Today, I took the dog for a walk and I thought, “Wow, it’s pretty nice out. I can unzip my coat.” It’s 29°F. Coat weather makes it pretty easy to dream about tropical Costa Rica. Instead of imaging myself immersed in the warm waters of the Pacific, however, I am thinking about all the cool wildlife I will get to see. Here we have skunks, possums, deer, coyote, squirrels, raccoons, and plenty of rabbits. Nothing wrong with them (except that possums are very creepy looking--and the dog likes to play with skunks!), but they blend into the background at this point.

Manuel Antonio National Park has howler, capuchin, and endangered squirrel monkeys; two- and three-toed sloths; coati; red-eyed tree frogs, iguanas and Jesus Christ lizards (they walk on water! – meh – can they turn it into wine?  Now, that would be useful); and tons of birds, among others. That’s just the tip of the tropical wildlife list.

I am trying to figure out whether we will have time to cross the country to the Caribbean coast for a tour of sea turtle nesting grounds. This would require some maneuvering of plans, but that’s one of things we do. Flexibility is key when traveling and planning travel. Since we are going at the end of March, we would have the best chance of seeing leatherback turtles in Tortuguera, from what my meager research so far has uncovered. Stay tuned for more on that in the coming weeks.