The Southwest in September

The Southwest is truly a beautiful part of the country.  I added almost 3500 miles on my trusty crv and camped in it too!  It worked out great and it was a great trip.  I visited friends (Mary and Paul) in Mancos, Colorado (near Durango and very near to Mesa Verde National Park.  In fact, you can see it from their front porch!  Mary and I then drove to Questa, New Mexico (near Taos) to visit our friend Rebecca.
The whole trip was filled with incredible sights, good friends, peace, fun and some interesting animal encounters.  A few of the animal encounters are included but the best (or at least my favorite) took place in the middle of the night in Valley of Fire SP in Nevada when I was visited TWICE by what turned out to be a ringtail cat.  He climbed in through my moonroof trying to steal an apple from my food stash.  It being literally the middle of the night, I didn't think to try to photograph him and shooed him away, the second time closing the moonroof.  It wasn't 'til morning when I saw the apple (from my friend Mary's garden) with little fang marks and on the opposite side of the car that I realized what the little critter was after.  Poor little guy!  I would gladly have let him have the apple if I had known!
Anyway, there are far too many photos and I've narrowed it down as much as I could.  Just a spectacular part of the country!

Hickison State Park Near Austin, Nevada

Some Beautiful Scenes Along the Way

My Trusty Camp Car

Castle Rock Campground, Utah

Dead Horse State Park

There is a yellow dot (look closely) where Thelma and Louise supposedly drove

off the cliff.

A bird who visited my campground

Canyonlands

Arches

Hiking near Mancos

Mesa Verde

Questa, New Mexico

Wupatki Ruins (there is an earth breathing hole here and a ball court!)

Navajo National Monument

The (VERY) Grand Canyon

An Elk at the Grand Canyon

Petroglyphs at Valley of Fire SP near Las Vegas

Valley of Fire State Park

Some Catching Up - Toronto

I took a (very) brief trip in March to Toronto because I was fortunate enough to get tickets for the Yayoi Kusama exhibit at the Art Gallery of Ontario.  This was my first trip to Toronto and I thoroughly enjoyed the neighborhood in which my Airbnb was located.  It was within walking distance of the gallery and the bus that I took to Niagara Falls and FULL of great restaurants and nice little shops.
I invited a woman I met in Costa Rica who was from a suburb of Toronto (Jo) and  I offered her my extra ticket.  We met at the gallery and had a great visit.  It nice when things work out like that.
Niagara Falls in the Winter is really something to behold.  The New York side is impressive, but once you stand close to Horseshoe Falls on the Canada side . . . . Well, it is just breathtaking.  Have a look.

The neighborhood:

The View from my room

 

One of Yayoi's Infinity Rooms.  Amazing!

New York Side of Niagara Falls.

These two are of Horseshoe Falls.

Pura Vida!

Time has gone both slowly and very quickly.  Today is my last night in Costa Rica and I'm spending it at a super nice B&B in Rio Segundo and hopefully very close to where the rental car gets returned.  The drive today from the Caribbean side was, for the most part, delightful passing stands selling organic coconut oil, moving on to stands selling papayas four for less than two dollars, then melons.  Traffic slowed down just outside of Guapiles and a man at a fruit stand was looking up.  There was a three-fingered sloth climbing around right above his head!  That was, IMO, Costa Rica saying good-bye to me.  The road into San José skirts the bottom of Braulio Carrillo Park and is just beautiful with some of the densest jungle I've seen . . .  Next time!
Cahuita was my last destination on this trip and it is truly a unique place.  The Afro-Caribbean influence is evident everywhere:  in the food, the buildings and the people.  I spent a day walking and getting acquainted with the town including an afternoon swimming at Playa Negra - a beautiful beach.  The next day I went on a snorkeling trip which was fun, beautiful, informative and, if I had been paying attention instead of swimming off on my own, I would have seen a nurse shark.  Oh well!  I also took a trip to the Sloth Sanctuary which was a sad, happy, rewarding and educational experience.
The highlight of the trip was definitely when my new friends that I met in La Fortuna arrived.  We had dinner at Miss Edith's (an institution in Cahuita) and the food was good.  We then spent the next day in their long-term rental built by a man from Switzerland who moved to Costa Rica 27 years ago. It was probably the most relaxing day of my trip, just hanging around, cooling off in the spa (it was a cool tub instead of a hot tub!) and looking for birds.  We went for dinner in Puerto Viejo (a bustling town, especially for a Sunday night) and ate at a vegan Thai/Mexican/Middle Eastern fusion restaurant.  It was delicious!  After meeting for breakfast, I headed out and here I am, richer for the experience of crossing paths with these four great individuals as well as a lot more knowledgeable  and inspired in many ways. 
One more thing - it seems the Europeans were onto Costa Rica long before we discovered it.  Most people from Europe I've met (France, Italy, Switzerland in particular) who live here all say they moved here around 27-30 years ago.  Just an interesting fact. Here are some photos.

The First (and only) Kingfisher of this trip

A Montezuma Oropendula - Don't you love that name?
You should hear their call!

Coahuila Point

Playa Negra

A surf shack? Along the Playa Negra beach

The two photos below are of Buttercup, a world-famous three-fingered sloth and the first to be rescued at the Sloth Sanctuary. She is a permanent resident.  Many of the sloths will stay at the sanctuary forever.  The babies below will hopefully all be able to be returned to the wild.

 

 This sloth was on the side of the road on the way back from the sloth sanctuary - of course!

And the Baby Sloths - Is there anything cuter?  The ones with the dark raccoon-like masks are three fingered and the ones with the shiny, hairless noses are two-fingered. They are all adorable!

Where your chocolate comes from . . .  

And, finally, some howler monkeys having lunch.

 

Buenas Noches desde Costa Rica and Pura Vida!