The very tiny plane I took to Quepos
Diggin my new shades, eating a vanilla, strawberry, and lime ice cream swirl
Quepos
Quepos has these cool benches down by the boardwalk
Another nice sunset
I tried to get a good picture of this bird. I honestly don't know what it is, but it's really pretty.
Another amazing Central American sunset
I challenge you to find the sun in this picture. I do promise it's visible. (hint: zoom in and look along the water).
This gecko hangs out in my bedroom sometimes. It's nice actually. Keeps the bugs away.
Vulture in the road on the way to school. Use the road line for a sense of size (though it's bigger than it looks here).
The bridge I walk across in the morning.
Pizzeria, open for breakfast
I had lunch here one day
I had an amazing Mahi filet
Squirrel monkey on a wire!
more monkey
Nice beach, eh?
These littls guys make amazing lines in the sand.
Bus to class in the morning
This is the yard at my school
My classroom
Cool vine, right?
Pretty flower
Pretty flower with bug inside
There's a cat at the school. He likes to climb the windows, but doesn't know how to get down.
Look at his terrified little eyes.
So many monkeys outside the classroom!
Squirrel monkeys are incredibly endangered.
Squirrel monkeys often travel in packs, and only live in the southwestern coastal regions of Costa Rica.
Squirrel monkeys are adorable.
That's a banana plant.
I had lunch here.
A delicious grilled fresh tuna filet
Ticos seem to love puns. See if you get this one. (hint: think Obama)
I saw a sloth!!!
These guys are crazy slow.
Iguana on the roof
See? Iguana.
Unbelievable sunset.
Remember Sam from Ometepe? I found him and Ben again. Here's Sam talking with our new friend Olive.
Anna and Valerie, more new friends.
This was at a preposterous dance club in Quepos.
This is one of the nicest beaches I've ever been to, at least until I got to the one in the park.
Amazing beach at Parque Manuel Antonio
Salem (named for the Sabrina character) hiding in a bookshelf.
Casado (comida tipica de Costa Rica) with Mahi Mahi, a fried egg, beet salad, potato salad, rice, beans, avocado, maduro (mature plaintain), and tortillas. And bottle of Imperial.
Ridiculously muffintastic puppy at the hostel where my friends are staying.
Warning: Squirrel monkeys are freaking cute. Be prepared.
Just hangin out.
Squirrel monkeys jumping from tree to tree (I took this from my classroom)
Ingredients for gallo pinto (at left) and cooking verbs (at right)
Capuchin monkeys showed up on the building next to my school this morning.
In class, we played a game with a lot of water, and passing it over our heads.
Large lizard on the roof at school
Can you spot the lizard here? Hint: one of the branches on the left side is a tail, and one of the bumps on the tree (top left branch) is a head.
Alberto, the school caretaker has an amazing greenhouse.
You know I love cilantro
The monkeys were afraid of something.
Pretty sweet sunset on the playa at Manuel Antonio
Tree full of monkeys
Tree full of tiny people
Monkeys = tiny people
In the cloud forest on the way back from Arenal
Cloud forest
There are scarlet macaws on the bottom branch
I tried as best I could to get pictures of the macaws, but they were pretty far up.
They're incredibly beautiful in flight, and look like phoenixes.
if you zoom these to full size, you can actually see them quite well
This is a zoomed in version of an earlier shot, and you can see the macaws a bit better. The next few are similar.
Don Victor y Doña Haydee, my host parents
Junmei, their great granddaughter
Meiying, their younger great granddaughter
Yo con las niñas
Big ole grasshopper
Junmei took this
Junmei also took this
breakfast (clockwise from top right: mango, papaya, pineapple, canteloupe)
Sloth! They do move slowly.
More sloth! In Spanish, it's called a perezoso.
The national flower of Costa Rica (a particular type of orchid)
hermit crabs on the beach
This little guy (racoon = mapache) came back later with some friends and stole a bag of food from some French people.
Huge iguana on the beach, probably about 4 feet long.
This one's the female
There's a deer in there.
Howler monkey
Howler monkey grabbing food.
Seriously, I come all the way to Central America and I chase pictures of deer. What's that about?
I didn't see this deer walking over. She caught me very much off guard.
Surf and turf (steak and tuna) at Ronny's Place. Muy rico.
Thomas got a whole red snapper.
You could see its teeth.
Our dessert was listed as "pumpkin." This did not seem quite right, though the taste was very close. We asked about it.
Not pumpkin, it turned out, but a really giant squash.
Playa Manuel Antonio. Inredible.
Can't get enough of monkey videos.
Howler monkey video
Additional howler monkey video.
A sloth showed up at school this morning
Seriously. That is an adorable animal.
He started eating
Notice that that thing to the right is his leg.
Hungy times.
Yayyy
Bending over backwards, reaching for food.
Octopus Ceviche! Finally!
Note the suction cups.
This guy's just a little baby. Sloth mothers raise their children, and then move away, leaving their children to live as adults in an area with which they're familiar. This guy seems to have only recently been left to his own devices, because he's pretty small.
I believe the appropriate sound effect is "num num num"
Someone brought this wig the last day of class. I look like Zippy the Pinhead.
Mmmmempanada
This jerk showed up in my stuff. It was his first and last mistake.
Vanquished.
I have no idea how this is happening in this economy, but it is.
A pretty bird, the morning of my departure.
Statue of Juan Santamaría at Juan Santamaría Airport
