To Town on Tuesday

It's getting hot earlier in the day now.  We don't have a thermometer, but when you're outside at 7:30 in the morning and starting to sweat, you know it's going to be another warm day.  When we were on our walk yesterday we talked with Steve and Ann about going on another excursion.  One that we all want to do is the Palo Verde National Park river tour.  So this morning Bill & I headed into Coco to check on availability, cost, etc.

We have a particular tour company and sales person we all like.  His name is Elvis and he lived outside of Dallas, TX for much of his youth, including high school.  We stopped at the office around 9:15 am...  the office person said he wouldn't be in until 10:00.  So we ambled along...  just checking out the scenery.

What are these guys doing?

Of course we had to go right up to the action....

See those pipe-like things beside them?  Well, it looks to us kind of like the clam diggers we used when we lived in Alaska...  You push the pipe into the sand and it fills up with sand, gravel...  and if you're lucky, there'll be a clam down there.  Well, they weren't clamming....  and we didn't see the pipes in action...  so... we're not sure about all this....

These looked like little crayfish or something similar.  They were sorting them out from the sand and putting them in the bucket on the left.  I'd love to know what they do with them, but I just don't have the Spanish to understand what they'd tell me even if I asked.

We headed on to the AutoMercado (grocery store).  When you shop at the same place time and again certain people become familiar.  Carlo is one of these folks.  He's a young man and rides the bus to work from up above Sardinal.  His English is pretty good and we always stop and talk when we see him.  He stopped us and asked me if I knew what Hazelnut Creme was.  My first thought was something in the baking aisle...  like a mascarpone or something along that line.  I couldn't find anything even close...  back to Carlos...  he showed me the paper someone had written on...  "Creme de Amaro"

Hey, I don't care much for those sweet fizzy drinks, but I think we ought to head over to the liquor or "liqueur" aisle.  

Not sure if this is hazelnut flavor or not...  (I googled it... comes up "bitter")...  anyway, Carlo was happy, and I hope whoever's order he was filling was happy as well.

I love going to the grocery...  there are 3 groceries within a couple of blocks of each other and each is unique in its own way.  If there's something I don't know recognize, I often just take a photo, come home and google translate.  Doesn't take much to entertain me ;-)

Bill put our few groceries in his back back and we stopped at one of the sidewalk slushee shops.  We had about a half hour until Elvis was due for work.  I didn't take a picture of our drinks - and I never in a million years thought I'd like a pureed fruit drink (I do not like milk shakes or malteds; never have), but these are remarkably refreshing.  I had one the other day with spinach and mint...  I can see where I'll invest in some slushee equipment when we return to the states.

Back to the tourist office.  No Elvis...  in fact, Luis told us that Elvis no longer works there.  

Hmmmm....  we'll get in touch with Steve and Ann and see what Plan B is.

We headed on home....

Summer vacation ended for the schools this weekend and Monday it was back to school.

It was only 10:30 this morning when we saw all these kids walking home.  I asked if I could take their picture...  they even posed for me.  They kept saying "thank you" in English.  I asked if they spoke English, but they told me they didn't.  I wanted to know what the heck they were doing walking home at such an early hour but didn't know how to ask.

I am having big-time fly problems with my hummingbird feeder.  The water moat at the top keeps the ants away, but I don't have a clue how to prevent swarms of flies from landing on it and crawling up the openings into the sugar water.  Any suggestions?

We did have a "new" bird today...

A male yellow warbler may not seem very exciting, but for us, every bird we see is a real find.

We got home around 11:00...  the sun is really beating down and there's not much breeze today.  Just another day here in Costa Rica.

That's All For Today!