Part 2 of April 8 (sorry it's backwards)

Tres Chicas

Learning Some Basics of Life

I really enjoyed watching how these three girls had to work out sharing (all essentially only children, but with sporadic half siblings). Not easy, and there were plenty of adult interventions. Also, my two little neighbors are barefoot, hardy, very active little girls. essentially living outdoors and at the beach. They start the day off clean with combed hair, but quickly get dirty, with wild hair flying. In contrast, Keiren, Josue’s daughter, is regularly combed, showered, with clean clothes. You can imagine it was quite a stretch for Keiren to keep up physically with the other two, but she was a trooper. Climbing tree stumps, making sand castillos (castles) paddling in the sea and writing in the sand. These little girls were on the go the entire day. Me too! 

PS: It was great to have the company, but we were quite happy to be alone again.

Ready for some killin'

Briana made some nests for any interested bird...

Insect Triumphs!

Termites: Between the efforts of Eli, who helped me get the huge termite nest down, and my diligence, I think I’ve gotten the termite infestations under control, using a lot of poisonous stuff, unfortunately. The lesson here is stay vigilant, which we didn’t do before. 

Wasps: The other night I donned my winter coat and hat, jeans and boots, (in case they attacked) and went into a full war spraying the multitude of wasp nests hanging under various roofs. I had been tolerant of them until they started showing up at my bird feeder and driving the birds away. Mission accomplished!

My nemasis

Roaches: I accidentally discovered a roach motel/nursery while cleaning under the sink. Under a rotted out piece of wood that I lifted up I found a swarm of cockroaches, as well as a lot of their egg cases. Sprayed the crap out of them! Then yesterday, I went to make a smoothie, lifted the bottom of the blender, which rattled, looked inside and found a couple of live ones and some egg cases. Got out the spray and shook them out. Cockroaches really will rule the world long after humans are gone!!

On a somewhat good note: The leaf cutter ant nest has been eliminated (for now), but mysteriously some of my plants are still missing their leaves. While pruning the other day I came face to face with a young, plump, brilliant green iguana munching away on bouganvilla shoots! Oh well, they have to eat, too.

All life lessons on living outdoors in the jungle! Hah!

April 17

The Good Life

I spent most of yesterday taking cuttings, some that I had rooted previously, and planting them. I also set up the beginnings of a little shade garden that you look down onto from the deck. I had my little helper, Briana with me, chattering constantly, “planting” alongside me. I noticed her parents came in very late last night, so they were still asleep when Briana joined me for (some in her case) yoga this morning at 7 am. I asked her if Mama knew she was here and she said yes. Not! I think we have to call her on this one. She’s a good kid, and loves being with us partly out of fascination with foreigners, and we have interesting stuff (rocks, feathers, plants, three friendly dogs, good treats, different food…….). But it’s a good opportunity to talk about the importance of being truthful. The teacher in me keep slipping out. 

I’m pleased with all the little, and not so little, home and yard projects I’ve completed. I had a bit of a checklist with about 20 items (which changed priority and interest frequently) that I’m about half though, but somehow the list keeps growing 

Tamales

Supporting the Local Economy

We frequently buy products from the locals, which include hailing down local farmers that sell produce out of their trucks, and a series of folks who come by selling various items. Eduardo/Petrone comes by weekly and provides us with bananas, plantains, yuca, tiskiki (another starchy root), coconuts and whatever else is in season. We recently visited his farm to pick up huge hands of bananas and plantains, as well as yuca, avocados, tiskiki and oranges, some of which we gave away. Once in a while other neighbors come by selling tamales, baked sugary things (which Ray loves), freshly slaughtered chickens and pork, crawfish, coconuts, fruit, vegetables, and even rocks!  Beto, a local neighbor, purchases chocolate from the Indians nearby and makes cigar shaped rolls with nuts, ginger and other treats imbedded in them. 

Fresh from the farm

And there’s, the ceviche lady. Rosa, and her husband, Benancia, ((brother of Lalo across the street) recently moved out of their beach shack into a new home they built. There are rooms to rent upstairs, their living area downstairs doubles as a very small restaurant, and she has a spacious new kitchen with a big chest freezer. Rosa makes the best ceviche I’ve ever had, and sells it to neighbors either as take out, or they can sit at the counter for three people or in the two rocking chairs and eat there. Her husband is a fisherman, so fresh fish is readily available so it’s quite a sweet little cottage industry. Their new house on the main road is at the bottom of the hill where there is a planned group of cabinas to be built, so I think they will be providing food and even lodging for some of the workers and eventual cabina inhabitants. 

Poop Time for Sloths

We have a rather unusual, sometimes pesky, neighbor, Manuel, who brings us plants, rocks and other interesting, offbeat things, for small change and a little food. Yesterday he brought us a SLOTH! live! He was bringing Ray some unusual rocks (something he does regularly), but also was carrying a three toed sloth by the scruff of its neck that he found on the road. At first I thought it was dead, but when he put the little fellow down it started to climb on the driftwood bench. Very slowly and deliberately. 

Not every day someone brings you a sloth

Such gentle faces

They are very docile, although you need to be careful of their huge claws. He was quite green around the shoulders, which is actually an algae growing in their fur which helps camouflage them in the trees whose branches are also often covered in algae. Sloths only come down out of the trees to defocate about once a week, so it must have been his time.  Very cool. We took his photo, the bright him to the base of a nearby tree that he slowly clawed his way up into the treetop. Quite an experience. Understandably, sloths become the victims of car strikes quite often because their “slothfulness” makes them very vulnerable. 

Masked Men with Gloves

A couple of days ago we went on a shopping spree to get groceries at the border. Usually, it’s a bustling town full of street vendors and many tiny shops, as well as several large department stores that have big grocery departments, and of course, immigration buildings for CR and Panama. The border is closed except for the tractor trailers waiting to cross. But most striking - there were no people on the streets or in the few remaining open stores carrying food. Even the department stores would only allow you to go into the food areas, everything else (clothing, shoes, cosmetics, housewares, etc.) were taped off. Furthermore, only men OR women are allowed in on alternating days. So, being men’s day, Many people were wearing gloves, too, and hands were sprayed with alcohol going in and out.  Ray went in donning his mask, with the grocery list. Technically these stores are in Panama, which has a much higher rate of infection and deaths than CR, so it was wise to be careful.

Ready to go shopping

Meanwhile, the infection rate for CR has dropped down to just a few new people a day (5-6), and I believe still only 3 deaths. But it’s pretty restrictive here with driving curfews between 7pm and 5am, you’re only allowed to drive on certain days depending on the last numbers of your license plate, and only one family member in a store at a time. We encountered 5 checkpoints along the way - one where the police wanted to see ID as well. Of course, I misunderstood the news about the plates one night from the TV news and got the message backwards - thinking the allowable days, were the restricted ones! Duh!

The whole thing seems pretty surreal, even here, so I can imagine how people must feel living  in a busy metropolitan area, where they are used to being surrounded by people all the time. It is heartbreaking to think of how many people are either crammed into tight quarters, and conversely those living alone. 

Life Goes On

For me, nature is the grounding plate. My little red butt birds wake me up every day at the feeder. The hummingbirds zoom through the garden, sometimes aggressively chasing each other.  Noisy flocks of  parakeets and parrots chatter incessantly in the treetops, and my usual “family” of three scarlet macaws arrives nearby every day to feast on the beach almonds. The sound of the waves is a constant, and the tides keep their rising and falling schedule. Just in a two week period, we’re now regularly getting rain - some heavy downpours even. Everything is green and sprouting new growth. The beach changes daily, as the river mouths swell with the rain, so one day they are overflowing, and the next day they are drained as they burst and the water rushes into the ocean creating little sand ravines along the shore. Huge driftwood logs that were stuck upstream, break free and lodge themselves in the sand. I’ve watched one beautiful silvery log make its way for a mile and a half along the shoreline. 

Leaping Lizards!

I don’t know why we seem to have a large lizard population all of a sudden. Could it be ‘the girls” have lightened up on their lizard hunting? We always have a couple of large iguanas, “iggys,” lounging around on nearby tree branches, or scurrying up the trunks. But there are a lot of tiny skinny non descript brown guys hanging out the deck and the patio, and some spectacular looking ones in the garden. I flush two very brightly colored ones, with gold spots when I’m gardening, but they don’t want their photo taken. Another partly copper colored one lives on the patio. 

And a large JC lizard scurries around on our roof in the early morning licking up the dew that forms overnight. He has some smaller relatives that I see in the trees and among the leaf litter from time to time. Sometimes there will be a loud thunk and an iggy or JC will jump/or fall onto the roof from the trees, before leaping back into the safety of the branches. And then we have geckos that scurry along the ceiling and the walls. At let one every night hangs out on the tv screen where the bugs accumulate. It’s quite funny to see newscasters with geckos on their shoulders! Pretty cool!

Just to show off - my first guanabana from our tree!!
It's a whopper!

Please stay healthy and well during these difficult times!!  love Gill