Lots of Amazing Places

In January and February I had an awesome five week trip to three Central American countries:  Belize, Costa Rica, and Panama.  The original plan was three weeks in Costa Rica, and well, as long as I was in the neighborhood, I figured I'd visit a couple of the neighbors BELIZE It started with a week in Belize, a little country (population around 405,000; area around 9,000 square miles, similar to Massachusetts or Israel, and one fifth the size of Pennsylvania), just south of Mexico and east of Guatemala.  It is relatively poor, with an annual median wage of about $4,800 (USD equivalent) and a GDP per person around $7,000 (2021 World Bank data). By comparison, the US had an annual median wage of about $60K and a GDP per person of around $76.5K; Canada had about $42K median wage and $55K GDP per person in 2021.   Belize protects over 37 percent of its land mass as national parks and reserves.  (Canada and the USA both protect about 12% of their land masses.)  What it lacks in relative

Panama, a small country roughly the size of South Carolina (US) or New Brunswick (Canada) or Denmark (EU) and with a population of about five million people, has a lot to offer, especially if you like a tropical climate.  The country runs west to east in a gentle S shape; the Panama Canal runs mostly north to south across the middle of the country.  Spent time in Panama City, a couple of National Parks, a few rivers, the Panama Canal, and found some jungle wildlife along the way. Here's a few highlights from this part of the trip; there's more depth (and links) in Google photoblogs about specific destinations at the end of this post.  Hope you enjoy! The Panama Sign, near my temporary home in Panama City I found a fabulous little AirBnB on the 25th floor of this building for my week-long stay in Panama City.  The Sands Apartments and Mall is a very new building in a great location along the Pacific Ocean and was near many wonderful places in the city On my first full day here,

We had an awesome 13 day tour of central Costa Rica, where we visited a half dozen national parks, paddled or boated on five beautiful rivers, found dozens of interesting animals, had exciting adventures, enjoyed great food and met new travel friends along the way.   We tacked a few extra days in San Jose, Costa Rica's capital city on each end of the tour.  As a result we ended up exploring Costa Rica for about three weeks altogether.  Thoroughly enjoyed spending the time with good friend and travel buddy Linda from Lancaster, who joined me for the duration.  Gracias, Linda! Loved the way the tour was organized by Veronica and her team at Green World Adventures.  Lots of moving parts in this kind of tour, where all customers get unique itineraries based on their interests and travel companions change pretty much every day.  It all worked out perfectly for us.   Here's a few highlights from the trip; there's more depth (and links) in Google photoblogs about specific destinat