My original plan of traveling for a year only lasted seven months before I ran out of money. By April I was back in the States and working to save up more money. It was great to be back and see friends and family and get back into the groove of things for a bit, but after about two months I realized I have to move. I can’t sit still for that long anymore. So I came up with a new plan. Save as much as I can by August, sell the car, sell the camera, and go. The goal this time: See 40 countries and set foot on all 7 continents by the time I’m 40 years old. I’ve got just over two years to pull that off. So I need to live nomadically for these two years. Every 6 months or so, I’ll come back to the States - but just for a quick visit, not to work. I hope to get odd jobs occasionally as I travel to pad out the savings as it dwindles.

So that’s the new plan. Let’s see if I can pull it off.

It’s mid August and I’m back on the Road! Costa Rica-bound. I land in San Jose and spend a couple nights there. I don’t do much, as most of my time is taken up with one last edit job that I haven’t finished.

Thursday morning I grab a bus to Monteverde, a region up north in the mountains. I check into a hostel in Santa Elena, a nice little mountain town in Monteverde. You can probably walk the perimeter in 10 minutes it’s so small.

Again, because of work, I decide to dedicate half the day to editing and the other half to an activity. My first day there I hike through the Monteverde Cloud Forest. It’s a rain forest at high elevation tucked in the clouds. The few vistas along the way don’t afford much of a view due to the clouds and mist, but it's still a great hike nonetheless. (It reminded me a lot of the hike I did in Hong Kong - The Dragon’s Back - Great hike, but the vistas were non-existent). It's a leisurely hike through the jungle, albeit a bit damp.

The second day I work in the morning and sign up for a night walk - or nocturnal caminata - that evening. I didn’t see a lot of wildlife at the Cloud Forest, with the exception of a few butterflies and some birds, and I am told the night walks are better for seeing animals such as sloths, kinkajous, etc.

It isn’t disappointing. Right off the bat the tour guide spots a two-toed sloth up in the tree. Soon after we spy a baby sloth. The rest of the tour is pretty packed with wildlife sightings, including snakes, scorpions, tarantulas, frogs, birds - so much so that I start to wonder how staged the whole thing is. The tour guide seems to know exactly where to look. But maybe that's just because it's his job... maybe. Either way I saw a motherfucking baby sloth! (Sorry no pictures, being that it was night the lighting was horrible).

It’s a quick couple of days in Monteverde but fulfilling. Now I’m on to La Fortuna...

San Jose