JD Costa Rica Pictures

We flew into San Jose which comprises about 1/3 of Costa Rica's population
,just in the city. It is located in a valley surrounded by 5 mts, which are
volanic. Many live close by, and a million drive into the city each day. For
a small country it has a very diverse climate from hot and humid to hot and
dry, with cooler cloud forests and drier areas.San Jose is fairly mild all
year.

We drove south to visit Manuel Antonio Nat. Park, which has 3 beautiful
beaches,and lots of trails for hiking. We encountered white faced monkeys,
raccoons, iguanas, other unusual lizards and lovely birds.

I was in heaven seeing so many beautiful flowers, birds, butterflies and
trees.

We spent a few days in Tortuguero National Park, which is really many canals
in a jungle like area.Only way in is by boat, or a small plane.So much
animal and plant life hidden under ,on, above every tree.  People live
alongside the canals and boat their children to a school in the community.

Next amazing place was the Monte Verde Cloud Forest which covers 26,000
acres of tropical rainforest and consists of 2,500 plant species,100 species
of animals,400 bird species and 120 reptiles and amphibian species.I was
entralled by seeing so many different types of hummingbirds.

Monteverdi was named by Marvin Rockwell, a Quaker from Alabama , who refused
to register for the draft(WW II) because he would have had to carry a gun.
He was in prison for 4 months. When released he and about 11 other families
set off to find a new place to live.  C.R.was chosen because it had recently
disbanded their army. They bought 3000 acres and found out quite quickly
that they could not farm there. So they raised cows, and started a dairy
which is still being used. We went to see his slide show one evening; the
man is a young 90 years old...impressive.