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Today I decided to walk to town instead of riding my bike to go to the farmer’s market. Last night we had torrential rains that came down so hard that we had trouble hearing each other speak.  I believe that we are at the beginning of the rainy season in the Caribbean – I hear that November is the month that the most rain will fall.  At any rate, I walked in thinking that there would be too many opportunities for me to crash into mud puddles and I was right.  The walk was wonderful though and I may just continue to walk since I can get there and back before the sun gets too hot and the things you see when you go at a slower pace are just great.  I am posting the photographs of what I saw along the road.

   Whimbrel

  Beach morning glories 

  Coconut Tree

Horses at the bridge

  Dog relaxing on the beach

  Road to my house

Even though it is overcast and has been for most of the week – it is still just wonderful………….

Yesterday I went to visit a friend and, after we made some absolutely incredible fresh passion fruit juice, she asked me if I liked to sing.  I said yes – twenty years ago I actually was a pretty good singer.  She asked if I would join a small group of people who were planning to sing Handel’s Messiah in Limon on December 26th.  I said yes since I know the entire thing – bass, tenor, alto, and soprano – by heart.  My dad and I used to sing the Messiah, or at least several choruses from it, every Christmas at the First Presbyterian Church in Casper before I left to “further my career”.  Those times with dad are some of my fondest memories of him.  We would go to the choir room every Thursday and practice and once we even had a quartet with another couple of people that brought the house down    These are the times I miss him.

At any rate, Tom decided to come along too (even though he didn’t realize he would have to be a participant as well) and we had a great time.  We practiced the “Hallelujah Chorus” and it was such fun!  There were twelve of us and there were probably be a couple more before it settles in.  There is a Tico tenor who has one of the most beautiful voices I have ever heard.  And another tenor who has a beautiful voice as well who has clearly had training.  The rest of us just give our very best.  Tom actually had a great time once he realized he would actually have to sing.  He is singing bass which is a bit out of his range but he has a great voice and, since he played guitar for years, knows how to read music and is a big help to the other basses who don’t. 

The director is the most amazing women – incredibly patient and a wonderful musician.  She brings her portable piano to the place we practice and speaks all three languages of those of us who are participating – English, Spanish, and German.  Since I actually have memorized the entire “Messiah”, I was able to take care of keeping the altos on track so she only had to worry about the other three parts   I have to say I admire here immensely – she lives in Bri Bri, works in Cahuita and LImon and comes to work with us in Puerto Viejo in the evening.  Quite an amazing person. 

In Limon we will be singing in a cathedral with twenty other people from there.  This will truly be an experience of a lifetime!!!

Two things – Tom’s birthday and our second month in Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, Costa Rica!!  Tom is 62 today and I have to say both of us could not be happier that this birthday has arrived     He will begin receiving his social security checks on December 15th and that is how we are going to stay in our tropical paradise.  We have planned all along on living on what he gets from social security – at least until mine kicks in in five years (if it does – who knows with the way the world is going).  Since we own the house outright, it really won’t be too difficult to maintain a lifestyle that we enjoy as long as we don’t overdo it.  We will dip into savings for the occasional trip to the US and around the country to see those parts of Costa Rica that we have not yet experienced but other than that, we will be living pura vida on social security income.

I have to admit that the two months really has flown by.  We will be heading back to Denver in November for four days for two reasons.  First is because our first 90 days in the country will be up and we have to leave – at least until we get our residency paperwork lined up.  And secondly – to pick up that paperwork that son Jordan has been diligently mailing all over the place getting requests in and certifications done.  By the time we arrive in November, he should have received all of the final paperwork back from the Costa Rican embassy in Washington D.C. which we can then bring back here and submit to the powers that be in San Jose.  It will take about a month to get everything translated into Spanish so that we can submit it, but once that is done, all we have to do is wait.  There are other housekeeping things we have to do here in Costa Rica but that shouldn’t be too difficult.  I know – I sound like the very naïve person I am but my motto is now “don’t worry be happy”.  Thank you Bobby McFerrin.

To the right is a photograph of a number of birds on a banana plant.  We have watched the most amazing display the last two days as birds eat on these bananas.  Woodpeckers, tanagers – five different kinds, Oropendolas – two different kinds, and others that I don’t even know the name of – have been eating on these bananas right outside our gate.  Does anyone wonder why I love this place?!?!?! 

It is an amazing day today here in Puerto Viejo.  I biked into town to pick up some groceries and there were people out and about all over just enjoying the day.  There were more people in the ocean than I have seen in a long time.  Whatever was causing the rough ocean over the last week or so has gone away for now so everyone seems to be making up for lost time.  Even the plovers were out having a wonderful time finding snails to eat.

We also go to see two new birds this morning in our yard – a Blue headed Parrot and a Violaceous Trogon.   And – the Aracari that visited the other day came back and hung out in our papaya tree for a while.   What can I say – this is the life!

No mishaps on the way to or from the farmer’s market today.  I went in around 7:00 to get the best variety and it was buzzing – lots of people.  This is definitely the Saturday morning gathering place.  On my way back I stopped at the bank to get money from the ATM and was approached by an old man and his granddaughter who had some things to sell.  I bought a bag of corn for about 60 cents.  It was cooked and ready to eat.  Yummy! 

Biking along the ocean, I noticed that the ocean was unbelievable rough compared to the lake like surface we have experienced over the last couple of months.  I am not sure what is stirring it up but it is amazing!  My understanding is that this is pretty unusual for this time of year.  The ocean is coming up so high at high tide that it is nearly to the road.  The beach has eroded as well and there is a huge incline that wasn’t there a week ago.  It is gorgeous though.  I can just go and sit and watch the water and completely lose time. 

As I passed over one of the bridges on the way home, I saw a ringed Kingfisher and it was just gorgeous.    The picture isn’t that great – it is hard to take a photograph while balancing a bicycle and a bunch of vegetables and a chicken.  But it was pretty neat anyway!!

On Saturday I rode my bike to the farmer’s market as I normally do to pick up our weekly ration of whatever looks good.    As I wandered through the small vending area there was a lot that looked really good – chicken, pineapple, sapote, lettuce, and cucumbers to name a few. So I bought it all.  I chatted with a few people and then went to get on my bike to head back home.  Uh oh – way too much stuff for the little bitty basket I have on my bike.  I neglected to mention that before getting to the farmers market,  I stopped by Old Harbor – a small grocery store in town, and picked up a small bag of dog food. 

I thought I would be fine if I just put a few things in the basket, put the dog food on the back of the bike, and carried the b ag with all the rest of the food on my shoulder.  As I clumsily took off, I drove directly into two parked cars and almost tipped over.  I did a bit of rearranging and took off again, only to find that the handle bars on my bike had gone cockeyed and were at a right angle to the front tire.  I promptly went to the ground – along with all the food.  A very nice woman came over and helped me back up telling me not to be embarrassed because everyone takes a bike tumble at least once.  I fixed the handle bars and took off again, finally on my way.  I was going along just great and was riding over the first bridge when the dog food fell off of the back of the bike right in the middle of the road.  I hurried across the bridge, dropped the bike and all the food again, and ran back to pick up the dog food.  Rearranging for the final time, I took off and finally make it home with myself, the bike, and all the groceries intact.  Next Saturday, I will pace myself and will take a smaller bag that fits in the basket of the bike and will buy no more than will fit in the bag. 

Here are some pictures of the sapote and   some other type of fruit that I don’t know the name of.  As you can see, the sapote  is a very dull looking gourd-like thing but when you cut it open it has the  most beautiful orange fruit that is delicious!!!  The funny looking strawberry things have fruit inside that has a texture somewhat like an apple and it tastes somewhat like a cross between an apple and a pineapple – yummy!  So – though painful – the trip was well worth it. 

We have had an eventful week.  We have had some new and unique visitors to the yard – some delightful and some not.  Last night a Green Canopy Lizard must have dropped from one of the tops of the trees.  The lizard book we have said that it is very rare to actually see one because they stay in the canopy and don’t come down.  It hung out on some grass until it got dark and then headed on out – I assume back to the big tree.   We also have seen a couple of butterflies and moths that we have not seen before and they were gorgeous.  I am trying to find a butterfly book that will help me identify some of these specimens but in the meantime, it is fun to just watch them. 

We also have had a couple of creepy visitors – really big centipede and a spider. The centipede headed out on it’s own but we are going to help the spider find a new place to inhabit.  The web this spider is spinning is amazing but I haven’t been able to get a good photograph.

Just so you don’t think we only have exotic animals, I took a picture of a squirrel that has been hanging around.  We actually don’t see too many squirrels so this is a real treat!  

We were the visitors when we went to see Don Candido Morales today who is the medicinal plant doctor for the indigenous Bri Bri tribe who live primarily in the Talamanca mountains.   He is known for the successes he has had with a variety of serious diseases and cancers.  Don Candido lives just outside of Hone Creek and is about six miles from our house.  We had heard of him through friends who run the organization El Puente which helps the children and adults of the Bri Bri tribe with schooling and other critical needs.  We contacted Barry at El Puente and he set up an appointment so that Tom could have Don Candido look at his hands.  He damaged the nerves several months ago while refinishing cabinets in our house in Moscow.   They have been getting progressively worse and are to the point that he is miserable all the time as the palms itch, burn, crack and HURT continually. 

He spent about an hour with Tom using acupressure on his hands and feet to determine whether or not there were malfunctioning organs that were at the root of the problem but he determined that, other than the nerve damage, he was in good shape.  He did explain that the damage was so bad the it was beginning to move up his arms.  He prescribed plants from the jungle that Tom will need to boil and breath in the steam once a day and then soak his hands in the mixture.  He  also whipped up some ointment with other plants for him to put on his hands.  Once the ointment was applied his hands definitely felt better.  He will go back to see him on Tuesday and it could take up to a month for them to heal.  I will update Tom’s progress – hopefully this will work.

  This morning we sat in the outdoor living room and listened to parrots, toucan, montezuma oropendolas, and a cacophony of other sounds for about two hours.  It was amazing!  There was also a sloth in a tree in the middle of it all and she was just hanging out eating while all the birds were flying all around her.  The parrots just arrived yesterday and they are beautiful.  Mostly green but with red around the eyes and some blue feathers on the tail.  It looks like there are some little avocados that are ripe in some trees around us and they are here to eat them.  They were chasing the toucan and the toucan were chasing the oropendolas.  The tanagers, who show up every single morning, did not show up today.  I don’t blame them – too much competition :-)  

I also was greeted by two dogs in the neighborhood when I went out to look at the birds.  One of these little guys barked all night but both are so cute I guess I’ll forgive them. 

So – after a start to the day like this, I can’t wait to figure out what else is in store for us today!!!

  And then the internet went down.  To state the obvious – it is amazing how reliant I have become on the internet.  My computer has been acting up a lot recently and, while I backed up a few things, I didn’t back up all of my photographs that I have taken down here.  However, the good news is that we had purchased 16GB drives for the cameras and had not yet downloaded most of the photographs so many were salvaged.  I just bought this computer in May but the hard drive just died.  It is still on warranty but I’ll have to figure out how I can have the warranty honored down here.  I’ll get to work on that ……..

The weather has just been stunning lately.  Not too hot and it cools way down in the evening.   We have spent the last two evenings sitting in the outdoor living room listening to the IPOD shuffle songs and pinching ourselves.  We still can’t believe we are living here.  It seems like every day we see at least one new bird and one new species of butterfly just flying around the yard.  It turns out that September through November or so is the migratory season for several bird species and so we are benefitting from that.   I saw what was either a kite or a hawk two days ago and it was just gorgeous. There also seem to be new types of tanagers hanging around and a couple of new hummingbirds.  We also have a toad that likes hanging out in the plants in the living area every night  – must be good hunting. 

There is a hurricane that is going to hit (or has hit) Nicaragua and Honduras today but we have had no effect of it yet except that the ocean is more rough.  That is actually nice since it has been so calm we couldn’t hear it – now we can 🙂 .    It looks like we might get a bit of rain tomorrow but it doesn’t look to be too bad.  The pacific side of the country is having one of the worst rainy seasons it has ever experienced – roads washing out and flooding.  Two years ago in November we had a rain that fell for five days straight and the bridge into town washed out.    But it was quickly repaired and there was no lasting damage.  At this point even a flooded bridge would not dampen my enthusiasm 🙂

The last couple of days have been just terrific.  Over the last three days there have been two sloths who have visited a tree just a few meters from the house.  At first one would come and leave and then the other would come and then leave.  Two days ago they both were in the same tree – very unusual behavior for sloths who are quite solitary.  I about died laughing when the male would reach out to touch the female and she would smack his hand away.  Eventually she left the tree and went to another.  I have to say that I watch these things obsessively.  Much like a sloth :-)  The picture here is not real clear since I photographing while it was almost dark but you can see the two of them if you look real hard.

Yesterday was independence day in Costa Rica and we went snorkeling to celebrate.  This was my first time ever and I had a BLAST!!!  Even though we did not have fins so could not go too far out on the reef, I was able to figure out how to breath and spent up to five minutes at a time just looking at the reef and the fish.  I was not out far enough to see the schools of fish but I saw so many beautifully colored specimens – all quite small except one.  Now I absolutely cannot wait to get fins and go out further.  I have attached a you tube video to show a quick preview of what I experienced.  Obviously not the stunning video you see on TV but for me WAY COOL!!  By the way, this was done with a tiny little camera made by Fuji that take both still and video images underwater.  AND it cost just a little over $100.  Amazing technology these days.