hello !

i´m a little weirded out by this whole blogging business. thinking too much about internet communities (thanks to my thesis) - oh the inadequacies of virtual communication !

anyway, i´m in costa rica ! leaving tomorrow, traveling all day, which is why i´m posting early. i´ve been based in puerto viejo - a beach community on the south caribbean coast - with a few days trip to bocas del toro - an archipelago four hours south of here, off the coast of panama.

for cait and other future travelers to costa: i was at first disgruntled by both puerto v. and bocas because it feels like there are as many tourists as locals - if not more.. but then i got to understand why all the tourists flock here: TROPICAL PARADISE. the fifty-some islands of bocas are all lush and sandy, water´s crystal clear, and everyone´s friendly, or at least, open. puerto isn´t an island, but there´s miles of nice beach and lots of costa rican style jungle tours.

ok, now´s the part when i complain about traveling with parents and family-related anxieties.. except i don´t actually have that much to complain about ? the parents have been relatively relaxed and sometimes even really adorable... wish you all could have seen their glee when we did the canopy tour yesterday (flying down cable lines through the forest).. nevertheless i´m lonely without my contemporaries, maybe going a little crazy due to the eccentricities of mom and dad.

i caught myself a couple days ago doing the run down of where all my chapmanites are.. (instead of destry at the zu, now destry´s in spain; hannah´s not at smith, but in the dr; selena´s no longer at aas meetings, but headed for texas...) wonder when i´ll lose that habit ? i´m going to look around for a feature for our blog site, a world map that will show where each of us are

love love love
rachie