Today is my last day in the office and I’m preparing for my great adventure to Costa Rica with an amazing group of teachers, students and parents from Houston, TX. We will be visiting Selva Verde Lodge to learn about the tropical rain forest.  While there we will whitewater raft, trek through the rain forests, go birding, some of us will be zip lining (not me) and we will learn about photography and snakes from John Earl Kneisler.  Next it’s off to Arenal and Arenal Paraiso to learn about volcanoes and enjoy soaking in the hot thermal springs while we watch the volcano erupt.  Our final destination will be amazing Manuel Antonio on the pacific coast, home to the most beautiful and only real white sand beaches in Costa Rica.  Aside from enjoying the beach and scenery we will hike through Manuel Antonio National park to learn about coastal eco-systems, and hopefully see many troupes of monkeys and of course take a swim in the crystal blue waters.  One last stop in San Jose for the night and we will all sadly depart Costa Rica and return home.

While in Costa Rica I will be celebrating my 21st year of working at Holbrook Travel and I can't think of a better place to celebrate.  Another exciting thing about this trip is that my husband, Scott, will be joining us.  John Earl, Debbie McNabb and Michelle Johnson, the wonderful group leaders and amazing teachers, kindly invited my husband to partake in this adventure. This will be his second time in Costa Rica.  His first was last August for our honeymoon.  I told him that this will be more active than our honeymoon and he will actually learn about wildlife (including snakes), birds, photography and Costa Rica's many eco-systems. John Earl even promised that this time Scott would see lots of monkeys since last time he only saw a few and none in the monkey capital of Costa Rica, Manuel Antonio.  After I bragged about how many he would see in Manuel Antonio he suspects I made it all up. I have faith in John Earl's promise and look forward to sharing a lot of monkey photos.  How many monkey pictures are too many anyway?  In my opinion there can never be too many.

I hope to be able to keep my blog updated throughout my journey so stay tuned.  If anyone has any questions or requests please feel free to ask on Facebook.  I'm so excited to return to the country that was voted to have the happiest people and the third most diversity on earth!