Remember That Learning Curve?

Hola!  A funny thing happened on my way to Blogville today....  Kind of an awakening...  kind of one of those moments you just say...  Aw... shoot!  (okay, those that know me KNOW that isn't exactly what I'd  say)...  but, all that aside...  here's what happened...


I got a comment from Mitch today.  Right now I'll say that I get comments from several of you, and I really appreciate your tagging along on our adventure.  But... I hadn't heard from Mitch for a while... and I know he's in Spain...  so I clicked on his blog...  and... hmmmm....  saw that he blogs quite often.


Okay...  I'm a "follower"...  so why doesn't his blog show up on my daily blog list?  And...  who else is missing?  Well, Teri & Mark are missing...  and so are quite a few more.  


Backing up a bit, I'll say right now that I'm fairly new to blogville....  have really depended on Rick, Bob and the Donnas for help and advice.  In my defense, I will add here that when my computer crashed shortly after we arrived here in Costa Rica, we had a person repair it who doesn't speak English.  No problemo...  except that when he fixed it...  or maybe this is just the way it is...  my server is now in Spanish.


Yeah, I use the translator...  and for serious stuff I use the Google Translator....  but it doesn't translate everything...  for example... I haven't been able to find my dashboard (thank the Lord I'm not driving this thing!) and if I have to stop and put my blog in draft I'm really lucky if I ever find it again.


But...  I digress...


This morning when it hit me that I'm missing out on lots of great blogs (and here I thought y'all were out mowing grass)...  I knew I needed to find out how to correct that.   Don't know if I found the dashboard, but I did finally find the page that shows me my template and layout.


Wheeeee......  there in the "Blogs I Follow column"  there's a place I'm supposed to check the order I want them posted...  AND  (this is the biggy)...  what one's I want posted.  Now...  isn't that just peachy!  I checked them all (why would I want to follow them if I don't want to see them?)....  and we're up and running again!  


Shoot... I'm reading about people I thought dropped off the face of the earth!  What a great discovery!   Now I have to remember to look at that when I follow more blogs to make sure their little box is checked.


I never said I was a quick learner...  but give me time...  and have a lot of patience...  and we'll get thing whipped!   Oh...  don't worry about that darned tilde anymore...  I'll work on that when we're in the States...  but I suppose then I won't need it.....

Can't do a blog without a few pictures....

 One of things I love best about churches in Mexico and here in Costa Rica is their love of children.  Maybe times have changed everywhere, but when I was a kid (and when my kids were young), Monsignor Kish did NOT want kids to attend mass.  In fact, he would even stop and glare at any mom and baby if the kid so much as let out a squeal.  (no wonder so many people stopped attending mass)....  Anyway, most of the Spanish speaking churches I go to really adore their kids.  As I've written, my Spanish is less than adequate, but even I can understand when the priest asks the father to bring his newborn son to the front of the church after mass.  And you know what?  Even dogs can wander in and out of church...  everyone is welcome!

You can see how many people attend church here...  and they're not old folks either!  

My blogs have to have at least one bird...

 How about this pair of parrots that were in the tree above our roof this morning...

 They are White-fronted parrots....  quite colorful... even looking up at their bellies!

You can barely see the white that's just above his beak....

These guys always come in the morning and at 5:30 am the light is less than adequate.  

Well, the afternoon rains have hit with a vengeance..  so far the thunder and lightning have held off...

But I'm pressing my luck, so should sign off and unplug....

That's All For Today...

Saturday Walk....

Hola!  Saturday here in Cuidad Colon means one thing...  Market Day!  We have just over one week left here in Costa Rica and have plans to be on an overnight excursion one day next week, so we really didn't need much from the market.  We still have rice, beans, onions, garlic and some other staples to use and I'm already thinking of menus to use that stuff before we go.


But market day to us is more than just buying fresh veggies and fruits and stuff.  It's a social thing.  I guess that comes from those 18 years that we were vendors at our local Farmers's Market in Ohio...  you become a people watcher as well as a "food critic".  So no matter where we are, we try to visit the local markets...  it's great to be able to buy local as well at eat local.


We headed out towards the road around 8:00.  Heard a rustling noise in the trees above us and looked up to see 2...  maybe 3...  Gray-headed chachalacas.

If you've been in south Texas, you've probably seen a chachalaca... these are in the same family...  just slightly different species.


It's a nice walk to town...  takes us about 15 minutes.  The first half of the walk is along a dirt road that is residentual...  although the houses aren't really close together.  There seems to be a broad scale of economic well-being...  some really run-down houses and a few that are gated estates.


But the view along that part of the walk is really nice...

It overlooks the valley...  this is looking over towards the town of Rodeo. 

As you round the curve, about half way to town there is a huge cemetery.  The day I stopped to take pictures there the battery in my camera died...  (hmmm...  ) I haven't stopped since...  need to before we leave.

Just outside the cemetery is the soccer field...

Seems like Saturday mornings are the time to play soccer...

or futbol, as it is called here.

It's a downhill walk from here to the main plaza in town.  And in the main plaza is the market...

I pretty much covered the market in my blog last week.  Today we visited some with Debra, who sells baked goods, and looked at all the things for sale.

The only thing we needed was cheese...

This cheese is probably made from cow's milk, but I think it is "fresh" cheese...  (as opposed to aged).  Bill & I had a dairy goat farm and sold goat cheese for years, and we sold "fresh" cheese.  I don't know what kind of culture is used here...  but do know that this cheese doesn't melt...  It is actually quite good, but kind of bland in taste...  queso blanco

We always sit in the plaza and "people watch" for a while.  This morning we watched people go in this building...

Looks like the Cultural Center to me...  so we wandered in...

There was an office with someone working, but the other rooms were more interesting...

In one room a young boy was practicing piano...

In another (large) room..

these little girls were taking a dance lesson...

The building had several rooms...  most of the doors were closed.  But it also had a courtyard..

All kinds of plants were growing there.  There was also a fountain which was maybe 4' high.  Really lovely...

We had gone in the main entrance, but there is another entrance from the side street...

Another enclosed garden and sculpture..

The sculpture is..

(In English this Says...)

100th Anniversary of the City of Mora

In Memory of the Chiefs

Coquiba, Cho, and Torapo

The indomitable spirit of their struggles is an inspiring message every day, the overcoming of our people.

Sculpture and Message

Antonio Ciardono

By now it's time to head home...  and so we head up the hill, back to our place

 This tree is huge...  I don't know what kind it is, but it drops these pods of nuts...

These lay all over the road...  they are actually quite interesting...  I know that if/when we come back here again I'm going to be armed with some field guides!!!

We started out our walk seeing the chachalacas...  as we headed home we looked up at a different tree...

Sure a lot of chattering going on...

A flock of Crimson-fronted parakeets were eating the nuts in this tree.  

These are big birds...  11"

 Something scared them and they all took off in a rush... There must have been 2 dozen of them in all.

We always have an interesting time on our daily walk to town.  I guess I better stop in that cemetery to get my pictures before our time here comes to an end!

That's All For Today....

Just thinking....

Remember that 1961 song by Pete Seeger?  I got to thinking about all those blogs I read every day through much of the winter...  I could hardly wait to find out where my "new-found" friends were...  what their dogs were up to...  what was going on with their grandkids...  what adventures they were having ....  Now, many of those bloggers are back in their "real" houses...  they are still blogging, but not as often...  Here's my rendition of what's happening....

Where have all the travelers gone?

Winter’s passing…

Where have all the travelers gone?

Summer’s almost here…

Where have all the travelers gone?

Back to houses every one…

When will they all return?

When will they all return?

Where have all the RVs gone

Winter’s passing

Where have all the RVs gone

Summer’s almost here

Where have all the RVs gone

Stored in garages everywhere

When will they all return?

When will they all return?

'

Where have all the bloggers gone?

Winter’s passing…

Where have all the bloggers gone”

Summer’s almost here…

Where have all the bloggers gone?

Back to mowing lawns and such

When will they all return?

When will they all return?

The thing that can happen is that often people think that if they aren't on the road their life isn't as interesting. That's really not so....  (remember Donna C's blog about house cleaning?  What could be more mundane than cleaning an RV...  but, didn't she make that interesting AND funny?)   

Just because y'all aren't hiking through the desert or climbing a mountain doesn't mean that what you are doing isn't interesting.   Just sayin'

Actually, our life is pretty quiet these days...  We definitely are in the rainy season here already.  I usually get a load of laundry hung out on the line about 6:30 am...  and it's dry before noon.  The afternoon showers come anywhere from noon to 2pm...  sometimes over quick...  sometimes lasting into the evening.  We had planned to walk into town yesterday for the 2pm Organic Farmer's Market.  At 1:20 the rains started... thunder rolling in, lightning...  the works. We stayed home.....

This rental house came with a whole bookcase full of a variety of books....  everything from teen-age stuff, to romance to mysteries...  even a few biographies and history books thrown in for good measure.  There is no TV here (besides, we haven't owned one for over 30 years) and are both avid readers....  I think both Bill & I have made a big dent in the books that are available.

We walk into town every day...  it's about a 15 minute walk from this house to the town plaza....  Most of the businesses we frequent are located in the blocks close to the plaza.  Even though we walk this nearly every day, it seems we often discover something we haven't seen before.

Today it was this...

 This huge tree is the "centerpiece" of the town plaza...  The plaque says that it a Jicara tree...  Check out the "totem pole" looking thing that is a brace supporting that huge part of the tree that is leaning to the left.

Here's a closer look at that brace....  (the farmer's market is in that building on the left) 

The plaque says the species of tree and apparently it's size makes it worthy of being listed in the botanical records.

The flowers that have dropped off are laying all over the plaza....

I bet this would be a beautiful place to have weddings or other events.

Looking up through the branches, you can see the fruit...  and also the way the leaves grow on the branches.   We walk through this plaza nearly everyday.  I was glad we finally took the time to stop and look closer.

Who knows what we'll notice tomorrow.....

That's All for Today...

A Good ... no... an Exceptional Day

Hola!  We didn't do anything really exceptional today, except just by chance I was on Facebook this morning and so was my son.  Then...  later I got an e-mail from my daughter.  When we're out of the country (USA) we turn our phone off and rely totally on the internet for communication...  So...  when I hear from family I am thrilled.  Okay, it's not quite the same as actually seeing them, but it makes my day a lot happier...


We did have a good day...  yesterday's thunderstorms moved away from us around bedtime last night.  People here are saying the rainy season is coming in a few weeks early this year.  Other than seeing (or getting bit by) a few more bugs, that hasn't bothered us at all.  So far we've been lucky enough to plan our excursions on non-rainy days.


Okay... before I start posting photos, I just want to warn daughter Michelle that there are snakes in the near future....  it's a dead one, but if you feel squeamish just skip this blog.


A couple of nights ago I was in the bathroom getting ready for bed and saw something moving behind the toilet...  hmmm...  looks like a snake to me...  Hey Bill...  bring me that big knife that's in the kitchen.  He did...  and I did...

I don't mind sharing the bathroom...  but NOT with a snake!  Now, I know there's some rhyme about black, yellow and red...  and I know that coral snakes are here (in fact, there are over 135 species of snakes here in Costa Rica, of which 16 species are poisonous).  I had already Googled this, but one of my followers was kind enough to let me know this fact...  (ignorance is NOT bliss, in this case)

Yep... I fished him out...  and murdered the critter.  Now...  anyone who knows me knows that I actually like snakes... despite having been bitten by a copperhead many years ago and getting horribly ill.

But...  NOT in my house...  

Okay..  now... look at him again..

A different perspective.....

We all know just how big a tube of toothpaste is...  (hey, it looks like we might run out before we leave here....)   

I just thought that even if this guy was poisonous, he couldn't get his jaws around my little toe to do much damage.  

But I didn't take any chances...  me and the butcher knife took care of that.

I believe he is/was a false coral snake (non-poisonous), but will admit I turn the light on if I have to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night.

Okay... enough of that...  (Michelle, if you're still with me, it's okay to look now)

Our neighbors next door are from Toronto.  They have lived in Costa Rica for over 25 years, so they've made lots of friends here.  They invited us to a coffee get-together with another ex-pat...  and today they took us to her house...

From L to R...  Bill, Debra, Richard ?, Barbara and Richard H. Debra's father is visiting her.. he spends 6 months each year in India working with non-caste kids who otherwise wouldn't have an opportunity to get an education.  Debra has lived here nearly 25 years and has raised her 3 daughters here.  She has a bakery and catering business.  Barbara & Richard moved here in 199?...  had a business in Jaco before selling it and moving to Cuidad Colon.  

They have been kind enough to befriend us (they live next door) and give us all kinds of information as well as take us along to some of their favorite places.

The drive up to Debra's is through coffee plantations...

This area is close to the University of Peace...  through an area called Rodeo....  

The grounds of the University are landscaped beautifully and that is a popular spot for bird-watchers.  This palm tree is loaded with hanging nests of the Montezuma Oropendola. 

Kind of reminds me of a Baltimore orioles nest, but look at how many of them have been built in this tree!

I enjoy my afternoon glass of wine... 

I have always scoffed at Bill for drinking "box" wine, but after that

Mediterranean cruise last year where we found box wine easier to carry back to the ship, I was sold on it...

On the left is a Chilean wine...  the right is from Argentina.  These are both white wines, but you can buy reds, roses, merlots...  whatever you want.  They sure are easier to carry home in a backpack...  and really do taste quite good.

Well, the next picture is for our friend Chris..

Chris had a great blog (Living and Boondocking in Mexico) but no longer keeps it active (Hey Chris...  I MISS you!).  Anyway, Chris works out all the time.  Just to let you know that there's a really nice gym just down the street from us if you ever decides to come this way.

Now...  more "nature" pictures...

We get critters in our house... and not all of them are snakes and such...

Since we don't have a screen door, the flying insects visit us in the evening hours...

 Side View... Wings closed...

Wings open...

This guys wings are transparent!  

Isn't he gorgeous?

Apparently he came in last night and hung out in the big window.  After I got his picture I did capture him and take him outside.

Another critter we saw...  outside...  just above one of the doors...

What is he?  I don't know...

Entomology was one of my favorite classes (way back then)...  

but it didn't prepare me for insects that live in 

Costa Rica.

As you can tell, life here is quite interesting...  

Something new happening every day.

Right now, it's about 3:15pm...  I think the afternoon showers are about to begin... 

I have a couple of questions...  does anyone know how to put that "tilde" over words like manana or nino?  

And..

Is there a way to change the resolution when I'm using Picasa?  (My pictures are at 180...  I want to change to 72 when I use them in my blog)

I'm still in the learning stages of blogging, so can use all the help I can get!

Guess it's time to check on my pot of black beans...  maybe think about a pot of rice to go along with them...

Typical Costa Rican food...

for all 3 meals!

That's All For Today...

Yesterday's Adventures... Part II

Hola!  I did a couple loads of laundry this morning...  had it all hung out to dry before 6:30am.  Good thing, because around noon the thunderstorms rolled in...  heavy rain, lots of banging and crashing.  But except for a pair of jeans, the clothes were dry and ready to put away.


Of course we took our usual walk into town...  the bakery and the grocery.  Also, we must have loaded our backpack too full, because the seam alongside the zipper busted out...  we dropped it off at a local shoe shop to be fixed...  pick it up manana.....


So no new pictures of today to post....  but...  plenty left from yesterday....

I'm holding a Chestnut-mandibled toucan....  he lives at the Pura Vita Botanical Gardens....  I don't know the circumstances of him being there, but he's definitely a tourist attraction.

The Pura Vita Botanical gardens is a multi-attraction resort...  lovely landscaped gardens and walks...  gazebos tucked away in remote spots overlooking the valley....  several waterfalls; some plunging hundreds of feet over the mountainside......  As well as two restaurants and a lovely gift shop.

I don't know if hotel facilities are available or if the resort is mostly day-use.  But here are some photos of the land and the views....

 You can see an inlet of the Pacific Ocean waaaaay down in the valley....

 One of the paths wandering through the botanical gardens....

 If you look closely, you can see a waterfall .....  we could see vultures and wood storks wheeling around below us...

 Another view of the bay....  it's a LONG way down....  

 And another photo of the gardens...  I don't know what this tree is called (Phillip?) but these strings of pea-like "pearls" just grow out of the trunk.

Another waterfall....  this one is along a path where we saw a half dozen or so macaws.  It's kind of magical to come across these secluded places that are just begging a person to come sit a spell and relax.

Well, of course I have to include some more jungle pictures....

That's Freddy in the lead, then Bill....  then I'm bringing up the rear. I didn't dare get too far behind these guys as the path was quite narrow and the foliage was often over my head.

I felt like I was in an old Humphrey Bogart movie or something...  Freddy would stop and listen....  say things like "there's a troop of monkeys moving through"....  or "there was a sloth here a day or so ago, let's see if he's still around".   (he wasn't)

 Can you find the bats in this picture?

There were 6 of these black dot on this tree trunk...  yep!  those are the bats!  (3)

And this is another species of bat.  Tiny little thing, but easier for me to spot than those black dots!

I had a little adventure Sunday evening...  there was a snake in our bathroom.  I won't include his picture here...  partly because by the time I was ready to take his picture he was in 3 parts ;-)

I asked our guide if there were snakes here in the jungle...

(Duh......)

To be honest, I did know the answer to that, but just wanted to make sure Freddy knew the answer....

So I kept my eyes peeled for snakes....  

No snakes....  but we came across several iguanas....

 The biggest one we encountered was only about 3'...  maybe a bit less....  this is a male (see the "spike-like" things on his back?

I think this one is a female (no spikes)....  these guys do have predators, but here in the national park they are protected from human predators (poachers). 

When the iguanas are young, they are more green colored.  The sunlight filtering through the jungle shown upon a full-grown male and he looked like copper that has oxidized.  

Beautiful!!!

Just down the road from the park was the crocodile river...

These two monsters were just hanging out....  the big guy in the foreground is at least 10' long.  

Well, you know I can't write a blog without including at least one bird picture (the toucan doesn't count... he's someone's pet)...

So...

Here's the bird of the day...

A Bare-throated Tiger-Heron

He was in a swampy area with some Anhingas and several Jacanas. There were probably some shorebirds there too, but by that time we'd run out of time and headed back.

Hope you enjoyed this adventure and we're glad you came along. If this rain quits, I might find something interesting to write about tomorrow. 

That's All For Today....

Macaws and More....

Hola!  What a Day!  Alex picked us up just before 7:00 this morning...  we headed west...  Carara Nat'l Park was our first destination.  That's real close to the Gulf of Nicova....  and the Pacific Ocean.


We got to the park around 8am...  and before we even got out of the van, a guide came up to offer his services for a birding adventure.


I'm sure glad that Freddy was our guide...  he took us on a fantastic tour....

We had barely started our hike through the woods/jungle???  when Freddy heard the Macaws...  THIS was the bird we really wanted to see...  sure, you can see them in captivity...  but to see them in their natural habitat is truly awesome!

Not only did we get wonderful views of this guy, we continued to see several throughout the day.

This pair lit in a tree later...  they appeared to be grooming each other....  one of several pairs (or singles) we saw.  We thought we'd have to be early birds to catch sight of the macaws...  not so...  we must have just been in the right place.

We saw many, many new species (to us) today...  Some of them are...

 Here are two OrangeCollared Manakins....

 And this is a Slaty tailed Trogon

 A Black Hooded Antshrike

 A pair of Pale Billed Woodpeckers

Turquoise-browed Motmot

That's just a few of the colorful birds we saw.  There were some hummingbirds as well as other species.  I can only say that it was quite an experience wandering through that jungle - nearly every bird we saw was totally new to us.

We came across this HUGE tree...

For the life of me, I can't remember the name of this tree...  frankly, I'd just call him "Methusala"...  it's an ancient tree and the circumference is monster-size!

While we were in the jungle we saw this troop of capuchin monkeys ...

This one decided to relax  and just hang out for a while.

We also saw quite a few iguana...  as well as foliage that was higher than my head...  

I'll probably post those pictures later....

After our birding tour, Alex drove us up (and I DO mean UP) a fairly primitive road to the Pura Vita Botanical Gardens.

This is a beautifully landscaped resort-like area...  lots of meandering paths...  lots and lots of waterfalls.....  even more macaws!

This place also had a very nice restaurant.  We had the buffet lunch, then spent another hour or so walking around through the grounds.

While we were here, at least 2 busloads of tourists... from a Princess Cruise ship that was docked (probably in Quepos) came up for lunch and a tour.

After lunch, Bill & I continued our walking tour of the grounds.

More macaws!  There were several dozen way up in the trees...  they were performing some kind of aerial display...  maybe some mating ritual or something...  but we were just mesmerized by their gracefulness...  and in-flight maneuvers.....  amazing!

Here's Alex...  holding a couple macaw feathers that were laying along the path.  Alex was our driver today...  a young man who is in a business partnership to provide a service for tourists like us.

Of course I have dozens of pictures of the botanical gardens...  but figure your attention might already be dwindling some...

So...  we'll move right along...

To... a place a mile or so past the park....

The Crocodiles...

A face only a Mother could Love....

Bill counted 18 ..... either laying around on the banks of the river or swimming in the river...  These guys were quite big...  probably over 10' long.  I was glad we were on the bridge looking down at them.  

Speaking of such...  I was happy to find a geocache right on that bridge!  Yes Indeed!  Our 2nd geocache find in Costa Rica!

Since we were so close to the seashore, we took a little side trip over to a small town close to Jaco...

The beach here really doesn't lend itself to basking in the sun...  rocky, rough...  and frankly, not especially clean.

But if you can look past all that; take time to inhale the smell of the ocean.... look around...  you can really enjoy the gentle incoming waves and the peacefulness that the sea always brings.

We headed back to Cuidad Colon...  got into a tremendous thunderstorm.....  rain just poured down!

But...  Alex got us home safe and sound.

What a great day!  Certainly a day to remember!

That's All for Now....