At the top of the Monteverde Cloud Forest is a cold and windy lookout point that allows for a spectacular view of the Continental Divide, which extends from Canada to Argentina and passes through the point where I stood to take this photo. On one side of the vantage point, water flows toward the Atlantic [...]

Every morning before 6 a.m. a local dairy farmer brings a wagon filled with fresh milk from his cows into Monteverde to sell to the cheese factory. The wagon is pulled by two oxen. Seeing the animals’ horns tied to the oxcart and the oxen burdened under the weight of the wagon tugs at my [...]

I struck up conversation with a vivacious woman named Kathleen at an art gallery in the Monteverde Cloud Forest yesterday afternoon, and a short time later, while hiking the dirt road back to our respective lodgings, she invited me to eat dinner with her and the 12 women she is traveling with from California and [...]

This is a site that is becoming more and more common in the rainforest, and it’s a site that always sickens me when I see it. The roads are for the tourists and people buying condos in gated communities. Along with the roads come all of the ugly assortment of assaults against the environment like [...]

There are many footprints in the sand along Costa Rica’s beaches that remind me of my days and nights on California’s beaches with Red during our cross country trip together last year.

Poaching is a serious problem in Costa Rica. People steal the trees and wildlife for the exotic hardwood and exotic pet marketplace. This is an illegal tree poaching operation that I stumbled upon while hiking the rainforest near Samasati before leaving there.

Since arriving in Monteverde on February 1, I have been staying in a darling little cabin that is nestled in the forest and owned and operated by the Monteverde Institute (MVI). MVI is an international study and research institute whose programs and projects are grounded in environmental and social issues that are both locally focused [...]

I finished the video that will be used to campaign against the 400-yacht marina being proposed for Costa Rica’s southern Caribbean coast. Two women from the Monteverde Institute helped me complete the video project. Marlene is bilingual, and she translated my script into Spanish. Pati is multi-lingual and narrated the script. Pati and her significant [...]

Just a short walk down the dirt path and gravel road from where I’m staying in Monteverde is a non-profit cooperative of artists. Originally, when eight women formed the coop in 1982 it was for women artists only. But since then the coop has grown to include 89 women and three men. It’s quite a [...]

Travel is not about where you’ve been but what you’ve gained. — Sven Olof, Founder Lindblad Expeditions