"The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in
its net of wonder forever."—Jacques Cousteau

Jan. 22 - On Our Way to Costa Rica

“Traveling is life. It’s experiencing this world to the complete fullest and putting yourself in new situations you’ve never dreamed of before.” —Kiana Azizian

South Texas is a winter escape for people from Minnesota, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Canada and other places covered in snow this time of year. We call them Winter Texans, but for us we need to escape to some place a little warmer...someplace we can find a little adventure and maybe a little sunshine. So we've decided to take a trip to Costa Rica. Costa Rica is in Central America. It's bordered by the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, with Panama to the south and Nicaragua to the north. It's a short, direct 3 1/2 hour flight from Houston to San Jose. 
Costa Rica is approximately the same size as West Virginia. The terrain varies between coastal plains and rugged mountains. It has over 500,000 plant and animal species and is one of the world's most biologically diverse countries. I'm looking forward to seeing monkeys, sloths and toucans; it's definitely a trip where I'll need my good camera and telephoto lens. Since we spend so much of our time on the water and at beaches, we've decided this trip will be spent in the northern zone of Costa Rica exploring the rainforests, volcanoes and waterfalls. We're very excited to see a new place...stay tuned for updates.
Here's a map of the area we'll be visiting. I've marked both of these maps with purple dots indicating the places we'll be visiting.