Men – learn from this man’s mistakes and get your wife or girlfriend the best Christmas gift ever. Women – share this video with your husband or boyfriend, so he’ll get the hint about how to buy a Christmas gift for a woman. Meanwhile, have a good laugh together watching this clueless husband fail year after year trying hard to give his wife the perfect Christmas until he finally succeeds. Both sides can relate to this hilarious video. There’s a happy ending.

I’m the author of Among the Orangutans – The Birute Galdikas Story. I was inspired to write my book after working as a volunteer with Dr. Galdikas on the Orangutan Project in Borneo. I made this video as a tribute to Dr. Galdikas on her 40th Anniversary of field research.

Little did Jane Goodall’s and Dian Fossey’s colleague, Birute Galdikas realize in 1971 after arriving in the Borneo rain forest that 40 years later she would still be conducting the longest term research about these illusive red apes Indonesians call “Person of the Forest.”

Don’t risk ruining your Costa Rica Vacation by not knowing this important information about immigration requirements.

Get more Costa Rica Vacation Tips here.

This video excerpt is from National Geographic. Watch the original here.

Sometimes Mother Nature commands your attention, gets you out of your head and for one brief, magic moment makes you a part of it all.

That’s exactly what happened this morning at the Discovery Beach House, our Costa Rica vacation villa. I spotted two Green Basilisk lizards sunning themselves by the pool. They’re also known as Jesus Christ lizards because of their quirky ability to walk on water.

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If you’ve booked a luxury vacation rental home in Costa Rica and you’ve rented a car to get there, you’ll want to familiarize yourself with some of the twists and turns of the road. Driving in a foreign country can be intimidating, especially if all the road signs are in Spanish!

1 – Road Signs – Here’s a handy glossary of common road signs listed alphabetically for easy reference. Print them out and refer to them while you’re on the road.

• Alto – Stop
• Ceda el Paso – Yield
• Derrumbres en la Via – Watch for landslides in the road
• Despacio – Slow down
• Hombres Trabajando or Trabajos en la Carretera – Men at Work
• No Estacionar – No Parking
• No Hay Paso – No passage
• Peligro – Danger
• Salida – Exit
• Sin Salida – No Exit
• Una Via – One Way Traffic
• Velocidad Maxima – Maximum Speed
• Velocidad Minimo – Minimum Speed

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One of the many attractions to Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica is the abundant wildlife particularly its primates – capuchin, howler and the endangered Red-backed squirrel monkey. Having Manuel Antonio National Park in such close proximity to many vacation rental homes gives vacationers the added thrill of seeing wildlife in their own backyard.

Unfortunately out of ignorance, indifference or for a photo opportunity many tourists feed the monkeys. However, they’re not fully to blame. Although local hotels are completely aware of the dangers, a few still encourage feeding monkeys to attract more clients. When tourists see others doing it they assume it’s acceptable. But feeding the monkeys is so detrimental to their health and survival it can have catastrophic consequences.

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Manuel Antonio, the emerald of Costa Rica where the color green was conceived. I first came here 20 years ago as a freelance wildlife photographer. Primates are my specialty and Costa Rica has 4 species. I’d photographed gorillas in Rwanda, chimps in Uganda and orangutans in Borneo and was looking for primates in a place that didn’t take 2 days to get there from Manhattan Beach, California.

My passion for apes and monkeys began when King Kong first stole my heart in the front row of the Jewel Theater before my feet could even reach the ground. From my very first trip to Costa Rica the dream to live on a beach with monkeys in my yard wrapped itself around my brain. I moved here 5 years ago and now enjoy daily visits from 3 species of monkeys.

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If you’re heading for a vacation rental home near Manuel Antonio National Park in Costa Rica, you’re in for an incredible nature adventure. In addition to iguanas, toucans, coatimundis and more, there are 3 species of monkeys indigenous to the park.

Manuel Antonio National Park

Red-backed Squirrel Monkey

When the park boundaries were established in 1972 no one bothered to tell the Howler, Red-backed squirrel and Capuchin monkeys, so they continued to follow their established foraging routes beyond the park limits. Not all but many of Manuel Antonio’s vacation rental homes are located within these natural foraging routes known locally as the “Monkey Corridor.” However, staying in one of these vacation rental homes carries with it a big responsibility. It may seem cute, funny or thrilling to hand feed the monkeys, yet it’s extremely damaging to them in many ways.

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A few days ago my friend Mary Ann Mollenkamp sent me a link to a blog post written by Innocent Uwizeye  from the Art of Conservation. He described a hike to Karisoke Research Center, the former site of gorilla expert Dian Fossey’s 18-year research study of the mountain gorillas of Rwanda. Although our friendship with Dian spanned 2 short years before her death, it was a relationship that redefined our purpose and eventually led us to establish our own private nature reserves in Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica and a life among its primates. What follows is our blog posts.

Dear Innocent,

When you got to the Karisoke site was there an engraved marker on Dian’s grave? It reads in part, “No one loved gorillas more. Rest in peace dear friend…” I wrote the inscription on the marker and sent it to Rwanda through the US Embassy to be installed in 1986. We later learned it had been removed during the war for safekeeping but we don’t know if it was ever reinstalled. Can you let us know?

Thank you, 
Evelyn Gallardo
David Root

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