geographical context

For those of you not familiar with the geography of Costa Rica, let me note a few things:



* Monteverde is the home of the San Luis Resesarch Station, where I'll be for most of the next six weeks.
* San José is the capital, where I'm supposed to be flying into on Saturday.
* Liberia, in the northwest, is where I'm booked to fly into on Saturday, a travel agent mistake I discovered this morning, and am working to rectify.
* The Rio Pacuare, home of some of the most dramatic whitewater rafting in the world, is where I'm supposed to be on Sunday if I do get to fly into San José instead of Liberia. The Rio Pacaure is to the east-southeast of San José, near Cartego.
* Puerto Viejo, to the south of Puerto Limón on the Caribbean coast, is not on this map, but is where we'll be spending about four days, after the July 4th holiday. Puerto Viejo is the heart of Costa Rica's Afro-Caribbean community & culture.
* Quepos (& nearby Manuel Antonio & Jaco) are some of the most popular Pacific Coast resorts, especially for gay tourists with their gay dollars & euros. I won't be making it down there on this trip.
* The Arenal volcano, near Monteverde, is where we will finish our trip before flying out of San José on July 22.