytou get a grossly sticky eyboard (thats also a spanish board) which makes you type a lort of typos, so thats why the internet will be slower as you download all my typos toady.
We are in Monteverde until tomorrow morning now, and this plae is high up in the mountains (translation is litteraly “Green Mountain”) The weather is weird here. Not like the “wait 5 minutes” addage in Alberta. Here it is extreemely windy, and rainy (its uyp in the clouds, so had I thought about that it would have made mor sense BEFORE coming here). The rain is not usual though, its like these tiny water particles you can see, just swirlking around in the wind untill they hit somethuing (like you). And they are so thick that it makes things very foggy, much like when it snows a lot. And when its sunny and clear out, its still raining like this! So anyways I will be glad to be in warmer locales again soon (not that this was a bad place)
So today we took a “Sky Walk” which is a walk in and above some rainforest (also called Cloud Forest, being so high up) and its part nature trail and part walks over suspension bridges. Very fun but the rain kept me from taking too many photos.
This afternoon we went to a frog pond thing, which has a bunch of frogs local to Central America on display in booths that recreate their natural habitat (else they´d be dead). I think the Telus guy was there too further exploiting these guys. But seriously it was neat to see.
The local bus system in Costa Rica is excellent, and cheap! There is no equivalent that I know of in Alberta and makes the Greyhound look rediculous. For usually a few bucks you can hop from town to town, varying between 10 kms to 200 kms (there are longer too). The buses are pretty frequent as well, but the most amazing part is that a trek between towns is not trivial at all! The roads are windy, bumpy (Edmonton doesnt know what a pothole is), and very hilly. This in my opinion makes these bus drivers heros, equivalent to what firefighters are to the USA now.
Technology highlight: The tilley hat is not only stylish but functional as well! For $65 (available at your finer local outdoors verdors) you can have a hat that floats, will never leave your head in the craziest of winds, will keep your head dry in the craziest of rains, shade you from the sun, and is guaranteed for LIFE (yours) not to break or get lost (or they will replace it!)!!! This is a definite must have for any traveller!
No that wasnt a plug, it was a serious testimonial.
Okay take care and hope to hear from you all real soon
Chris