Hola from Costa Rica,

   We are having a wonderful time in Costa Rica.  The people are so nice and the country is very beautiful.

   Today we went on a boat ride on a river called Río Frio.  We watched for birds and caiman.  We probably saw 20 different kinds of birds that live near the water.  One called anhinga has a very long neck that makes it look like a snake when it is swimming in the water.  It is also called the snake bird. We saw a lizard called baskilis  - I think that is how it is spelled.  It is a very unusual lizard because it can run so fast that it runs across the water.  It looks funny when it does that.  I have attached a picture of the lizard to this e-mail (To the right, click on the image to see it enlarged).  We also saw caiman.  They look like small crocodiles. We saw them on the sides of the river and swimming along the side of our boat.  We must have seen 30 of them during our 3 hour trip.

   The weather is very hot here in Caño Negro.  Today is was 29 degrees Centigrade and the humidity was 100 percent.

    I hope to write to you again soon, probably from Monteverde where there is a cloud forest.