September 2026
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We Are (finally!) off to Italy
Read More: We Are (finally!) off to ItalyI think everyone who knows us is aware that our planned trip to Italy in the spring of 2020 was cancelled due to CoVid. It has taken us a few years, but we are finally making up for lost time. We head out today, spend a quick couple of hours in Montreal, and will be…
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Costa Rica – Final Day
Read More: Costa Rica – Final DayOur tentative plans for one last wildlife tour were derailed this morning by the crazy tropical rain that lasted all day. We decided to hightail it back to San Jose, a drive that took about 4 hours with intermittent traffic. We stopped at a roadside restaurant and hotel. Lunch was a very very tasty fried…
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Costa Rica – Cahuita National Park
Read More: Costa Rica – Cahuita National ParkToday we took a lovely (but wet) hike in Cahuita National Park. Ocean on three sides of the forested peninsula creates a unique microclimate favoured by many types of wildlife. In the south end of the park, we meandered through wet swamp on an elevated boardwalk. The trail on the south side of the park…
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Costa Rica – Sloths
Read More: Costa Rica – SlothsThere are two types of sloths in Costa Rica; 2-toed and 3-toed. They are not just different species, but belong to different families – about as genetically similar as dogs and cats, despite their many common traits. The Santuario de Perezosos rehabilitates and releases many sloths who are able to fend for themselves in the…
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Costa Rica – Puerto Viejo
Read More: Costa Rica – Puerto ViejoReversing our adventurous trip to the Selva Reserve, we forded the Bananito River again several times this morning. The most challenging thing was getting the rusty padlock on the reserve gate open! The drive out to the Caribbean Coast was fairly quick and uneventful. We stopped for lunch at another soda where we chose various…
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Costa Rica – Selva Bananito Lodge
Read More: Costa Rica – Selva Bananito LodgeWe got up early this morning to set out on a nature hike, wandering through both old growth primary forest and newer secondary forest. According to our guide, Allen, despite the large amount of rain lately, we are not quite in the rainforest, but more like the humid forest. Later in the day, Allen led…
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Costa Rica – Drive to Selva Bananito
Read More: Costa Rica – Drive to Selva BananitoWe left Los Quetzals park this morning, drove north to Cartago and headed for the province of Limon. Being Valentine’s Day, when we saw a sign at a roadside house offering local chocolate we had to stop to buy some to give each other! The self-described “cacao lady” made amazing truffles which a fellow tourist…
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Costa Rica – Talamanca Mountain bird watching
Read More: Costa Rica – Talamanca Mountain bird watchingWe expected to get a decent sleep but a pair of rare Olingo had a party on our metal roof at 1am. Apparently there is a nice fig tree right by our room and they were fighting over the fresh fruit. Dave managed to get a glimpse of cute paws and fluffy tail through the…
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Costa Rica – Los Quetzales
Read More: Costa Rica – Los QuetzalesWe have come to Los Quetzales National Park to find the Resplendent Quetzal, despite them being endangered and hard to find! When we were in Monteverde in 2008, a tour group in front of us said they saw the bird, but we never did. The Quetzal is actually the national bird of Guatemala, but there…
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Costa Rica – Drive to Los Quetzales National Park & Savegre Hotel
Read More: Costa Rica – Drive to Los Quetzales National Park & Savegre HotelAfter a barely adequate amount of sleep, we returned to the airport to pick up our rental car from the Avis desk. Dave had reserved a 4×4, as we expect some of the roads ahead to be a bit sketchy. We got “upgraded” to a standard pickup – probably more robust than we need but…
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Tours to Loire Valley
We bid a last adieu to Eric (again!) this morning. We left him at his orientation picnic in Tours and headed deeper into the Loire Valley to continue our oenotourism! We stopped for lunch and a wine tasting at Chateau de Miniere, a women-run winery in the country where we had a lesson on the…
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Amboise
The second week of our trip will be just the two of us, exploring the Loire Valley, touring several 17th C chateaux and tasting lots of wine. The Loire is the longest river in France. It officially separates France into north and south regions. The river was the farthest point the Moors conquered as they…
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Paris to Tours
We said goodbye to Ryan this morning at our local metro station. He is heading off to Switzerland to meet up with a friend in Lausanne. The rest of us took the metro to the Montparnasse train station to catch our hour-long train to Tours. There, we picked up ‘Genevieve’ from Hertz. Over the next…
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