Day 17:
Leave cloud forest, return to San Jose. Return to United States the next morning.

Journal notes:

5/19 & 5/20 Diary

We woke up early to finish packing and prepare to leave the beautiful cloud forest by 8 am. We needed to leave on time so that Carrie would make it to the airport on time to make her way to Minneapolis to attend her sister's graduation. Everyone was very efficient and we left ahead of schedule. The drive went quickly back to San Jose, and we arrived around 9:30. Carrie caught her cab and as far as we know made it safely back. The rest of the day was open to everyone else to do some more souvenir shopping, take a nap, do some laundry (for those staying in Costa Rica a bit longer), and uploading the images that didn't get on while the connection was bad in the cloud forest.

In the evening we had our final dinner with Jurgen, our Selva Bananito and Conselvatur host, and our tour guys, Larry and Ju Lin. We went to a nice restaurant in San Jose, enjoyed our last authentic Costa Rican meal and a toast to the trip's end. It was a little sad to say good bye, but we all left feeling that we done something good for the forests of Costa Rica by educating ourselves and those who have been following us through the jungle via the Internet. We also have many beautiful drawings and photographs to share of this beautiful and diverse place.

It was an early night for most with our wake up call coming at 4:30 am so that we would have plenty of time to make our flight the next morning at 7:30. We all had a good night's sleep and were ready the next morning to make our way back home to Michigan. We were at the airport by 5:30 and quickly got in line to check our baggage only to find out that our flight was delayed at least 5 hours. Anxious to get home, we were not happy to hear that we would be spending that time in the airport. We slowly made our way up the line as the Continental attendants rescheduled passenger's connecting flights. When all was said and done, half of us were on stand by for the connecting flight from Houston and some of us had confirmed tickets. Who would get left behind? Professor Trumpey volunteered to stay behind if they were one seat short.

The time went by quickly as we read, napped and wandered around the airport's duty free shops. We were up in the air before we knew it. We had a movie and lunch on the plane and soon landed in Houston. Customs was a snap; no problems bringing in the insects we had collected, although Jamie was without her suitcase for the moment. We made our way to our connecting flight with some time to get some snacks, make some phone calls and use the bathroom. All standby passengers found a seat - no one would be left behind -thankfully. Again it was a smooth flight and we safely made it to Detroit metro airport around 10:30 pm. We were welcomed by family and friends, picked up our luggage (Jamie's made it too) and headed home for a good night's sleep!

Thank you for following us along!!

Photos: