Flying High and Low

My lap top has packed it in, well at least my ability to fix the problem that is preventing it from attaching to the internet. I am at the beck and call of airport lounges for access to a computer to log on and type.
We are in San Jose airport in Costa Rica awaiting our flight to Panama City. We should be in Panama City now but as we sat on the plane about to push back this morning, the plane was quite violently jolted as a baggage truck crashed into the side above the pilots, making a large and what will no doubt be an expensive hole in the fuselage.
Chaos of course in the short term as we were pushed from pillar to post and ended up reentering Costa Rica to be given new boarding passes. Back through security etc and back to the Copa Air lounge where they are at least giving us a complimentary salad for lunch.
We have had a week of flying. Mainly in Twin Otters and little Cessnas on Nature Air, CR´s own domestic airline that lands on strips not much wider than the plane itself, in jungles, pineapple plantations and here on the wide runway at Juan Santamaria Internacional Aeroporto. Being able to tap the pilots on the shoulder, if we wished, has been one of the stories of the week, as well as being at the vagaries of their loose schedules, where they might decide to take you backward to one landing strip before taking you forward to the right one. Yesterday we were due to fly the 20 min hop over the central ranges from Arenal Volcano to San Jose. However, they decided to take us right past San Jose, frustrating as we could see the runway too, down to the Pacific Coast, for another pineapple plantation landing and another bumpy trip through rain clouds at 8,000 feet. At least the views are superb.
Anyway, we have enjoyed the beauty of this green lush country. The weather has been hot and sunny and we have snorkelled in the Pacific, walked in the Corcovado National park and seen slouths, crocodiles, hummingbirds, toucans, macaws, lots of different monkeys, tapirs as well as a humpback whale and her calf with dolphins jumping exuberantly in our wake.
It is a stunning destination. The great challenge will be to manage the increase in tourism, one of the main contributors to GDP, with sustaining the greatest biodiversity in the world. I hope for the happy people of Costa Rica that they can get this right.
We will be spending most of this coming week on Isla Bastimentos off the east coast of Panama, enjoying the delights of the Carribean. Whether I can get the chance to blog again will depend on access to a computer.