El Arenal

We have moved from the coastal rain forest to the inland rain forest around El Arenal, a volcano that erupted violently in 1968, but has been quiet since 2010. The area is well liked by tourist, but we are staying in the quiet Nayara Resort. The first day was very rainy, now we have sunshine, cloudy periods and the occasional shower. We even saw the top of the volcano briefly. The first day we walked along the hanging bridges, saw lots of beautiful flowers and a snake. The afternoon was spent in the La Fortuna waterfall. Yesterday we hiked along the old lava flow, saw monkeys, a very large caiman and many birds. We recovered from the 5 km hike in the hot springs of Eco Termales. Today we are moving on to the Monteverde area.

Oropel, a yellow eyelash pit viper

Tortuguero Park, Costa Rica

We are spending a few days in Tortuguero Park on the Caribbean coast. The weather is hot and humid, and we are slowly getting over our jet lag. We took a couple of wildlife tours already, and they were amazing. We saw three species of monkeys, two of sloths (including a hyperactive – for sloths – ) mating couple of three toed sloths. There a a huge number of different birds, including a variety of toucans. Of course there are also all kinds of lizards on land and caimans in the water (well hidden). Today we are going to take kayaks into the jungle.

Can you spot the caiman?

Costa Rica

It was a long flight, almost 12 hours, but we arrived safely in Costa Rica yesterday evening. We spent the night in San Jose in a very pleasant hotel. They have coffee available from 4am, which was very welcome as we have quite a bit of jet lag.

Entrance to our room at the Grano de Oro

Siegelbach und Eltville

Wir waren kurz in Siegelbach und haben das schöne Wetter und die Zeit mit der Familie sehr genossen. Gestern sind wir nach Eltville gekommen und ich habe meinen Vortrag über Moral in Frankfurt gehalten. Heute fliegen wir nach Costa Rica.

Eltville am Rhein

Faversham

We continued our travels with a short trip to Faversham in Kent, where we visited dear friends from our time in Canterbury. This morning we enjoyed a long walk through the marshes along the river.

London

We are spending a couple of days in London with Andrea, enjoying good food, a museum visit on wildlife photography and a theatre performance (“Welcome to the UK”).

Circus in Manchester

We are spending a couple of days in Manchester with the grandkids (and their parents). Yesterday we visited a museum and saw a movie, today it was Legoland and a visit to the circus. Great fun spending time with the kids.

Bad Schönborn

We spent this week in Bad Schönborn, close to Heidelberg and met with many friends. The weather was nice for a few days and the area offers great walks. Sheila is working on her theology course, and I am preparing a talk. Germany has such full employment that the sugar in a cafe carries job ads.

Job ad on sugar package

Brussels in the snow

We have packed up our flat in Mallorca and came to Brussels to spend the weekend with good friends from our time in Heidelberg. This morning there was fresh snow outside.