Disatre....

Not a real disaster, but pretty serious one nonetheless. I (Kenton) left the thing-a-ma-jigger that connects our camera to the computer in an internet cafe in Quepos. When we lost it, I was able to console myself with the thought that we still had Rachele's camera and I had packed the cord to connect her camera to the computer. So although we wouldn't be able to post the up close pictures we had of the Titi monkeys that came to the branch within ten feet of us in Manual Antonio, we would at least be able to post pictures from the rest of our trip. However, salt was added to the would when we tried to hook up her camera and realized that I had packed the wrong cord. Killer, but we're going to return to Quepos in about a week and with any luck it will still be stuck in the back of our lucky computer.

Anyway, our trip to Manual Antonio was everything we had expected and then some. Inside the park we had a huge white sand beach to ourselves. There were plenty of animals, including some monkeys, sloths and something the looked like a racoon. This last creature snuck up on Rachele and I while we were lying on the beach and had his head and front legs in my backpack before I could wrestle it away from him. We went on a hike and had some amazing views.

The bus ride home was an adventure as well. It poured harder than it has during our time here for most of the ride. We had to cross a few rivers that had overflowed and covered the road. The next day we found that the road from Dominical to San Jose was closed, and remains closed, because so much debris had landed on the road after a few landslides.

Today we had our second day of our last week of Spanish classes. Our teacher is from Uraguay, is very interesting and I have a feeling that this will be a great way to finish things off. We took a tour through the jungle this afternoon with a company called Oro Verde. They are a Costa Rican family that runs short hikes through their land. Rachele and I had some good laughs because our guide was only able to point our which plants were 'bonita'. We had to use our imaginations for any additional information. We heard a fair few howler monkeys and toucans, but didn't actually spot any. There were pleny of frogs, though. During the tour we asked a bit about the history of the family and it turns out that the land was a failing sugarcane farm and they decided to start catering to tourists. When the tour ended he asked if we would like to make some juice from the sugarcane and drink it. There were no oxen to pull the arm of the machine that ground the cane, so I gave it my best while Rachele caught the juice. There are some pretty funny pictures she took of me struggling to get things going.

Hope all is well back home and with any luck we'll have loads of pictues to post in a week or so.

Kenton and Rachele