Many travel articles mention the fact that one of the most exciting aspects of travel is the planning of the trip itself and I could not agree more.

I like the planning portion of travel and find it presents many opportunities for daydreaming and creating a mental vsion of the upcoming event. The decision on where to go, the research on the chosen place, the preparations, telling your friends, the shopping, and the daydreaming all add to the excitement and anticipation of finally arriving at your chosen destination.

I even mentally start planning what I am going to wear for the different activities I imagine I will participate in - admit it - you do it too!

Our trip to Costa Rica is not until March 2012 and since we have been to CR before, we do not have to do much research on CR itself since we more or less know what to expect in the weather and local food department. I have done reading on Trip Advisor on the particular destinations and lodges we will be using and discovered that for the most part they all have excellent ratings and I did not expect less from a LL auction. The trip we are doing includes most meals, so no research on local place to eat is needed. I did and still am sending emails to the folks at the lodges asking about their menus, rooms, tours, etc. and they have been very responsive to my many questions - kudos to Nadya Shaw and Costa Rica Expeditions for being so helpful - already 5 stars in my book and we have not even done the trip yet!

After much reading of CR Expeditions literature, I did discover that Tortuguero Park has many mosquitos which leads me to the start of my mental "what to take" list and "to deet or not to deet" is one of the questions. I hate mosquitos and I know they are an important part of the food chain since they are a food source for many bird and bat species but I do not want to be part of that food chain! Deet is very effective but not very environmentally safe so I am leaning towards the spray the permithren on the clothes and use a non deet repellant on exposed skin method - it was effective when we were in the Amazon so I think this question is settled.

Reading more lead me to discover that the portion of the trip that takes us from lodge A to lodge B involves travel on a local flight with a 25lb luggage limit - oh no - panic time and out comes the mental "what to take" list again to see what can be eliminated. Easy for me but not for the hubby since he likes to pack for every eventuality and packs a lot of stuff. Pull out the old, wheeled duffle bags and discover that empty they weigh 7-8lbs. so now it is "to buy or not to buy new lightweight luggage" We have not purchased luggage in a long time and discover there are many new lightweight options out there - oh the excitement of surfing EBAY for travel related goodies is kicking in!

I finally decided today to put the mental "what to take" list back in the closet of my mind and let it ferment for a bit and just let the daydreaming portion of trip planning take over. Having endless daydreams and recurring images and thoughts flit through the ole brain - especially "will I see a Quetzal? I better!" (I put a picture of a Quetzal on my computer as a reminder of things to come).

So as I am sitting here imaging Quetzals, sloths and sitting in the hot tub after a stroll through the rainforest, I will sign off with this "Happy travels to all and plan well my friends"

I am feeling confident that the real trip will live up to the trip that has been replaying in my mind during this anticipatory stage.