Liberation

The feeling of posting into the ether without anyone truly reading is wonderful indeed.

I started reading Jose Saramago's The Double on my trip to Costa Rica--one of the best books I have read in a long time. One quote from tonight's reading:

"According to popular wisdom, you can't have everything, and there's a good deal of truth in that, the balance of human lives is constantly swinging back and forth between what is gained and what is lost, the problem lies in the equally human impossibility of coming to an agreement on the relative merits of what should be lost and what should be gained, which is why the world is in the state it's in." (Saramago 103)

Costa Rica

I may be back in blogging action...haven't decided yet. Here are some pics from a recent vacation to the Costa Rica, with lame attempts at wit underneath. Do with them what you will.

I leave you with one anecdote from the trip. We got picked up at the airport by a shuttle driver. I tried speaking to him in Spanish and Chinese inevitably tumbled out. Funny, I know. I explained to him as best I could that I learned Spanish in highschool, but then got it all mixed up with Chinese. He politely then asked: "Usted habla Chino Mandarin o Chino Japonese?" Liam and I couldn't help but bust up laughing, and I politely answered that I did not, in fact, speak Japanese Chinese, but I spoke Mandarin.

The pics are in reverse order. I can't be bothered to correct them.

Our car in horrible lighting. 

Chilling at teh be4ch. 

Nothing like soccer on the beach...which lasted for about 30 seconds in the oppressive jungle heat and humidity, not to mention the mass mobilization of insects upon seeing succulent flesh. 

Kim and her friend. 

Ahh poor man's paradise, the name of our lodge. Poor man must refer to your state upon leaving the lodge, and paradise, the feeling of the lodge owners after you leave. 

Another such shot. 

Cliche tropical waterfall shot. 

This dude does a surprisingly good job of hiding. But not from Americans. U. S. A. UUUU. SSSS. AAAA. 

Big jungle. Small frog. 

Danghah. Croces in these pahts. 

More big sky country. 

Surprisingly two boisterous gringos and a dog that chased everything didn't scare away this thing...some sort of relative of a racoon. 

This was the general feeling of the jungle excursions--tiger country. 

Reef's howl of victory from successfully (and needlessly) biting a hermit crab to death. Somehow, it was funnier at the time. 

Reef with one of his hermit crab victims. 

We took some jungle treks along the coast, with no preparation, no food, very little water, and a dog--sounds like a recipe for disaster. 

Red-eye will not fix this--their eyes really are red, because they are devil toads. 

Tree. Person. Apparently it was enough for a picture. 

The view from our lodge in Corcovado National Park... 

Reef has a penchant for digging out hermit crabs. Yes, a crab hunting Benji... 

Liam can't stand to not pet dogs. Strange dogs. Costa Rican dogs. He loves them all. 

This is our traveling companion in the jungle "Reef." Here he consents to be buried. 

Some of the comments about sunny tropical paradise seem to be slightly misplaced. 

Liam contemplating the passage we just read in our guide book about this river: "Beware of crocs and bull sharks." 

Luckily, Liam and I don't have to wonder what we will look like as overweight white-ies in very poor lighting.