Yesterday the Mom and Baby sloth came back for a quick visit. The problem is you have to be on the watch out other wise you will miss them. She is using the man made highway as they travel from tree to tree. The canopy here is not very good with all of the Cacao trees, not only do the sloths not like them there are short and don’t reach to the upper branches of the preferred trees.
Last night while we were watching a movie, we kept hearing this cry or high pitched barking sound. It was coming from high up in a tree. We decided to go out and see if we could find it since we thought it might be a lost baby sloth calling for it’s mother.
I grabbed my little 2M candle power light and went out side to try and find where the sound was coming from. Pointing the light down the road we saw two very bright orange eyes peering at us from behind a small bush. I had not seen anything like that color before. As I pointed the light up into the tree I saw the same color eyes looking down at us. A little further up the tree was a sloth. Mind you this light will turn night into day. The pair of eyes watched us and finally scampered down the tree very quickly disappearing into the darkness.
The other pair of eyes moved off across the road exposing itself to us, it was a very strange looking cat, definitely not a house cat. Anyway as it turns out it was a pair of Jaguarundi hunting for a meal. I think we might have interrupted their quest. The Jaguarundi is the most vocal of the Costa Rica’s wild cats. I makes thirteen vocalizations, including birdlike chirps. That may have been the sound we had been hearing.
No pictures this time since it was dark and did not have the cameras. Kind of interesting going out at night to see what lurks around the neighborhood, at least animal wise………
This is the time of the year that every one looks forward to. It is called Semana Santa or Saint’s Week and it is a time when most people who live in Costa Rica have time off from their every day jobs and heads to the beach for some fun and relaxing, not to mention much drinking. While most are under control there are those who don’t follow the same rules. The other day while the beach was packed with families enjoying the sun and surf, three young ATVer’s decided to use the beach as their speed way. The policia was finally called and stopped it up until they left, then it started all over again. I was surprised that no one was injured.
As luck would have it one of our lilies decided to bloom in honor of the big event. Another cool thing was the Costa Rican Coast Guard even showed up off shore looking for those Columbia subs coming up to drop off the real pay load.
I think they were curious of all the people on the beach and probably took a bit of time off looking for the Columbians while looking at something more pleasing to the eyes.
To close off the night, Sarah and Rene provided us with a performance of songs at Stash’s Fusion Restaurant. Kind of a farewell performance, since they we be returning to the UK the middle of May, to begin work in Sicily in October. They will be missed.
A parting shot of all the volunteers at the Jaguar Rescue Center where Sarah and Rene have spend many hours of love laboring in the hot sun keeping the Center looking new as ever.
Located just north of BriBri, the canton seat of the Talamanca is a water fall that people can hike to. You can drive most of the way and park in the yard of the person who will look after your car for you for only 1500 colonies. Once you park you start the hike into the Jungle…..
Here you start out by crossing the river.
Then you cross the river again.
Then you head up this hill until you see a path that leads off to the right.
Here is the path leading to the falls, there are cement blocks used as the steps but slippery non the less.
Then you cross the river again and follow the trail up another hill.
You keep walking up this hill for a short ways until you come upon a split in the trail. The high road leads to bigger and better water falls according to some of the local tour guides, the low road leads to the main falls that everyone stops at.
Here the trail goes down back to the river you have crossed many times before.
Almost there as you cross over the water again.
Finally you have arrived, the water is refreshingly cool. After a bit of swimming, we hike back to the car, head back into Bri Bri and stop at a local soda for lunch. Can’t beat it.
Ever since we have been here we have been trying to get a shot of the blue morpho that comes visiting. The problem is it never sits still and when it lands it always has it wings folded up hiding the blue, that is until today. We just had an inch of rain this morning and the morpho seems to have gotten its wings a little damp. As I looked outside our kitchen window I spotted this one drying its wings and took advantage of it sitting still.
Yesterday we called up the owner of the Botanical Garden which sits just right across the river from us. Peter, the owner, has been here since 1987 and now has 45 acres of unbelievable plants. It is quite the stroll thru all of these different kinds of plants that grow here in Costa Rica, some native some not. We wanted to get an idea of what sort of plants we would like to get to put in our newly cleared lot.
Peter showed us a large variety of things, from eatable plants, fruiting plants and decorative plants. For our first go-round we came away with a Traveler's Palm, Black Pepper vine, a Bromeliad from Panama, Argentine Rose and an eatable plant that we can use the leaves in salads.
Here are some of the plants that are eatable, the one in the foreground is the one we got.
This is part of the nursery where Peter grows his own variety of Bromeliads.
Here are some heliconia that are native to Costa Rica that we have never seen before but will be adding a few of these to the back lot.
This is called a bottle palm.
This is the Ylang-ylang plant that produces fragrant flowers during various times of the year. Maybe next time we are there it will have owers.fl
This bromeliad comes from Panama and was discovered only a few years ago. This will be joined by others once I make a place to let them grow. They need to attach themselves to a host in order to grow.
So that was our first attempt, but that we know what we want we will be going back for more until we have all the perfect plants in their perfect places.
I have been recalcitrant in my postings on the blog. Over the last couple of months we have had visitors from Spokane, Washington DC and Gunnison, so needless to say we have been busying showing people how Costa Rica works and doesn’t work.
The day before that we had mama and baby sloth cruse by as they were moving from one part of the area to another. We thought that the mother had been hurt with blood on its mouth, but after calling the rescue center they said it was probably left over fruit they had been eating. The fruit has a red skin that covers it and the color is almost blood red. Go figure, but know at least we know.
Then just yesterday since the ocean was so clam and the sun was shinning so bright we decided to go to Punta Uva for some snorkeling, at least Jana did.
So as you can see paradise can happen any day of the week, you just have to be ready for it and take full advantage.
