May 4
After climbing Chirripo, the country’s highest peak, there was not much left undone on our Costa Rica bucket lists. D joined a couple of bird researchers on a pelagic trip to do an oceanic bird count, checking a small item off his personal list. Immediately after, we took advantage of the local May 1 holiday to raft the Pacuare River, crossing off the largest must-do item that had lingered on S’s personal bucket list.
Our Semana Santa trip to Monteverde with visiting friends marks the last time for the foreseeable future we’ll set foot in what is undeniably one of Costa Rica’s most magical places. As Monteverde is also among the country’s top birding hotspots, D felt tempted to spend our entire three-day stay deep in the woods. Had this trip taken place earlier in our Costa Rica assignment, he might well have done just that, visitors be damned. After more than two years of dedicated birding all over the country, however, the potential returns did not justify such an extreme approach.
Beautiful beaches in Belize. Exotic birding in far-flung locations. Caving explorations and mountain climbing misadventures. If you’ve been following our blog of late, you’ll know that January was kind to us. We still have a handful of posts in the works to catch up on all our travel tales. But while our blog enables us to daydream about our adventures and live a bit longer in our recent past, time simply won’t stand still. We’ve been back in San Jose with our noses to the grindstone for a week and a half now. Schools are mercifully back in session after the long holiday break. Meanwhile, we are entering the final stretch of what has been a dream assignment to Costa Rica.
The first of the many things we learned about Belize is that 60 percent of it is covered in limestone, the karst topography leading to the creation of hundreds of caves all over this small country. We visited three caves during our stay, spelunking in Actun Tunichil Muknal (ATM) Cave, canoeing inside the Barton Creek Cave, and tubing through the Nohoch Che’en Cave. In addition to the obvious adventure aspect of cave diving, these tours provide an opportunity to learn about Mayan culture and see artifacts from Central America’s dominant civilization, including calcified remains of human sacrifices preserved deep inside the caves.
Jan 7
We started 2024 in Belize — a country, we realized shortly after our arrival, we knew very little about. After living in and traveling extensively throughout the Spanish-speaking world, we usually have a pretty good compass for what to expect in most Latin American countries. Belize, which grew out of settlements started by British buccaneers and pirates on land previously dominated by the Maya and only partially overrun by Spanish conquistadores, does not fit neatly into this mold. After spending the last week exploring the country’s interior region, we’ve learned a thing or two about this land, which, as the tour guides frequently say, is unBelizeable!
Two flights, two countries, and a two-hour drive after departing San Jose, our two kiddos raced out of the car and straight into their grandparents’ waiting arms. After several prior visits to Costa Rica, S’s parents suggested we rendezvous in a different country this holiday season. So, in lieu of planning another multi-week tour around our host country, we flew to meet S’s parents and aunt in Belize, adding a new country to our travel list in the process.
Stereotypically, Jews in the United States — and especially in New York — patronize Chinese restaurants on Christmas Day. We’ve never settled into this tradition, even though D grew up in NYC, in large part because we’ve spent so much of our married life overseas. Instead, as we don’t have a Christmas tree or stockings stuffed with gifts to keep us at home, we usually take advantage of the holiday to travel. Last year, D’s parents visited us in December, and we organized a two-week adventure across a large swath of Costa Rica. The year before, Christmas fell mere weeks into our San Jose assignment; we spent the holiday in Sarapiqui, our first family excursion outside the capital. This year, we likewise took a short family trip to get out of the big city for a couple of days of green therapy.
Because we frequently write about our travels while purposefully bracketing our professional lives, this blog sometimes suggests that we may be on permanent vacation. This month, such an impression would be more accurate than most of the time. The kids are nearly two weeks into their holiday break, which comes much earlier and lasts much longer in Costa Rica than in the States. We too have taken time off this month to make the most of our kids’ vacation.
Thanks to a local holiday on Friday, we got a head start on our holiday travels with a trip to San Gerardo de Dota and the Savegre Valley, one of our absolute favorite destinations in all of Costa Rica. We last visited Dota in April when we hosted friends from our Chisinau days. Overall, last weekend marked our fourth visit to the area, and we might squeeze in one more trip before the end of our Costa Rica tour because the kids enjoy Dota almost as much as we do, which is not always the case for hiking/birdwatching destinations.
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.
towels packed, will travel 