Costa Rica

A border collie's journey will come full circle as it returns to Northern California for a check-up with a veterinarian.

I am writing this on my phone from a jungle on the beach in Costa Rica. My hammock is slung between a palm tree full of coconuts and an almond tree whose ...

It is a way of being that describes the collective emotional makeup of the country--the will to focus on the positive regardless of one's circumstances. But wherever difficulty is found in the world, there is also the patient, persistent overcoming of it. I can't remember if we heard about it or I read about it in "Let's Go Egypt and Israel," but Da'hab was a place to stay nearby and it just happened to have the best snorkeling in the world. I asked if I could do it, and he stopped the boat for me to jump in. To channel them again, as Benedict said; always we begin again, in the direction of hope. Who delights in them and cooks for them and picks them up after practice. Isn't this the kind of stuff I always do? Stone and I backpacked around as much of the world as we could before we had kids. Yesterday we went snorkeling near Isla Tortuga and I thought about the first time I did it; I was scared I'd be eaten by a shark. The water rocked me like a baby till I finally let go and lost myself in a different world. I remember one time we got on a bus in Athens and the driver said we were like snails, carrying our homes around on our backs. During the rainy season he stays in his little cabin-hut near ours and practices the didgeridoo.