Jean - would love to hear about your trip to Columbia when you return, they had a nice episode on it recently on the travel channel. I will post on Nicaragua when I return, only 6 more days of waiting til I go!

oops! and hiya Percy! Don't go messing with the Costa Rica cabal now!!

Hi tully

Good Luck on your Nicaragua Trip.

Hope you see some of the places I did.

It was over 100F whenI was there , but of course you are used to that type of weather.

Don't forget to post a report.

Yes, I am staying clear of the Costa Rica cabal!!

Percy

nina - here's our report of traveling in CR this summer with our 19 year old daughter and 17 and 13 year old sons:

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=35045117

Not sure I'd show the report to your mom, but we all had a fantastic time.

Hi Percy! Yes I am all packed & ready to go, now just have to get thry the next 72 hours! Hopefully it won't rain the whole time I'm there - weather looks a little iffy. Had a great time the other night with shillmac & her family the other night, they are down in Sanibel right now.

Have a wonderful trip, tully! Can't wait for your trip report.

Hi tully

Have a nice trip . Good Luck and Take care.

You need a rest for sure now after meeting with shillmac.!!

Percy

Hills,
I just had to respond, you made me laugh so hard. I, too, was told I would get AIDS by friends when I was planning my first trip to Africa. I hadn't thought to respond with a "do you think I'm going to turn into a slut just because I'm going on vacation?" I'll remember that next time.

Nina,
Your mother is just confused. Costa Rica is quite safe. I haven't been there yet, but I'm planning a trip next summer with several friends and children. We would not be taking children if it weren't safe.

My mother freaks out regularly about my travel. She's been doing it for almost thirty years since the first time I traveled abroad, when I went to live in England for a year. Of course that is neither Costa Rica nor Africa (both of which are very safe), but sometimes you just have to let mothers be mothers. No matter how many places I travel and how many times I return unharmed and with fantastic photos and stories, she still does not want to hear about my vacations. Before I leave I try to tell her about where I'm going and I can practically hear her cover her ears over the telephone. The biggest disappointment is when I return and want to share stories with her and she say's "oh, that's nice" and changes the subject. Sometimes mothers just do not want to know. They grew up in a different world and to some international travel is like technology -- they are just not going to embrace it with open arms no matter what you say.

If you can convince her it is safe, wonderful. If you can't convince her, go and have a great time anyway. Your kids can tell her what a great time you had when you return.

Dana

Twenty years ago, I took my parents to Costa Rica for a 2 week trip. Even then, with much less development than now, it was completely safe. At the time, they were in their 60s, and it was the best trip that they ever went on. They still talk about it. I had spent about a month in the south in the late 70s, at Playa Zancudo, when there were just some surfers and hammocks on the beach.
We're going back in December with our own kids, and I can't wait. Having been all over the world, I can't imagine a safer place, though I did almost kill us passing a bus on a mountain road. Why don't you take your mom along?

I love Costa Rica and find it VERY safe. I am a 52 yr old mom. My husband and I took our then 17 yr old daughter to a surf camp in Hermosa (near Jaco) and it was the best experience we have had and we are WELL travelled. Then last yr my daughter and her girlfriend (ages 21) went on their reading wk to another surf camp (which I would highly recommend) Jim Hogan's surf camp in Hermosa. It only outdid the trip before. They are really into Pura Vida (the pure life). Now her and I are heading there again in Jan (just a mother daughter trip) and going to branch out to Mal Pais and of course back to Hermosa so she can surf with Jim again. Tell your mom from 1 mother that it was the most wholesome vacation that we have been on. And you get a little addicted to the country. OBTW, my daughter ventured out on a surf trip this year to Bali in Indonesia and suffice to say that she went thru 10 tsunami warnings after 11 earthquakes happened and then the surf camp owner got caught with one of the surfers with pot and the kid from Rhode Island is in jail for 6 mos minimum. Not a very safe spot over there.