Last night was the second of the three night that make up my long goodbye from Costa Rica. The group met up at Club Bulivar in Heredia for a greasy bar food and beer tower pre-funk before piling into a rented tour bus for the drive to San Jose where we were deposited at an Indian restaurant. We sat at large two large communal tables and half gallon bottles of rum and vodka were brought out along with glasses of ice and mixers. Just when I thought I couldn't possibly drink any more, plate after plate after plate of delicious food began to appear. Pita bread and a dozen different dips and spreads followed by strips of lamb and chicken, kabobs and babakanoosh. Everybody laughed and ate and enjoyed each others company one last time. After dinner, hookahs came out and we all had a nice smoke as we were entertained by a bevy of beautiful, exotic belly dancers. After dinner, I caught a bus back to Heredia with some of the girls. We said our final "so long for nows" and with fairwell hugs, it was suddenly over. I feel really blessed to have had the opportunity to spend this time here and to have spent it with such an amazing group of people. You will all remain close to my heart.

Tonight, my Tico brothers are taking me and a few friends that are still in town out to one of the local clubs for a final night of partying. It will be my toughest goodbye of all.

On a completely unrelated note, I know that I have been very lazy about maintaining my political web site since I have been on this trip, but I have just added a couple of new posts, so those of you who are fans of The Freeman's Burden will be relieved to know that I will be rededicating myself to sharing news and analysis from a perspective you will not see on the news. I will also be updating and adding new links over the next few days. Thank you for your continuing support of my work.