Costa Rica wrap up

Above: Howler monkeys use their tail for balance and to hold onto tree branches. They are given that name because they make a lot of noise. Their favorite trick is to start this at 5 a.m. to wake up American tourists.

Things got hectic and I didn't post any blog pieces after the first three days. My trip was amazing. Folks, if you haven't been to Costa Rica, consider adding it to your bucket list. Besides being a beautiful country, the people are beautiful as well.

In 1949, Costa Rica abolished its military, and used that money for education and health care. It has a 98% literacy rate with a huge middle class. Compare it to its neighbor, Nicaragua, which has a few at the top of the economic structure with the majority of people living in poverty -- no middle class at all.

The population of Costa Rica is 5.9 million of whom 1 million are illegal immigrants from Nicaragua. These are people who are trying to find a better life. If the authorities catch them and spend the money to deport them, they are back in the country a day or two later. The Tour guide asked us if this problem sounded familiar?

The bio-diversity is due to the variety of ecosystems and the fact that it is a crossroads for North and South America. We visited rain forests, cloud forests, dry forests, jungles, etc. We went from the ocean to 11,000 feet elevation. We saw two volcanoes (yes, Costa Rica is part of the Pacific ring of fire) and sunset at the Pacific Ocean. It's a pretty amazing place.

Above: Anhingas, sometimes called snake birds, are common where the weather is warm, including Florida. After diving, they sit on branches to dry their wings. They are also called piano key birds because of the markings on their back.

Above: Iguanas are everywhere. The joke was they taste like chicken. One day when we had chicken for dinner, somebody remarked it tasted like iguana. Um, well you had to be there.

Above: A Pacific Ocean sunset. It doesn't get much better than this.

Above: Chicago is the location for the Summer North American Bridge Championship.

I'm in Chicago for the Summer North American Bridge Championships being held at the Chicago Hilton. Before you make leave any disparaging comments about Chicago, keep in mind that I was born here, um, well, several years ago. I did a Google search and my hospital is 25 blocks north of where I'm playing bridge.

I qualified for Day 2 of the Life Master Pairs playing with Bernie Yomtov, but missed advancing to Day 3, so I'm taking today (Sunday) off. Next up is the Senior Swiss Teams on Monday and Tuesday. Playing with Sandy McCay, Gene Simpson and Harvey Brody. Then the Mixed Board-a-Match Teams with Sandy and Jay and Kathy Baum. Friday is a sightseeing day, and Saturday I'll travel back to Orlando airport.

The weather here is wonderful. Seems like it is about 80 to 82 each day and a low of about 70. I'm enjoying walking around in shorts and a tee shirt when not playing bridge.

Above: The Willis Tower, built as and still commonly referred to as the Sears Tower, is a 108-story, 1,451-foot skyscraper. Click to enlarge.

Above: Some cities have their subways, but Chicago has the iconic L (short for elevated). From the airport, I took the Orange Line for $3 and a 20 minute ride to downtown. A taxi would have been $40 and a 30 minute ride. Um, you do the math.

Above: Love these lines while looking up at the tracks of the L -- gives an interesting photo op.

Top image from the ACBL web site. The other three taken with my point-and-shoot.

Above: Played online today to warm up (click to enlarge).

The Fall Poker Classic is coming to Gold Strike Tunica for 12 days beginning Friday. The first event has a $100,000 guarantee and that caught my eye. It's a $340 buy-in with Day 1A (Friday) and Day 1B (Saturday) with the winners to reconvene on Sunday. The 2+2 forum people predicted 400 runners (see here).

I'm going to play Friday. If I don't qualify (obviously due to bad cards and bad beats, lol), I may try it again Saturday, depending on how well I feel I'm playing. Then, on Monday, there's a Senior Event that I will likely play in.

Blogger Jusdealem wrote about the tournament, so I'm guessing she might play. Between the two of us, we may have some poker to report on. Stay tuned.

Above: I don't know what the attendance has been, but the crowds are good-sized. I'd guess we are on target for the pre-tournament estimates, maybe around 10,000 tables where a table is defined as four people playing one session of bridge.


Above: Bridge Winners has a flat panel (in the second floor pre-function area) that displays running total from the Vanderbilt KO Team Game.


Above: The VuGraph lets players kibitz the Vanderbilt. Players can also watch online at Bridge Base Online.


Above: Some monkey business: After a tough session of bridge, you have to eat, right? Kate and I went to the Blue Monkey for sustenance. The weather is nice and some people are eating outside.

Photos taken with my point-and-shoot.

Sign, sign, everywhere a sign

There are plenty of signs here at the Spring NABC.