Category Archives: Costa Rica

My guide takes me to one of the little houses and onto the porch, where I examine gourd rattles and water jars, and a balsa wood drum whose head is an iguana skin. I select several and hope I have … Continue reading →

I am awakened long before dawn by a sound that is pure hoodoo, a low throaty chant that rises to a peak and then falls away, only to begin again seconds later. Fortunately I have been briefed about the howler … Continue reading →

I awaken to a “chilly” 55-degree sun-filled Monday in Monteverde, northwest of the capital city of Costa Rica on a mountainside overlooking Nicoya Bay from an altitude of 4,500 feet. It is my 21st day in Central America, with just … Continue reading →

Like a picture through a lens out of focus, it is difficult, even while sitting here, to capture the workings of an institution the caliber of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) against the backdrop of this teeming and sometimes … Continue reading →

In 2002, The West Plains Daily Quill received a $5,000 grant from the U.S. chapter of the International Press Institute. A representative from the newsroom was charged with the assignment to go somewhere outside the U.S., preferably somewhere where they … Continue reading →

Entering Costa Rica from the air is an experience that challenges description. First there are the clouds, massive cathedrals, alive, in an immense, many-layered landscape. No wonder, then, that the ancients decided that heaven, if it was anywhere, it was … Continue reading →