La Fortuna, Costa Rica – Monkey Park is a misnomer. This is not a park at all, but rather a family-owned forest preserve that occupies a corner of a flourishing farm. A 2.5-kilometer trail winds through the luscious primary forest.…
Río Fortuna Waterfall
La Fortuna, Costa Rica – There are a lot of cataratas in Costa Rica but the Río Fortuna waterfall is doozy! It’s 70 meters high. For those of us who are not proficient in the metric system, that’s 500 steps.…
Arenal Volcano
La Fortuna, Costa Rica – It was pouring rain when I drove into La Fortuna last night. This is the weather that I feared when I planned a trip to the rainforest during the rainiest month of the rainy season.…
Welcome to My Treehouse
Boca Tapada, Costa Rica – I’ve been coming to Costa Rica for years, visiting and reviewing hotels that offer treehouse lodging, but this is the first time I had the opportunity to actually sleep in a tree. I don’t know…
Chilamate Rainforest Eco Retreat
Chilamate, Costa Rica – I am moving quickly on this trip! I spent a few days at one of my favorite places – the Chilamate Rainforest Eco Retreat. In the past, we have stayed here en famille (although it’s been…
Riddle
Puerto Viejo de Sarapiquí, Costa Rica – Spending the day looking for birds at the world-famous rainforest preserve, La Selva Biological Station, I made up a riddle. How do you find a keel-billed toucan in the rainforest? Answer: Follow your…
La Vida Rural
San Miguel de Sarapiquí, Costa Rica – What a thrill to be back in Costa Rica for a Lonely Planet guidebook update! This whole thing came about rather unexpectedly, so I am traveling solo (for now), during the rainy season,…
Underwater Breathwork in Yoga Journal
Labrelotte Bay, St Lucia – It was my first time scuba diving in nearly two years, and rediscovering the reef was pure bliss–admiring the ubiquitous tube sponges, spying on a peacock flounder hiding in the sand, swimming amid schools of…
Breathe Deep
A St. Lucia resort turns the Caribbean Sea into a yoga studio with its Underwater Breathwork Program. Yoga and scuba diving wouldn’t seem to have much in common, but the two pursuits do share one critical element: controlled breathing. Taking…
How I Became a Reef Rescuer
Dive staff at this St Lucia resort are helping to save the reef–and you can too Labrelotte Bay, St Lucia –Like many divers, Eget Martyr has a longstanding love affair with coral reefs—source of spectacular underwater scenery, rich marine life,…