Wildlife at its best

The other day we were sitting on the patio and saw several little birds chasing after a Toucan.  The Toucan landed on a palm tree a short distance from the house.  We could see the smaller birds continue their attack and finally realized it was because the Toucan had landed next to their nest.

Nothing particularly unusual but I decided to grab the binoculars and watch.  I could see the Toucan hop little by little up the palm branch closer to the nest, with the little birds dive bombing it.  Sure enough, I actually saw the Toucan stick its long bill through the bottom of the next and yank out a little baby bird and fly off with it!

Quite a rare and amazing sight!  I never realized Toucans were carnivorous.  I read up on them a bit and apparently they are opportunists and eat fruit, leaves, and the occasional baby bird.

The following week we came across this little blonde fellow in the yard next to ours.  It's called an ASP caterpillar (aka Puss caterpillar).  It is about an inch and half or two inches long and you'd swear it's wearing a blonde wig.

It is really quite pretty up close but they are reportedly, the most toxic caterpillar in the U.S.



Our caretaker brushed against it with his hand and had sharp pains the whole length of his arm that evening.  Some of the descriptions I've read suggest this thing can give you quite a wallop if you get a good dose of toxin off of it's snugly looking fur.

The caretaker seemed OK the next day so he must have just barely come in contact with it.

Our standard rule of thumb down here is not to touch any of the critters and we try to be careful around certain plants as well.  It seems the prettier they are, the more venomous.

So a few days later we had yet another interesting creature stop by.  This big guy stopped by after dark and settled into the corner right next to our patio door.

If I'm not mistaken, he's called Cane Toad and you guessed it, he's poisonous.  The puffy patch just behind his eye on both sides is the poison gland.




I don't think they hurt you if you just touch them but we weren't taking chances so we just left him alone and he was gone by morning.

This week we took our usual walk and when were passing by a small clump of trees at the top of the hill, we started hearing snapping branches, thumps and squeaks.  They were quite loud and I was waiting for something to jump out of the bushes at us.  As we stood there and listened we then saw the branches wiggle in multiple places as the sound of breaking twigs continued.

Then we saw them, a whole family of white-faced monkeys.  We could occasionally see them very clearly as they climbed up branches and jumped from place to place.  All the while they squeaked and once in a while would stop and look us over.  Unfortunately, we had not brought our camera but the luck of seeing these little guys in their natural environment was priceless.  The jungle that surrounds us is massive with a million trees everywhere.  It was purely a stroke of good fortune to be in the right place at the right time.  We went back up tonight but they were no where to be found.  So all in all it was an interesting week.

On March 23rd (next Friday) we go on our private sailboat tour for 2 nights/3 days to a half dozen islands.  Just the three of us and two crew members on a 45 foot ketch (our actual boat to the left).

Sleeping on a boat out in the ocean has been something I wanted to do since our first visit to Costa Rica.  We've spent very little time on a beach to this point so this little adventure should fill that gap and then some.

We sail up in the top of the Gulf of Nicoya, visiting Isla Tortuga, Isla San Lucas, Negritos, Tambor, and back to Herradura.  We hope to fish, snorkel, and walk the beaches during the day and at night I am excited about the chance to gaze at the stars from the ocean.  Speaking of stars, here at the house they are fantastic.

I am not sure if it is due to heat radiating up into the sky at night but all the stars twinkle all at the same.  There is very little light pollution down here in the jungle so we see tons of stars, many of which I have not seen back home in many years.  They are truly spectacular!  Last but not least, there are fire flies all around us at night, in all the trees and they blink very brightly just using their gift of bio-luminescence.

I admit sometimes we get a bit bored but over the past few years, we have had some pretty amazing experiences and I would not trade them for anything.  Later...

Wonderful Day

Chris picked us up around 9:00 this morning and we all headed off to Quepos together.  We grabbed some cash from the bank, walked through the farmer's market and had a sweet roll that kicked our taste buds back in gear.

Chris then took us to a beautiful restaurant in Manuel Antonio called Anaconda.





This was an absolutely beautiful place and the four of us had a wonderful lunch.  We can hardly wait to go back, but next time, no grocery shopping.  Just a walk on the beach, lunch, and fun.

The food was excellent and it reminded me of our first visit to Costa Rica and Hotel Parador.

We had ordered fish back then as well and I recall being a little surprised and squeamish about eating a fish completely intact, eye balls and all.  I suppose some people may eat them (the eye balls?) but we're not quite that bold yet.



You just grab your fork and started chipping away at the tasty, flaky crust and meat on the sides.  This was Red Snapper and we had fish this way in Panama as well.  I never used to be much of a seafood guy but this was excellent along with rice, a beer, and great company.  A tough combination to beat!

 This picture (view from our table) does not even come close to doing this place justice. There was a nice, cool breeze and palm tress everywhere.  Beautiful islands and a view of Manuel Antonio park off in the distance (upper left of photo).

Our waiter Bruce (in upper photo standing between Chris and Mom) was outstanding.

This place knows what customer service is and treats people like guests rather than burdens.  It is those simple things that can make or break a trip.  We ran into Tony on our way to the grocery store and he is just a joy.  

We had Walter in Potrero and Tony here.  These two guys are fantastic, not only as drivers, but as representatives of their country.   We hope to talk Tony and his wife into joining us for a day at the beach over the next few weeks (and maybe another side trip to the Anaconda).

Luck was on our side today and as we were all just enjoying our Calamari, Chris spotted a family of squirrel monkeys. 

(Luck went only so far thought because our camera batteries started to run dry just then).  The whole gang came right up close to us, no fear, no snarling, just the cutest little stinkers you could ever imagine.

These little characters kind of squeak as they hop around looking for hand-outs.

As you can see, they seem pretty relaxed around people.  We were just two feet away as the guy in front just laid down on the back of the chair and relaxed with his arms hanging down.  His buddy just behind him.

They don't hang around long so we didn't have as much time to get pictures as I would have liked but this was an awesome experience. 

We also saw these guys at Hotel Parador 13 years ago (or whatever it was) knocking over patio chairs and stealing hats.

We love Costa Rica, its people and it is getting more and difficult to leave.   It was a wonderful day (outside of the dreaded grocery shopping at the end).   We stashed away another two weeks worth of groceries and headed for home.  It was very nice to have some time out with Chris and we really appreciated the day out.

We have tentative plans for a 3 day/2 night sailboat tour on March 23rd.  It is another item from our bucket list.  I've always wanted to spend a couple nights on a beautiful sailboat and see some of the islands from the water.  We'll leave from Puntarenas (a couple hours north of us) and sail  up in the top of the Gulf of Nicoya, visiting Isla Tortuga, Isla San Lucas, Negritos, Tambor, etc. 

The seas are calm and the trips between the islands are just a few hours, so I think we'll be safe from any sea sickness like I had in Bocas del Toro.  I guess (if we want) we can catch our own fish, have them prepared by the crew and even help hoist the sails here and there.

We can hardly wait!!

I suspect we'll get our fill of beaches during this trip as we'll stop at quite a few little coves and Playas (Beaches) along the way.  Should be a unique experience in all regards.

I am hoping the skies will be pitch black so we can see the stars although there are pretty good views of them from the house as well.

We're now on the back side of our journey and I'm sure time will go fast.  Our goal is to have some new experiences and enjoy the people we meet.  Chris brings coconuts over once in awhile and the milk (or water) over ice is a fantastic thirst quencher at the end of our walks.

We thank our lucky stars for all the adventures we've had over the past few years and plan to milk every ounce of joy we can out of every single year.

Outsmarted by a Gecko!

Over the past few nights, we've been wakened repeatedly by the chirping of a Gecko.  They're not much to worry about really and can be helpful, given the fact that they eat mosquitoes etc. but at night they can be very annoying.  The loud squawking bird is gone so it's been peaceful and a good nights sleep was in order.

So last night, shortly before bed we heard the little bugger and then saw him over by a bamboo bookshelf just outside our bedroom.  At last, we thought, a chance to catch the little jerk and toss him outside (which would be to his benefit since there are many more bugs outside then in).

Mom and I grabbed the flashlight, broom, and dust pan and planned our attack.  I don't like hurting the little guys and I've learned from past Gecko missions that if you approach very, very slowly, you can almost grab them with your bare hand (key word - almost).

As I closed in with my Tupperware container, and when I was within mere inches, he dashed over to the bookshelf and seemed to vanish in thin air.  Armed with my flashlight, I search high and low, between books, on top of books, underneath each shelf, side to side.  No luck.

I then spotted the little rascal hanging on to the back side of one of the bamboo uprights.  Mom grabbed the flashlight, I grabbed the broom and we tried to coax him onto the wall so I could try my trap again.  This little guy was smarter than I gave him credit for and had a knack for moving just out of sight.  He never ran for his life so we could spot him on the wall, but instead he moved up, down, left, right just enough to be out of site.

I can't tell you how long this went on but we even went as far as carefully removing all the books from the shelf to eliminate hiding spots.  Same result.  Now we see him, now we don't.  It had become a challenge and after chasing it around in vain for 15 - 20 minutes, Mom declared that we had invested too much time to give up and be beaten now.

The battle ensued and now I was sweating profusely (It's kind of humid here).  Again, I search high and low, underneath each shelf, on top of each shelf, swished back and forth with the broom, side to side.  Finally after dodging me about 30 times, the little creep dropped to the floor and ran.

Alex had joined the pursuit but the squiggly little lizard snuck past him like a Viking's tight end, zagged when Mom and Alex zigged, and sure enough under the couch he went.  Well, somehow he shook his tail loose and as we moved the couch slightly forward, there was the little tail, all by itself just wiggling away.  A pretty clever tactic to get the pursuer to focus on the tail while the lizard itself escaped.

We tossed the tail outside for the ants and sure enough, the gecko was no where to be found.

We finally gave up, put everything back in its place and got ready for bed, exhausted, defeated, and me sweating like a pig.  So what happened next?  I shut off the light, turned to walk toward the bed and kicked toes first into the leg of a couch in our room.  Today my toe is black and blue and the Gecko still runs free to taunt us another day.

I heard him chirping nearby as I write this post.  Too clever for me so no more Gecko missions for a while.

Earthquakes 2 and 3

Interesting way to wake up...

Just before 5:00 a.m. this morning we felt the house trembling.  This time it was much longer, guessing 10-15 seconds since we both sat up and bed and asked each other "Earthquake?"



Hard to describe but you could hear kind of a low pitched rumbling or buzzing sound the whole time.  Mom's analogy was spot on "It was like those vibrating beds in the cheap motels where you put a quarter in for a little action".

As you can see from the markers, all three were out a short distance from us in the ocean.  The first one (Magnitude 4.8) on Saturday was 13 miles away, and this morning the second (Magnitude 6.1) was 8 miles away and the third just 3 seconds later (Magnitude 6.1) was about 28 miles off our coast.

I'm not sure at what point people starting getting concerned about Tsunamis but it will be fun to research that and see if this is a concern.

Our first little earthquake!

OK, first I say I was looking forward to seeing a deadly snake and now I am saying how excited I was to experience our 1st earthquake.

It was very brief yesterday but we all definitely felt it.  I was in a chair at our kitchen counter, Mom was standing in the bedroom, and Alex was upstairs.

 I felt my chair wiggle twice like someone was behind me, grabbing my chair and wiggling it.  I actually turned around to see who it was.  Chris stopped by shortly afterwards and confirmed that he felt it as well!  I've been back and forth to California many times and had always hoped to experience an earthquake but now I can finally say I felt one.  To me, it was awesome just thinking of the massive power it takes to move the earth like that!

If you look closely at the picture (thanks Chris for the picture) you can see Our Location and the Earthquake Epicenter.  It was about 13 miles or so from our house.  It's hard to see but you can click the picture to get a better view.  I am actually hoping for an after-shock!

Today is our day to walk our 3 miles again and the funny thought popped into my head.  Everyday we walk we pass a herd of cattle grazing on the very steep hills to one side or the other.

I thought how funny it would be (in some respects) to be walking along the road when an earthquake hit and seeing the cows lose their balance, tip over, and start tumbling down the hill.  OK maybe not so funny, but ....



The flower is just outside our back window.  Very pretty!

Everyday here is a bit unique and you never know what little adventure will occur.  We are now on month two and we already know we will truly miss this place.  It's beautiful in every direction.  The cycles are mind boggling to me.  Every creature seems to be on a very distinct schedule and seem to wait for queues from one another for their shift.

Early morning, we hear beautiful melodies from the large variety of birds as they seem to frantically search for food, the hummingbirds buzz back and forth past us, a beautiful flock of white Egrets fly off to the north, and the same little butterfly flutters past our patio table almost on queue at 6:10.  The Cicada's then chirp for a bit, the smaller birds stop chirping and disappear, the vultures start gliding around the valley looking for prey, dusk comes and the crickets and cicada's start getting really loud.  Then as dark approaches, the loud Cicada's slowly drift into silence and the frogs start croaking.  Then the night birds like the Common Pauraque I mentioned earlier come to life.

Chris put it a nice way.  It was like a symphony orchestra, he said, with their conductor's guidance to one section at a time.  "Cicada's - crescendo please as he raises his hand and baton in their direction.  Then signals them to calm to silence as he points toward the frogs, and then on to the Pauraque for their melodic (but annoying) solos.  I know this seems to be an exaggeration but it's true.  As we stood on the patio last night, the Cicada's can be almost deafening but then suddenly drift away as we're talking.  Pretty cool.  I wish I could piece together an audio file.

Last note for this post.  Chris brought over a few coconuts last night from the trees just down the street.  Alex and I poked holes in them this morning and drained the "milk" into a pitcher.  Not quite enough of course for a full pitcher but a nice start.

We then broke them open and carved out the meat.  These were fairly young coconuts so the meat was still soft, almost the texture of peanut butter, maybe slightly stiffer.

Alex took a half shell and had a refreshing little morning treat.  I had a couple scoops as well and to my surprise I really enjoyed it.  Alex and I though it was almost like eating yogurt.

So now, we have a little stash in the refrigerator and from what I've been reading, coconuts offer some nice health benefits and supposedly it's good for you stomach as well.  Awesome start to the day!

We love it here!

Wake Up Call

Today, the three of us took our regular walk and it was a good mile and a half each way, maybe more.  The way out in this case is pretty much all downhill while the road back is obviously all up hill.  I must say that I am proud of mom because she has stuck with the plan despite some leg pains.

Shortly after we got back and re-hydrated ourselves, Chris stopped by for a chat.  It takes a while to cool down so it was nice to settle back and chug through our ice cold water.

Chris left shortly before it started getting dark and returned a few minutes later.  He brought with him a small Fer-de-lance snake.

The picture to the left is not the actual snake but very similar in appearance.  The one Chris had was about 6 inches or so long and about the thickness of a baby finger.

Chris had chopped the head off with his machete and brought it over so we could see what it is that we need to be watching for.  It was a stark reminder of the realities of the jungle.  It made me realize how careless (aka stupid) we've been.  I've walked through the grass barefoot, Alex suns himself near the grass also barefoot and we walk up and down the roads every other day.

As I mentioned early in the blog, we have 4 hours to get medical help if we get bitten by one of these things, and I think Chris mentioned that these little snakes are worse because the venom in a little snake is that much more concentrated.  The same is true with the scorpions we saw in Potrero (our first trip).  The tiniest scorpions were the size of a penny.

We fully intend to continue our walks but we're happy that our primary path is pretty clear of weeds etc. and we keep a pretty close eye out when we walk.  The truth is that this little guy would be pretty hard to spot and Chris was fortunate to spot this thing as he walked back to his place.  What makes one a bit nervous now that Chris found one baby snake (they can apparently get as big as 8 feet) is that I've read that a snake brood can be 70-80 little snakes, so that means there must be a whole new batch around somewhere.

You can't spend your life living in fear and we are certainly not going to let this distract us from all the beauty that surrounds us here but it will make us use a bit more common sense when we're out and about.  I'd really like to have a machete or a hoe to chop these aggressive snakes in half if we ever come across one ourselves.  We bring long sticks with us but I am not sure how helpful they would be in that case.

I now think about my earlier post where I said I swish my stick through the weeds ahead of us to chase snakes away.  Dumb idea.  All that would do is antagonize a snake that is known to be fast, mean, and aggressive - so no more "swishing".

This one is dead and buried.  I must admit I "was" actually looking forward to seeing one but I am not sure I understand why since they can easily kill you.  I would die a thousand deaths if anything happened to Mom or Alex because of my carelessness.

Good, but frightening lesson learned.

After night falls we seem to get a variety of little visitors just outside our patio door.  A few nights ago we had a little frog, then a chameleon, and tonight the most unusual looking bug we've seen yet.

I have no idea just yet what it's called but ...it's kind of cool!

The little worm just kind of cruised right past this thing so apparently it's not an omnivore?

Night Birds

We love birds as much as the next guy and here in the jungle there's a plethora of different types to choose from.  It seems we hear a new one everyday or they outsmart us by changing their tunes from day to day but over the past few days, one has become a little bit annoying.

It's called the  Common Pauraque and although we see and hear them during the day, they seem to love chirping away at night too.

If you click the link above it takes you to a nice web site with an audio link of the sound this guy makes at night.  It's not so bad at early evening but when you're trying to sleep it drives you crazy!


Last night it started at 1:00 a.m. and I knew (based on recent experience) that it wouldn't stop for at least 20 minutes.  Certain birds here seem to like being very repetitive for a long time, waiting for their buddies to call back.  I wasn't in the mood for that since I had to work in the morning.

I got up, went outside, grabbed my walking stick and started poking around in the palm branches where I think it sits every night.  I didn't give a second thought to the fact that lots of other creepy crawlers come out after dark as well (like snakes).

I seemed to have chased it away and angrily went back to bed.  As you might guess, 10 minutes later it started again but I didn't have the energy to go back out so I just laid there and prayed for it to shut up.

As I type this post, our little friend just came back and started again.  Guess where I am going as soon as I hit enter?