Here are some more shots from Callaway Gardens. You can find larger versions of all of them in the forums.
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My wife and I headed to Callaway Gardens yesterday to see what was going on in the world of butterflies and flowers. I haven’t been there in at least 10 years, and that was only for the Christmas lights show, and she hasn’t ever really looked around the grounds of the gardens, so we both were not prepared for some of the wonderfulness that we came across.
The day started with the Butterfly House (or whatever they call it), which is one of the gardens’ main attractions, and for good reason. You walk in to the lobby, with butterfly artwork and fat rednecks everywhere, then stroll through some double doors into the hatching area. From what I can tell, they let the caterpillars form cocoons in a lab type area, then pin them up in rows in a display behind glass so visitors can watch the process. Judging from the amount of butterflies in the conservatory combined with the short life span of a butterfly, taking care of the cocoons is a constant process.
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OK, I lied. I only did one trip report last week. After this day’s trip report, it was mostly a bunch of wandering around on the beach, so maybe I’ll actually finish this up this week. Dak had to go and make me look bad by posting his soon after he got back. 
Flickr set for Monteverde
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I think I might actually get two trip reports in this week. Maybe even the rest of them!
The wife got quick sick in the middle of our last night in Arenal, and she was in rough shape the next morning. We were supposed to take a boat across the lake, then take horses most of the way to the Monteverde lodge. The wife tried to get me to still do the horse part, but I figured that would not be the best course of action with one of us having to take regular bathroom breaks. We did the taxi-boat-taxi transfer instead, which would have been really nice in other circumstances. The trip across the lake was chock full of great views of the water with the volcano billowing smoke and ash in the background.
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The saga continues…
We woke up and peeked outside at the fire god mountain to see if our deaths were imminent. They didn’t seem to be, but we did notice that the staff were all outside on the restaurant patio looking at the volcano and taking pictures. Kind of odd for people that work there and see it every day, right? The volcano had some pyroclastic flow going on, which was apparently a big deal. Scientists were called, seismographs were checked, trails were closed, etc.
This was what the flow looked like:
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Yeah yeah, I know I am late with these. Better late than never, right? Right?
We flew a direct flight from Atlanta to San Jose, Costa Rica and arrived in SJO around noon local time. Right off the plane, we were assaulted with genuine Tico (Costa Rican) food and stores like Papa John’s, Burger King, and Church’s Chicken. OK, maybe it gets better further away from the airport.
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It’s super crappy quality and nothing shows up very well, but here is a video shot off my hotel room’s balcony of the active volcano that was in front of our hotel in Arenal, Costa Rica.
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I was thinking about doing a long weekend trip to the Smokies this summer and got to thinking that it might be a good opportunity for some of us to meet face to face. Anyone else interested? I was thinking maybe late July or something in August. I am open to other parks in the area as well, but I thought the Smokies were somewhere that most people could agree on.
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I probably should have made some mention on the blog for those of you that do not read the forums, but I got married on the 7th and was in Costa Rica for our honeymoon last week.
I am working on typing up some trip reports from Costa Rica along with editing a million pictures. Here is something to whet your appetite. This was the view from our balcony the first two nights when we stayed in Arenal:
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I went to Tallulah Gorge up in NE GA a couple of weeks back when it was nice and freezing cold (30s, which is like Antarctica to me). I took the day off from work for the specific purpose of going on a hike, so weather be damned.
You have to get a permit to hike down into the gorge, so we went and got one from the “Interpretive Center” or whatever weirdo name they had for their visitors’ center. The ranger lady sketched out a good route for us on a park map. I thought it was odd that she marked a part on the map down in the gorge that did not have trails for a good mile or so.
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