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CURRENTLY VISITING HAWAII!!

Hawaii

Hawaii
Akaka Falls

See the World for Free

The idea here is to TRAVEL THE WORLD regardless of time or budget. It dawned on me one day that even if I had unlimited time and money (which I definitley do not), I still couldn't see everything in the world that I'd like to see--I'm simply not going to live long enough to do it.

But I had a bit of brain wave and soon after the travel envelope was born. This is an actual physical envelope. I typed the name of every country in the world, plus every state in the US on little slips of paper which I then put into the envelope. In the beginning we (myself, my husband, Dave and daugher Catherine) would draw out a slip at random at the beginning of the month and that's where we would go---at least in our minds. We grab some books about the country from the library and put them in our bathroom to look at. We also check out some videos about the country if any. We check it out on googleearth, listen to the music, try the food, maybe even attempt to learn a dance or celebrate a festival.

After the first two years we discovered that even virtual traveling can be tiring, so we travel now whenever I happen to be in the mood.

It's great fun. I especially love it when people I meet have been to the place I'm "visiting" in real life, or get excited and have some virtual adventures of their own. I hope that anyone who comes across this blog will feel welcome to come with us on the trip!



You have a standing reservation to see it all!

Mar 16, 2016

Bird Watching

One of the professors at Weber State went birdwatching in Costa Rica.  He has this to say ( I added the pictures from google).

 My favorite spot was Monteverde,  which means literally green mountain. 





 There was (no exaggeration!!!) a 30-mile dirt road into the middle of nowhere that you would never have expected to find anything of value at the end of,  but,  at the end was basically a little town.  We stayed in a very nice hotel (one of several) and the dirt road main street had 4-wheel drive vehicles parked all along it on both sides.  The cloud forest was all around us and the birding was tremendous!  



My favorite sight in Costa Rica was a Resplendent Quetzal.  It is a lovely emerald green bird with a very long tail. 




 It was very entertaining to watch the male try to get in and out of its nest,  an old woodpecker hole.  





The one main thing that struck me about the entire place was the amazing biodiversity.  Everywhere you look there was a new flower and a new fruit that you had never seen.  The favorite food of the Quetzal,  for example,  seemed to be the "aguacatillo" which is a miniature avacado.  





My other favorite place there is called Golfito,  way down in the south. 


(Banana Bay in Golfito)

A couple of driving stories might give you a (not so pleasant) feel for the place.  On the road to Golfito,  there was a sign in the middle of my lane of the road in the distance.  As I stopped for it,  it read "ceda el paso" which is basically "yield the right of way."  As it turns out,  my lane of the road had sloughed off into the river (many years ago???) and I had to yield to oncoming traffic for about 300 yards on the one lane that remained.  Also,  I was stopped to make a left turn from a two lane road into a market, and,  when it was clear ahead,  I began to turn.  I stopped short when I heard a horn,  and it was a good thing;  the car behind the car behind me had decided not to stop for us and went careening past at about 30 mph,  horn blaring.  Luckily,  I stopped quickly enough and there was enough of a shoulder on the other side of the road for him to pass and not kill me.



I think I'll end my friends experience with just a few of the pictures of the birds he loves.



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