Costa Rica – What I’m Reading

My reading list isn’t particularly long for this trip, partly because I can’t read Spanish!  Apart from the indispensable Lonely Planet guidebook, I have also chosen:

1.  Costa Rica – A Traveller’s Literary Companion
This is a great series which explores a country through the literature of that country’s best writers.

2.  Tropical Nature – Life and Death in the Rainforests of Central and South America – Adrian Forsyth and Ken Miyata
This book is written by two young field biologists who share their passion for the extraordinary richness of the tropical forests and everything that lives within them.

3.  The Quetzal and the Macaw – The Story of Costa Rica’s National Parks – David Rains Wallace
David Rains is an acclaimed naturalist and award-winning author.  In this book, he traces the growth of Costa Rica’s park system from uncertain beginnings to present day when the parks shelters 10% of the nation’s land from destruction to commercial exploitation.  He comments “If history continues, power will reside with societies that have conserved their resources, not with those that have spent them … The growth of parks systems will be a more important part of [history] than wars”

I REALLY hope we see a resplendent quetzal – and that I can capture it on a photo for you!

I found all these titles second hand on Amazon at small prices – who needs a brand new book when you can find a recycled one so much more cheaply?