Kayaking and Crisis,,,

Today, I hope, was the end of a series of crises that involved the car which died, the water which was shut off, and my bank files which were left at the market.  We were going to take the bus down to Manuel Antonio, but read in the paper that the place was saturated with tourists.  Instead, we went kayaking from Damas, and even though the guide was utterly useless, we had a beautiful paddle through the mangroves, poking in and out of roots and under branches and leaves, gently paddling and moving through the water.  We saw birds but little else, and nothing we haven't seen already, including a belted kingfisher, a basilisk - Jesus Christ lizard, and herons and egrets.

It was an overcast day that turned from drizzle into giant splats of rain toward the end of the 2 hour jaunt.  I loved every second of being out on the water so low that I could touch it even if my hands became wrinkled with the wet from drips of the paddle.  Lisa hung back so that she could see the natural life, and unfortunately, our guide was a dreadful loud mouth who never stopped talking!  It was serene when we paddled slowly through the swamps' silence until we had to hear the guide's loud, jarring voice!

Goodbye Costa Rica...

I am sad to leave this time, but excited to begin teaching again and to see my children and Shadow. .

I will begin with the more mundane: flowers from May's visit and a little painting of my groceries this week. 

This is the beach in Heredia as seen from the top of Villa Cabaleta , a place with sublime views (duh!) and a steep arena of seating on the side of the hill where visitors can buy the most expensive mojita and watch the sunset - worth every penny if it isn't during rainy season!

You HAVE to have rubber boots because of the water.  The REALLY good trail had water up to my waist, but I didn't feel like negotiating crocs.

My friend took this photo of this little frog, and they are really, FAST little guys.  The photo  was difficult!

I went to Carara National Park on Sunday, and even though it was raining, I saw some exotica; this tree looks like a rhino or an elephant of something, doesn't it?  

Today I went running on the route I used to train for Kilimanjaro, and I cannot for the life of me climb those last three hills in a run, so I walked up there to the top where I always stop to ooh and ah at the view over the mountains and down to the sea.  SOME day, I tell myself.... As I began the slow chug down the hills and home, I heard some little squeaks, looked up and saw about 10 wee little monkeys (monos here) scurrying along the branches and then leaping into midair to grasp onto the leaves of the next tree.  They were utterly fascinated by me, and scooted down the limbs to get a better view.  They began to follow along, walking the high telephone wires, and I was hoping they'd follow me all the way home and eat breakfast with me, but alas..  They looked like babies, not the usual capuchin, white-faced type, but probably the red backed squirrel monkey that grows only to about 12 inches.  They were enchanting! I always miss the thrill of spotting a new critter during my daily forays onto the beach or into the back roads.  It will all be here when I return in December.  I pray.

Back in town...

With my binoculars in tow, I am all OVER this place, peeking into crevices, peering into holes, gazing up into tree limbs, and look what I saw this morning!  Probably a three toed sloth, nestled cozily into the crook of the tree branches.  Can you imagine sleeping that way?

This the chorus line in the mornings up on our telephone wires; the third one from the left seems to feel she has to clean up the second one...

This is the countryside as I drove down to Bejuco from the airport; the lush greens indicate that it is, indeed, the rainy season.

The hummingbird feeder is up, I have tons of orchids I have attached to the almond tree and outside my bedroom window because the mujer de la noche apparently smells heavenly at night but not at all during the day.  I can't wait to come back and see if it is blooming yet!  Today I may put up the hammock because it doesn't look like the rains will overwhelm us; however, it is the rainy season, and anything goes.  The butterflies are prolific now, and the sounds of the birds in the mornings and evenings are so loud that I am driven out to see who is singing.  It is magical to watch them sing their songs, see their little beaks moving to the song.  Fascinating.  Today is a chore day, reading to the school children, shopping for dinner for friends, and buying yet another clothes line; where DO they go each time I leave?

I am trying this camera to see if it will be satisfactory in Africa next month and hope to get feedback on the photos.  This little critter was sitting on a rock at the edge of a little stream or estuary that runs under the bridge over which I walk on the way to the beach.  I thought he might be the Basilisk (Jesus Christ lizard) and waited to see if he would skitter across the water on his hind legs as they do, but he stayed fairly still; I looked him up in my book, and if I'd been patient enough, he probably would have performed the miracle of walking on the water; they really DO, but they are so fast that I have never been able to capture it on film.

The macaws were screeching and screaming at each other, dashing around the tree tops, and I tried to photograph them, but alas.  I suppose there are reasons that we are merely bystanders of the natural world...

Then, as I trudged in the heat down the dirt road, kicking the rocks and kicking up the dust as I went, I noticed my favorite fellows were out grazing, and I took this photo of a sweet faced bull.  See those horns?  His ears are those big, pink flappy things hanging out of the side of his head, making him look ridiculous; maybe that is the reason he was shy about the camera.

Finally, these fellows were at the beach, but I cannot for the life of me find them on my bird identification folder.  I doubt they are some esoteric species, but they DO have that peculiar black color on their breasts.

As I look at these photos, I'm really not terribly thrilled with any of them; do you suppose it is the camera, which has an 18X zoom lens and uses 14 mega pixels, whatever that means.  Advice?

Thanks.

Good MORNING, Bejuco!

It isn't always cloudy in the mornings, and yesterday was one of those perfectly blue, sparkling days with Costa Ricans (Ticos, as they are called here) grouped in large family bunches along the beach, grandmas on chairs under umbrellas, babies splashing chubby legs in the water, boys surfing and boogie boarding, and clusters of women, poking through the shells, strolling, always chattering and all enjoying this week of complete shut-down for a soul like me who needs a lawyer to issue me some legitimate documentation before ICE, the electric company, will put on my electricity. Don't MESS with the institutions like ICE! If you have a $4.00 invoice, PAY UP.

Batteries on my flashlight are running low, and I bought some more yesterday, thinking they looked big and fat enough, but alas, they are Cs, and I need Ds. There's the project for today. Life is rough down here...

Filled up the hummingbird feeder, but they seem to be onto me; nary a one has set its little beak into one of those fake red flowers! I wait and I watch.

Hammock is hung, car has been watered...

and chairs are out. I have boiled the sugar water for the hummingbirds to cool for tomorrow's feeding; every lil' critter here is happy, including my dog friend, Playa, who came over to visit and began to weep and whine with joy at my presence. Life is good despite no electricity which requires a visit to a lawyer's office, documentation, and another trip to the electric company to get it re-established... In the U.S. if we don't pay our water bill one month because $12.00 isn't really worth writing a check for, we just wait until the amount is big enough; nobody turns OFF the water! Here, if you miss two payments (approximately $4.00 a month when I'm not here), they shut down your entire account, and to open it up again, you must get all sorts of documentation. Then there is the "marciamo," which is due on your car every year by Dec. 31; depending on how much your car is worth, you can pay up $1,000 or $100. It's like mandatory insurance, but nobody pays taxes and cannot afford to pay for tickets, so the country is perpetually out of money. Much to my delight, however, the main road has been repaved, taking some of the "fun" out of driving but probably saving some serious wear and tear on my friend the Galloper.

The sky is partly overcast but has moments of sunshine. The temperature is sublimely warm, so I'm worrying about nothing and just letting my soul catch up to my body.

Thinking of going up to San Vito to visit some people who have recently built a house up there where the Italians first settled (go figure), but driving the dear Galloper up the "mountain of death" may be a challenge I defer; I'm going to see how far I get with my books and see whether I need a diversion. There are loads of fireworks at the beach on New Year's Eve if I can stay up that late, but another week without electricity may force me into the car and on the road...

This is really a dull entry for which I am sorry - a waste of my time AND yours!

The kids up the road...

I went to the local school in Bejuco at the top of our dirt road today to meet the teacher(s) and scope out my teaching possibilities. The kids who were there were to die for, but most kids just don't come to school in this rural, poor part of Costa Rica. Having seen the three rooms of the school, one a "kitchen and cafeteria," I drove to Parrita and spent $40 on supplies. They have very, very little, as you will see from the photos. But who could resist this smiler? Or this yummy little girl? Broken equipment is just stacked outside or on this hall; they had no PE today because the teacher didn't show up, and one of the teachers went to a conference so 4 classes didn't come to school. They teach two sets of kids, different groups in the morning and then in the afternoon. These photos are of children in Pre-school, ages 4,5 and 6. The older children are grouped together in the same classroom, as there are only two. There is one "special" room set up with a desk, a black board and a chair, intended for one "special needs" child who was not at school today. The younger teacher told me that her biggest problem is getting the parents involved; clearly education is not a top priority for the agrarian poor in this country - or the corruption is so bad that funds allocated

here are being swiped.

This is the "cafeteria," and the kitchen has two burners; the refrigerator looks a little worse for wear, and the table along the wall was so rickety that if any child sat at it, he or she would probably fall into it when it collapsed in his/her lap!

Tomorrow I will take in my version of Concentration, modeled after the song "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes," which they know in Spanish but will learn in English. I will see who comes to school, but I have DOWN the names of the four who were there today!

When I got back, I noticed that a dog had come bounding through the entrance to our community, running all the way to someone's pool where he immediately sat down and pondered life as he knows it. I raced to take his picture, and here was his response.Have I just taken ALL the joy out of his pool visit?