International Travelers

I just got back, a week ago, from beautiful Costa Rica. My kids and I went with another family and had the most relaxing vacation ever. I actually started and finished a book on this trip; "The Life of Pi." I found the book very engaging but hated the ending. Anyone else read it?

We were expecting many mosquito encounters, but they ended up being bery minimal. A nice breeze for the majority of our stay probably kept them at bay. This doesn't mean that we didn't have our fair share of creature encounters. The days were calm and pleasant but each night somehting different would happen. Big crabs on interior staircases, supersized flying beatles that looked suspiciously like cockroaches, large lizards sharing our rooms, huge tarantula sized spiders in the bathroom, and the cutest little baby scorpion in my bed. Many of these happenings were puntuated with startled screams followed by nervous laughter.

We were on the Caribean side of the country, almost in Panama. The town of Manzanillo and surrounding areas have a distinctly African/Jamaican feel. The food at the local restaraunt was fantastically delicious. The ocean was the perfect temperature for swimming, snorkling, and just hanging out in. The jungle came right to the edge of the beach. It was like living in the Swiss Family Robinson movie.

We did a Canopy tour, aslo known as zip lining, and had a blast. Our handsome guide, Rodrigo, gave us a lot of information on the area and it's plant life that was facinating.

Besides a quick trip to Victoria, British Columbia as a kid, I had never traveled outside the United States so I guess the kids and I are now jet setters! We made big progress on our bug/reptile tolerance therapy program and have planned a 7 day family cruise to Puerta Vallarta in April to commerate my parents 50th wedding aniversay. I'm alternately looking forward to and dreading this trip. But like my older sister said when talking me into this "This is probbly the last family vacation we'll ever take together." She's right, but like I've heard said "Be careful what you wish for cause you might just get it."

It's great to be back!