28 things I did on vacation (see photos on post)

1. See sloths (like the guy on top) up close
2. Milk a cow
3. Sight about 10 "resplendent quetzels", a holy grail of birders (the green iridescent bird)
4. Swim in the Pacific
5. Watch capuchin monkeys on the beach (that's a monkey in the tree)
6. Ride a horse (it was really a lot of fun, see the picture)
7. Look for birds at 6am (the early birder gets the...)
8. See Arenal Volcano puff smoke
9. Eat rice and beans, over and over
10. Soak in thermal springs
11. Travel about 10 feet into Nicaragua (this counts as another country) on a river
12. Spend quality time with Louise, my great nature companion
13. Get drenched by tropical rain at a butterfly farm
14. Meet missionaries Bob and Michele Perez
15. See a living ctenosaur in the wild
16. Eat lychees from the shell
17. See the biggest ox cart in the world
18. Have a bat buzz my ear during a night walk in the jungle
19. Appreciate about 25 incredible hummingbirds in one spot in the cloud forest
20. Eat fruit- pineapple, watermelon, and papaya- for every meal
21. Kayak Lake Arenal, near the active volcano
22. See Montezuma's oropendula (a cool bird with a cooler name)
23. Read Mike Bickle's "Passion for Jesus" & George Will's "Men at Work" (about baseball)
24. Get sick and miss the forest zip line (Louise zipped, ask her)
25. Admire scarlet macaws and toucans (the fruit loop bird) in the wild
26. Watch Iron Man 2 on the plane
27. Visit the "paramo", a high altitude environment at 11,000 feet, very unusual
28. Eat flan every night for desert