Gatherings–And Not Just The Human Kind…..

This week has been one for getting together with friends and acquaintances.  On Tuesday afternoon Tom and I joined about sixteen of our neighbors at a community security training given by the local police.  This was the second session of ten and I have to say I am impressed with this kind of community outreach.  The training is done in Spanish so I have to spend a lot of time out of class going over what was taught but it is really good for me and it is helping my understanding of Spanish immensely. We are learning what kind of community security initiatives make a difference in reducing crime and by the end of the course we will have a written plan in place for our neighborhood.  Probably one of the greatest things about it is that we are meeting our neighbors and that in itself goes a long way to make the neighborhood safer.

On Wednesday I was invited to the 50th birthday of a woman that I recently met.  It was a “girls only” get together and it was great fun!  There were nine of us and I really only knew four of the women so I made some new friends.  We talked and drank Sangria and go to know one another.  It was interesting to note that everyone of us thought that we were living the best time of our lives right now – here in Puerto Viejo

Yesterday, October 13th, was Tom’s birthday.  It was also supposed to be a meeting/party for the newly formed neighborhood association for Playa Negra.  The turnout for the party was not large but the people who came had fun.  I think we will probably just have meetings from now on and skip the party except for very occasionally.  At any rate after the party, we hung out at our neighborhood bar, The Point, and Tom got free beers which he generously shared with me.  We talked with friendsfor a few hours and then headed home to finish celebrating with the dogs.  All in all a very nice day.

Finally, this is the time of year when thousands and thousands of raptors from North American migrate to South America.  Our little part of the country is one of only three areas in the world that is in this flight path and  I have to say it is amazing.  The sky is full of hawks, vultures, kites, eagles – every type of raptor.  We will see them again when they return to North American in the Spring and I will definitely be watching!!