The Chronicles of Williams

We landed in San Jose Costa Rica into a peaceful and smiling country!  The taxi ride from the airport to the hotel was funny as our cab driver helped us get going with our Spanish speaking skills.  David made a mistake on a word and said something foul and our driver couldn't stop laughing and said he has the same problem when he tries to say "beach".  Maybe you can figure out what his accent sounds like?  Ha! Our hotel is just 1 block from the university but the university is locked for the holiday.  The hotel grounds and buildings look colonial and have beautiful gardens and houses where the owners and family live quietly. Oscar, he hotel receptionist, told us about a local Costa Rican restaurant so we walked there for dinner.  We asked a few locals what to order and we ended up with some fantastic food!  In this region they serve sliced and slightly fried plantains with guacamole, black beans, cheese and pico de gallo. (look kinda like a banana...

Costa Rica plans.... we finally have time to get our plans down so we don't forget where to go... and wanted our friends and family to know what's up.   We are taking the shuttle to our favorite hotel in Denver on the 30th (Aloft) and will catch a super early flight on the 31st arriving in San Jose around 3pm on the 31st).   We arrive in San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica, on Dec 31 at 3pm.  Our hotel for our first night and our transport from the airport on Jan 1 to La Selva has been arranged by La Selva.  On New Year's Eve, we are on our own to explore some kind of adventure in San Jose.  We might do a coffee plantation tour and they also have quite a few art museum and galleries and of course good food!   We are going to spend most of our time in La Selva Biological Research Station where David has been asked to be one of the faculty instructors for the course.  I'm David's assistant (he is brave!) so I'll be going with him and the...

We had a new experience this holiday season…. Probably different from any we’ll have again. Having Christmas and summer at the same time is just crazy first of all. Hearing “Here comes Santa Clause” while grocery shopping in our shorts feels just wrong. We made the best of it. We made reservations at a beach house in November for Christmas Day. We wanted something totally different since we were all screwed up in the head anyway about all of this upside down living. We arrived at our beach house (located on Sanctuary Point at Jervis Bay) on Dec 23 and stayed until Dec 26. While we were there we enjoyed making our own homemade crab raviolli, prawn on the barbie with mango salsa and lots of nice fruits and veggies/ avacados. Jervis Bay is a really cool area with lots of beaches, St. George Basin (a saltwater lake that is fed by the ocean), a huge bay perfect for stand up paddle boarding, kayaking and snorkeling and also a National Park filled with hiking trails, more beaches and t...

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  I found these videos of my favorite bird sounds... Kookaburra and Whipbird.  This whipbird sound wakes us up many mornings and sounds like a laser beam is in our room!  Really strange but super great! You'll hear the male and female calls... they always make them together and it's so cool!  The kookaburra laughs and makes me laugh, especially in the evening when we're out grilling... they love raw meat! Here's a video of the kookaburras in our front yard having a laughing party.  Cheers!