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(October 23-30, 1997)

Hola everybody!!

We finished up in Guatemala and moved on to Costa Rica for 10 days. There we ended up on the German connection - by word of mouth, we stayed at and toured with Germans throughout the country.

Our first stop was in San Jose, when we stayed with a very relaxed German/Costa Rican couple. The husband, George, spent a lot of time in S.F. in the 60's and was keen on chatting about various anti-establishment issues. From there we took the "express" bus up into the cloud/rain-forest of MonteVerde. This was about 60 miles, but somehow took four hours, but hey, when we got a flat, we kept going!

In the MonteVerde region, we stayed in the town of St. Elena - sort of an outlaw town. They don't pay their taxes and the government doesn't build them any roads. We hung out at a small café run by an Oregonian family and munched a pretty tasty burger. We couldn't help notice the automatic weapons lying about the place, and were informed that they were anticipating a robbery at the bank across the street that day. This restaurant (on the second floor) offered a great vantage point, and the owners had a good relationship with the police. The big tip off for the possible robbery was a couple guys driving back and forth in front of said bank, taking notes and asking innocent questions like: "How much money is in the bank?" and "How many guards do they have?" The Oregonian kid was doing his part by showing the police how to use their radios.

There was no robbery attempt while we were there, but the next town over had some excitement when two sisters announced that they were witches. This was confirmed by a priest and the whole town went a bit nuts. No one went out in the streets, the children were afraid to attend school, and holy men streamed in from other villages to attempt an exorcism.

Besides the social excitement in MonteVerde, we hiked a few trails to see giant blue iridescent "Morpho" butterflies, millions (yes) of leaf cutter ants, etc.

We also went on a 'Canopy Tour' where we climbed into the hollow of a strangler-fig-tree, up to platforms 60-100 feet up and zipped along wires between the trees while observing and being observed by monkey families. We then rappelled safely to earth. Later, we walked a 2km trail over several wire suspension bridges through the jungle.

After a brief stop back through San Jose, we embarked on a 3 day jungle trek to

North-Eastern Costa Rica (the 'Mosquito Coast'). The boat ride there was the most fantastic part; we saw many alligators, giant iguanas, monkeys, heron, turtles and storks. Halfway there, we stopped on the side of a river at a place that had a couple pet toucans.

Due to some strange border decision, the river is actually in Nicaragua, so we needed to stop and get a couple visas. The soldiers were pretty casual though, and we sat around chatting about the extreme heat.

After we arrived at the coast, we did some jungle trekking and had some great food. Mostly it rained though - I measured over 10 inches in 2 days. They blamed El Nino.

Anyway - back through San Jose, and off for a brief stint to Panama City on the way to Ecuador. Oops, turned out the Quito, Ecuador international airport spontaneously closed, so we needed to find an alternate route.

Now we are planning a trip to the Galapagos islands to swim with the penguins, sea-lions, (harmless) sharks and blue-footed boobies.

Bye all,

-don & karen

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