Monday Travel Update – Let the Bed Bugs Bite Edition

After an almost 6 year unbroken streak of traveling and avoiding bed bugs, my luck ran out last week in Liberia, Costa Rica. The hostel I stayed at (which also had the distinction of being the only place I’ve stayed at in 6 years that had electricity but didn’t have hot water) had bed bugs, which left my arms and legs with a large number of pimple-like, itchy bumps. I’ve been showering several times a day since then in a paranoid attempt to get anything which might still be on my body off of me. The itching has mostly died down now, but for a while it really sucked.

While not life threatening or dangerous, bed bugs are really annoying and I have no desire to have them again.

Other than the bed bugs, I’ve been warming up to Costa Rica. Last week I visited Rincon de la Vieja National Park, which is part of the Guanacaste Area of Conservation World Heritage Site. Today I visited Tapantí National Park which is part of the Talamanca Range-La Amistad Reserves World Heritage Site. I’ll have writing ups on both sites shortly.

Thursday I’ll be leaving Costa Rica and on Friday I’ll be heading up to Whitehorse, Yukon to photograph the Yukon Quest sled dog race. I’ll be doing a 100 degree change in temperature. It is currently 80F (27C) in Costa Rica and the last I checked it was -25F (-32C) in Whitehorse.

Fun.

Sponsors

You’ve heard me talking about G Adventures for quite sometime now. They are hands down the best small group, adventure travel company in the world. Mostly their trips are purchased by couples, singles and other small groups looking for adventures.

Now G Adventures is offering tours especially designed for families. The tours are especially designed to enhance educational opportunities for parents and kids. The current list of destinations includes Thailand, Egypt, Borneo, China, Japan and India.

I’ve spoken to many people who wish they could travel more, but feel they can’t because they have kids. With the new G family tours, you can still bring the family along.

Links

• Queen Beatrix To Abdicate Dutch Throne SkyNews
• Go-UNESCO Project: Visit all 29 UNESCO sites in India The Hindu
• Britain’s £1m and £100m banknotes BBC
• Competitive Stair Climbing NYT
• Why Times Square Needs a McWorld The Awl
• Geraldine and Rand visit Lambeau Field The Everywhereist