no stone left unturned

This past weekend we took a recently arrived embassy family on a hike in the Iral cloud forest near San Jose. Noting D’s telephoto lens, they politely inquired about the best birding destinations in Costa Rica: was it Monteverde? Arenal? or perhaps another place they hadn’t heard of already that they should add to their must-visit list? Truth is, this entire country is one giant birding hotspot. And the same is true for hiking and other nature-based tourism. Costa Rica’s old-growth forests are simply spectacular. Our new friends noted that Iral called to mind the landscapes in Jurassic Park (which was set in Costa Rica). The same can be said for the Santa Elena reserve near Monteverde, Braulio Carrillo National Park, and numerous other national parks, preserves, and protected areas.

taking flight

Practice doesn’t make perfect, our kids frequently remind us — it makes progress! After getting a taste of his new camera’s capabilities, D took advantage of the Thanksgiving weekend to put it to a proper field test. He visited multiple birding hotspots on Thursday and Friday, chased down a furtive Costa Rican endemic on Saturday, and brought the camera along on a family hike to the Iral cloud forest — a beautiful private reserve right outside San Jose we just learned about and checked out on Sunday.

training day

Truth be told, our new mirrorless camera is a bit intimidating. Before trying it out, D first endeavored to figure out how to configure it. Even for its automatic modes, the Z8 offers a broad array of options. The focus menu alone has 15 different settings that can be adjusted. Because D intends to use this camera exclusively for wildlife photography, his natural inclination was to check out how other wildlife photographers configured theirs — and, in so doing, learn a bit about the camera’s inner workings. Almost immediately, he realized he had bitten off a bit more than he could chew.

mirrorless revolution

Our love for photography developed in tandem with our wanderlust. Long before smartphones enabled the ubiquitous sharing of images, we found that putting our eye behind the camera helped center us in the moment and often opened up new perspectives to appreciate the world’s beauty. Subsequently sorting the photos and sharing them with our friends and family, meanwhile, helped cement the memories of our travel experiences, visually searing them into our recollections. When we got married, weeks before packing our bags for our first overseas posting with the Foreign Service, we bought a nice DSLR camera and an array of lenses as a wedding present for ourselves.

grace and gratitude

’Tis the season for reflection and gratitude. And this — our third Thanksgiving in San Jose in two years — we had a lot to be thankful for.

walking contradiction

We are wonderfully contradictory beings. On the one hand, we want our children to grow up to be independent-minded; to experience the world for themselves and determine their own path; to succeed where we failed or perhaps never even dared to try. On the other hand, we don’t want the apple to fall too far from the tree either, so to speak. We want our kids to reflect our values and our passions. We love it when they cherish the same things as we do, root for the same sports teams, and share an appreciation for our favorite pastimes. Ever see a parent beam while referring to their offspring as “a chip off the ol’ block?” Parents may intend to convey a sense of pride in their kids’ accomplishments when they say that, but really they are just proud of themselves for seeing their own reflection in their progeny.

bittern day

Having shared our big news in our last post, we’re pleased to return to our regular programming this week. We had a busy weekend: soccer matches, play dates, and various activities for the kids; salsa dancing, a hike with friends, and a cooking class for S; and, naturally, birding for D.

the big reveal

Today was the long-awaited and much anticipated Handshake Day — when bureaus throughout the State Department sent out assignment offers. Bidding is a chaotic, stressful process — especially for tandem couples, like us. Securing one’s top bid is difficult enough when one is bidding solo; coordinating two tandem careers adds several layers of complications. We had been batting 0 for 2 in previous attempts to get assigned to the same Embassy, and this time only halfheartedly attempted to pull off the feat. Instead, we focused most of our energies on a different strategy, with D pursuing an in-person assignment after teleworking for five years while S sought a remote work position. We could not be more happy with the results!

common rarities

During our stay at La Ensenada and in the days leading up to our visit, a steady stream of Costa Rican birding experts, naturalist guides, and wildlife enthusiasts made a pilgrimage to this private nature reserve on the Gulf of Nicoya.

rustic retreats

Waiting for official news of our onward assignments kept us on pins and needles last week. That we had a decent inkling of how the chips might be likely to fall in our bidding quests in no way lessened the anxiety. We are used to living in perennial uncertainty, rarely knowing where the Foreign Service might dispatch us for our onward assignment. Knowing that decisions that will determine our fate for the next several years were taking place in the black box of our bureaucracy was unsettling, to say the least. We did the best thing we could think of to keep the anxiety at bay: pack the car and head to the wilderness for the Veterans Day weekend.