Potomac Fever

President John F. Kennedy Library, August 12, 4:09pm. About the exhibits, just one comment... folks, the Cuban missile crises, on the brink, scary!

August 3, 2012, 6:25 am. Looking over the new construction site, the Washington Monument off in the distance on the right. The famous Highlander Inn lower right. Mysterious orange dot in the middle.

Back in the capital of San Jose after enjoying the excellent French food found in informal little restaurants along the dirt roads of southwestern Costa Rica, I had a chance to investigate the city by way of the standard "city tour." The group was me, a Peruvian, and eleven Venezuelans. Fortunately the guide, a very knowledgeable gentleman named Oliver, was happy to accommodate me with frequent English translations. There were two high points to the tour. Number One was the National Theater , a very high Wow Factor experience. Everything hand made by indigenous artists: bronze detail work on the walls, marble tile floors, etc. The theater, constructed in the late 19th century, is small but packed with beautiful detail. The second best part of the tour was the Museum of the Central Bank . Yes, strangely enough, the Central Bank started collecting tons of artifacts many years ago, and now in the mostly underground museum you can see beautiful gold work from hundreds of ...

I could see the cliffs and caves from the small plane that brought me here, flying down the coast from Quepos to Palmar Sur. Yesterday we explored the caves, next to a lovely beach where we swam, Playa de Ventanas (windows).

Awoken at 5am by my sister, I rushed out to the terrace in the dim pre-dawn light. The howling rolled from the mountains to our right, down to the ridge above the Pacific Ocean to our left. It was like a calling back and forth and from the middle, as the howler monkeys greeted the day. Later, they would be quiet and let the cicadas provide most of the audio background to our stay in this far southwest corner of Costa Rica, near Ojochal and the Osa peninsula.