Leaving Rosa and German's wonderful household was difficult, maybe less so because most of the family had returned to the Beach house, so we bade farewell to the housekeeper Olivia and headed for the San Jose bus station. Our taxi driver was a typical Tico, friendly and helpful and, as we had some time to spare, he gave us a quick tour of downtown San Jose, showing us the highlights of the prostitution areas and a few pretty parks. By day the city does no...

  On top of everything else he does, German is a famous children's entertainer, named Maromero. In Central America he is known everywhere by both parents and children alike. Everywhere we went, kids would run up to hug him and parents would laughingly say how tired they were of hearing his songs. Even in McDonald's one of his CDs was playing. Although he usually does big concerts, he does do little gigs where he can make a difference and on this day...

More pics from the beach. The Crocs in these pictures we saw in a real river - just pulled over to the side of the road and went up on the bridge and looked down!!!!!! Costa Rica has the world's largest biodiversity - more species here than anywhere else on earth. It is only the size of Nova Scotia - much of the country is desgnated as National Park and it is still wild and very very beautiful. Next time I have to stay longer and see much more.

You came to the happiest place on earth and you decide to only stay ONE week???? cried Diego, German and Rosa's middle son. Diego had told Louise and me earlier that a recent poll had reported that Costa Ricans are the happiest people on earth – even happier than the people of Bhutan who live towards a happiest quotient! I have to say, I saw that happiest factor everywhere we went, and if Costa Rica is the happiest country, we landed in the happiest ...

After a six hour bus ride across Panama - from Panama city to David, a quick sleepover in the last available Hotel room in David and then an eventful morning trying to get out of David (which included a taxi driver who told us he was calling the police on us after trying to rip us off for an extra 50 cents.....bring it on!) we finally found a bus to take us to San Jose Costa Rica.......well.....the bus we found made the Panamanian shaker look luxurious. Th...