This guide book was cheaper than the lonely planet book and contained a map, which was nice. However, the book itself is not that great. There isn't much information and lots of the smaller places to see aren't mentioned, or if they are it is just a very little bit. The major stuff to see is here, and the restaurant descriptions are good. But if your wanting to do something off the beaten path this book will not provide you with the information you need. Sometimes having more than one guide book can be helpful, this would make a good secondary guide book. It isn't all bad, but you'd be better off with the lonely planet book. The map was a nice feature and it did come in handy several times.

My entire family (ages 29-60) just returned from an 8-day vacation to Costa Rica planned on recommendations made by this book. I'm glad to say that every hotel and every restaurant met our expectations. This is a must read for those planning trips to Costa Rica!

We went to Costa Rica to get married in front of the Arenal Volcano and I have to say it was the best vacation of our lives. We lucked out and the volcano erupted just before we said our vows. IT was also one of the clearest days of the year. This book helped us immensely. The map was invaluable. The descriptions of each place were dead on. The writer clearly knows every town intimately and we couldn't believe the amount of detail. We're going back next Christmas and we'll be taking this book along!

This book was very disappointing to me because I was expecting something substantial and this is just a tiny little book of really short poems. If you want a novelty book this is it but I was expecting fiction, not poetry.

This is a really 'hip' little book. I love it because it is hot and smart and above all, it is not corny! The cover is great, the writing excellent and the graphics inside are fun and clever. This is the book you should keep in your pocket for reference.

I loved this little book. It was different, fun and sexy in a clever and playful way. It is different than the usual fare. I highly recommend it!!

Erich Hoyt's work sets forth tons of interesting ant information (and some information about the myrmecologists who study ants) in a readable, useful format. This is lighter reading than Wilson and Holldobler's classic The Ants, but it is still chock-ful of good information about ants and about Professor Wilson. I found myself wanting to know more details about more types of ants, and a bit more coverage of the domestic US ants than this work provides, but it's still a fine work. If you want to read something insightful about ants but don't want a hard science tome, this is a good pick.

As a lifelong myrmecophile I get quite excited at the rare appearance of a new ant-book in any local bookshop. Thus, I opened this one ready to be impressed immediately. In general, I was not too disappointed. The perspective of the book, which shifts from that of the ants to that of the professional myrmecologist, is a little different from that of the usual tome. When written from the perspective of the Costa Rican ant species, which are its central study, the book works well and gives an insight into the lives of the Carpenters, Leaf Cutters, Fire and Army ants which is both entertaining and informative. However, the book also observes the lives of the eminent scientists involved in an exhaustive study of Costa Rican ant species. I found these diversions less interesting. I wanted a book on ants and for eighty per cent of the time that is what I got. Buy it.

This book was very entertaining and I learned a lot about a few types of ants. The ant perspective was kind of a cool way to present the information. He does a good job of presenting ants and their ecological importance without getting so technical that it sounds like a paper in ecology. He did focus on Costa Rica but how can you blame somebody for doing that. I really got into it. The way he divided the story between the ants and the ant guys, E. O. Wilson namely, was a nice change of pace. It reads fast and the glossaries in the back help with any terms that aren't familiar. I really enjoy it. Buy the book, you'll learn lots and you will be entertained at the same time.

I took this book with me to Costa Rica so that I could spot and identify commonly-seen birds and wildlife there.

The first part of the book contains an overview about Eco-traveling that could have been summarized a bit more. The book conveniently places details about wildlife in the center of the book, and puts the illustrations in the back so that you can do faster lookups.

Although I appreciate the emphasis on Eco-travel, I found this book rather disappointing when used as a reference. Some of the birds I saw more than once were not listed at all. There are few illustrations of what the birds look like in flight and there is little about age- or gender-based differences in appearance. Also, although the wildlife coverage is fairly good for reptiles and amphibians, there is very little about marine or plant life.

I'm still relatively new to birding, but if I could do it again, I would have paid the additional cost and bought the Stiles and Skutch book.... If you're not a bird watcher and you're just looking for a basic 'wild life' identifier, I would suggest skipping the book, and instead, buying one of those laminated 'bird/wildlife identification' cards that you can find for about $10 in many of the visitor-oriented shops around Costa Rica.

This guide has got three sections: an introduction to the neotropical ecosystems, a description of families of animal, and a section with pictures, for purposes of identification.
The second section is for people who are willing to dig deeper into this stuff, the first section gives a good introduction into Casta Rica and it's ecology.
To shallow for professionals, to deep for absolute beginners (only the last section will appeal to them), but very good stuff for the informed layman!

This book provides a fascinating, well-written and often humorous overview of Costa Rican natural history as well as a detailed description of the most often seen wildlife. I cannot overstate how much this book enhanced my trip to Costa Rica and gave me a greater understanding of what I was seeing. It is not exhaustive, but unless you want to carry multiple, subject-specific books with you, this is the one to bring. It had information on virtually every bird and creature I saw there.

"Requiem" is Antonio Tabucchi's praise for Lisbon. It describes the journey of one man through the Portugalise city, where he meets some people, dead and alive, in the otherwise deserted city.

The peculiarity of the character is the fact that he has lost his superego, with the consequences of his id, the subconscious fludding his contious mind, hence makim him live in a sort of dreamworld. And from that world come the dead of his past.

The book is slightly semi-artistic, and it's message is left to be speculated about. And even if the basic premise of the story is intriquing, it fails to measure up to the potential it contains.

A short, nice read, wich doesn't offer anything to think about.

The lightness of Tabucchi's Requiem makes it a very easy book to like. It helps to be at least a little bit familiar with the Portugese poet and author Fernando Pessoa who is the figure Tabucchi is to meet. The novella is very short (107 pages but lots of chapters so lots of white space and big print) and really more on the amusing than philosophical side. The little conversations read like little asides but soon one realizes that is what the book is, a little aside. There are some amusing references made about modern literature that could very well apply to the book we are reading and also a very interesting reference to a story written that later came true(a kind of mini meditation on how fact and fiction mimic each other or follow the same laws, the same could be said for life and dreams) but the book purposely stays on the surface of things. Food is the real center of the book. That is the most substantial and sustaining ritual at the heart of life, at least that apsect of life that is most real it seems to Tabucchi. So the books pages pass, each meeting a chance for conversations and most of the conversations are just small talk. Kind of like life. It is clear the events are all dreamed and so Tabucchi is free to talk to both friends and relations living and dead. But they say the same kinds of things to each other in the dream world that they did in real life. And the dream world is little different than the real world. That is the charm of the book. Life is a dream, so eat.

Requiem: A Hallucination is a book in which the narrator is obviously a persona of the author. The action takes place within a single day - the action being a dream, an hallucination of the narrator. The narrator is introduced as he is annoyed that the person he is to meet has missed their appointment at 12 noon - only to realize that 12 to a ghost is more likely midnight. The person he is to meet is not explicitly identified but is most likely the poet Pessoa.

The narrative then covers the time until the midnight meeting. In this time the narrator meets a drug addict in the park, a seller of lottery tickets, a gypsy who reads his fortune, a dead friend, a madame of an unsavory hotel, his deceased father, a barkeeper, a painter of details from the Temptation of St. Anthony, a lighthouse keeper's wife who is caretaker for a house in which he once lived, a former lover, a seller of stories, and finally the intended guest. Along the way one gathers recipes, literary history, a bit of philosophy ...

I highly recommend this book; it is an excellent text to first encounter Tabucchi.

I found that the simplicity of Garner's writing style is an appropriate vehicle for conveying the power of sports' most memorable moments. He strikes a balance between overintellectualizing and patronizing the reader. He continues the spellbinding tradition of "And the Crowd Goes Wild" while simultaneously breaking new ground. This book is definitely a great gift idea for the sports fan in your family!

I completely disagree with the above review. The CDs and actual broadcasts from the events were great. The book is an excellent recap of some of the greatest sports moments of the last century. I think that over time true sports fans will come to appreciate the book as one of the more important memoirs of sports history.

An excellent collection of the most exciting sports moments of the 20th century, and it's a collection that will get more valuable over time. While Garner's writing style might be described as simplistic by some, it is entirely appropriate for the subject matter at hand - sports. Here you don't want ivory-tower verbosity, you want simple direct descriptions, and Garner delivers.

Any sports fan will be captivated by Garners descriptions, and will relive the passion we all experienced with those great events when heroes were still heroes. For the sports fan in your family, there is no better gift.

This book provides very little practical information. I purchased this book hoping it would contain more info on the parks than the standard Costa Rica guidebooks. I was sadly disappointed. The other guide books such as The New Key to Costa Rica and Moon's Handbook provide as much and in some cases more info on the parks than this guide. Plus they provide all the other information such as hotels, restaurants and transportation.
Save your money. I wish I had.

Contrary to the last review, we found this book to be extremely useful, and it contained background information and useful maps (such as the area around Sirena ranger station in Corcovado) not contained in other more general guidebooks. Also, there is a considerable amount of natural history information that was not contained in the other books that we had with us, such as the Lonely Planet guide.

(From Planeta Journal) - One of the first guidebooks to focus on the parks and preserves, this book is now in its second edition. It's an invaluable resource for visitors who'd like to get to know Costa Rica's lesser known parks and includes trail directions, dozens of hikes and descriptions of local flora and fauna. The new, second edition of this book includes five new national parks and preserves, plus updated and expanded descriptions of all 40 of Costa Rica's protected areas.

The major drawback is that the drawings of the birds described in the book are poor so that it is often difficult to use them for identification. The text is fine. However, it is the only book available, so you have no choice.

Ridgely's guide is the best - and really the only - available field guide covering all the species of birds in the nation of Panama. While it is useful and serves most purposes, it has been over a decade since the second edition was released, and it is more than due for an overhaul and expansion. The most necessary would be the addition of range maps, that would make the book infinitely more useful in planning a trip. At the very least, there should be a single, detailed map of Panama, indicating the locations mentioned in the range descriptions! Also, it would be better to limit the scope of the book entirely to Panama, as Costa Rica and other areas to the north are covered by other guides, and the pertinent information for those areas in this book are scant, at best. Then, the isolated plates in the back need to be intergrated, as do the plates of Darien specialties, etc. Many species have been recently added to the Panama list, or split, etc, and those species need to be added. But, all this aside, this book should enable the identification of most Panama birds, and remains an indispensible resource for any birder traveling to that country.

A nicely done guide. Well-illustrated, easy to use. Worked for me in Costa Rica...

On a recent trip to costa rica, I had two guide books, and this one was lacking in comparison. I purchased this book, but then later ended up buying the new addition of Lonely Planet as well, as the rough guide simply did not have as much information. For most towns, they did not have as many accomodation listings as LP, and there were many smaller towns rough guide did not cover at all. I also found their maps not as easy to use. Overall, I would say this book is adequate, but that LP gives you a lot more info.

The book is okay-one of three that I brought with me on my travels and by far the least detailed. I didn't not any factual mistakes but many things left to vague to actually GUIDE you anywhere. In my mind a great book to look at if you are CONSIDERING a trip down south but if to bring down with you, why not splurge on a fatter book with some more details? Costa Rica is great- the book's not bad just not overly detailed

The 2002 edition of rough guide is a definite improvement over the previous edition of the rough guide. It is a solid guide to the sounds and sights of Costa Rica that has lots of information for the budget traveller. It has good maps and gives good descriptions of most tourist sites. I would say that this would be one of the 4 best guides for the budget traveller right now for Costa Rica--the other three would be the Lonely Planet, Footprint and New Key guides.

This book is not worth the money as you are paying for ads that should be provided through local travel agencies. I found very little useful information about traveling and maps. Therefore, I returned the book.

As a former vacationer and current resident of Costa Rica, I would like to state that this guide is one of the best on the market. Firstly, it is updated every single year. That makes it always at least as accurate as any other guide, and generally more accurate than most, because it is more timely.

Secondly, it is objective and accurate. It is written by the writers at The Tico Times, so the guide has decades of journalistic integrity behind it. This same journalistic background accounts for the accuracy of the guide.

Finally, it is concise. They literally visit every single tourism related business in Costa Rica, and then pack all of this information into only 288 pages. That's what you call jam-packed with information! It has all the information you need and nothing extra. The first sections of General Information, Tiquicia, and Culture will orient you towards the "Tico" culture and help you make your way around, at the same time helping you to avoid treading on any toes. Then, no matter where you are, you will find the guide extremely helpful as to accomodations (quality and pricing), places to eat (type of cuisine and pricing) and also what to see.

In conclusion, I would just like to mention that I purchase this guide every year. I've been living here for 8 years and I always find the original Exploring Costa Rica to be useful all year long. I use it for business purposes; to find places to stay in a new area; to find new places in an old area; and even to recommend places to stay to newcomers and acquaintances. There are many guide books on the market, some good and some not so good, but you won't find a better one at a better price.

This guide was invaluable to my husband and me while we were in Costa Rica for our second honeymoon. All of the other Costa Rica guides we purchased were vastly inferior. Exploring Costa Rica 2001 is very accessible and easy to use, and the advertisements were logically grouped together and were very helpful. What a great travel guide!