Long updates #13 & 14 From Saturday: Monteverde update So Im out of the city and...Im REALLY our of the city! This place is amazing. Its a tourist and backpacker haven, which has both advantages and disadvantages. I had the great blessing of being able to go on hikes away from people! I walked for hours, literally. Its very misty here, damp (hence the term cloud forest). But is hasnt been uncomfortable very thankfully. This morning was atrocious weather-wise (although, admittedly it was really cool). I woke up to what seemed like effects of a hurricane somewhere in neighboring areas! There went the plans for the 630 am hike. Eventually at 830 I decided just to go. Thank God; its been great! So I hiked for hours in the cloud forest. I didnt see any animals in there, but in the end, it didnt bother me at alll. It was sufficiently exciting to know they were there. Again, just the whole ambience of the forest...amazing. The trees and plants etc... Amazing! Then I went on a suspension bridge hike. Beauuuutiful! I was so moved emotionally and spiritually when I discovered the fluttering, playful, hummingbirds all around. ...wow Pretty tired after so much hiking, I found the treehouse restaurant (see fotos) that literally is a tree. Its marvelous to dine in the company of a tree. Who needs humans when you have trees to hang out with and in? Teehee I had a wooooonderful stir fry. With... VEGETABLES!! Horray! I miss those lovely edible plants so much. On my hours-long hikes I had a lot of time to reflect and pray. I did both for you, my friends, who are sharing this journey with me. Its very endearing to think of all of your comments and care... Really. I so grateful to God for all of you and your friendship. So what did I see? Hummingbirds, different birds (vireo-type, thrush-type, wren-type, warbler-type), a kiskadee (new for me), a black Guam (new too), and an emerald toucanet (little toucan!!!). And... A grison in a tree (had to look that up too!) Incredible, truly. Then came the best, the night hike with a guide. He was great, had incredible eyes and showed us soooo much, quite a bit of it poisonous! All the more thrilling! LA TARANTULA!: We saw a tarantula! (Dan Lafaro) see foto! He irritated it out of its hole. It was so cool! SERPIENTES!: We saw two varieties of snakes in trees, both very venomous, fascinating! Made us wonder how many more there were in alllll of the trees we were brushing up against in the dark with out tiny flashlights. OZO PEREZOSO: We got to see TWO sloths (different places in the forest). Amazingly adorable, truly truly truly. Each one had seemingly just woken up. Theyre so extremely vulnerable and sweet. I asked him about their status as pets... Teehee. Theyd be so easy! They only go to the bathroom once a week and thats the only time they come down from the tree tops and arent upside down. by the way, in Spanish they are called literally lazy bears ESCORPION!: We found a scorpion on a tree, a fairly little one. That was so exciting. KINKAJOU: we had the special blessing of getting to see this Costa Rican animal high in the tree. It seemed like a mix of a cat, raccoon, and a lemur (got the visual?). Sooo exotic and exciting. TOUCAN: yep, she was beautiful. She was sleeping so her large beak was tucked away under her wing. Ahhhhhhhh. HORMIGAS: Interestingly enough, the greatest bother was the ants. They werent very pleased with our walking in their world and we had to shake them off frequently from our pant legs. I did not get bitten though. ...they know their allies :-) Lots of bugs: butterflies, moths, big beetles and a nice venomous banana spider. I found an absolutely adorable salamander who shyly crawled backwards into his hole when confronted with the flashlight. Lil baby. Overall yesterday I was outdoors drinking in nature for Over 6 hours! Success!!! Kimberly Morrow, I very much thought and have been thinking about you and your family here. And about that monkey pee, tell Hannah thanks for the warning! ;-) So the next destination is manuel antonio, the beach town with the incredible nature reserve. Im quite excited. Lets talk about Costa Rican buses since Ive been in quite a few now going from city to city. They actually assign you seats. Its really bizarre and Ive not encountered that before and I certainly dont enjoy it. Im always trying to ask for a window seat, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesnt. But overall the buses like these in between cities and even those within the city are fairly nice overall. Costa Rica doesnt have an army at all (??!!!?!?!?!?) so they must put a good portion of the money they save to public transportation! I actually had a very blessed bus ride (that I was not originally looking forward to) from monteverde to another pueblo 3 1/2 hours away. They gave me seat 10, I asked for a window seat, they changed it for 17 and it turns out a made a new friend because of it (he had the window seat anyway! Jaja). Matt from England (whats with these wonderful English people Ive found here in Central America?!). We has a fabulous conversation from the moment we left to the moment we got off the bus. Really neat guy and Im so grateful to meet people like him, and for Facebook to keep in touch. Facebook has certainly transformed things in terms of these trips and meeting people. Its so very simple to stay connected, its really a blessing. It used to be the whole ritual of writing addresses, phone numbers with country codes I didnt understand, then even email addresses, knowing all the while that most of he people you would never communicate with again. ...now all you need is their name and you get to watch how theyre living floor happily ever after. The scenery in this little country is absolutely breathtaking. Its impossible to explain and similarly difficult to capture in pictures. So Matt and I saw two dead HORSES on the side of the road. It was so curious and sad. They must have been ...roadkill. ? Which led us to animal discussions. They have a lot of fixes in London. Foxes! How cute! Made me think naturally if Fantastic Mr Fox and if youve never seen it, PLEASE watch it, its darling (this coming from someone who does not like kids movies). I also saw on the way SOMETHING in a tree. I really wanted to jump out! It was large and black and did NOT move like a bird. Had I not been so delighted with my traveling companion for that ride, I could probably have seen myself just getting out there to check it out! So here in the new town, sooo much to see! Animals! The heat has certainly commenced. This place is VERY different from San Jose in many ways. I got to get to mass...during the game! I figured pope francis and pope Benedict could manage. Go Deutschland!!! Im quite happy about the turnout. And no penalty ending, yaaaaay! The neatest thing happened: right after mass I was walking, stuck my head into the only place open and found out Germany won. As I continued walking there was one single young fellow also walking. I asked him where the little supermarket was. Turns out he was from GERMANY!!! I hugged him! Merlin was his name. It was adorable. What are the insane chances that the one person I speak to after that is straight from Germany! I tried out a little German with him, pathetically but valiantly. He was happy but said its not the same when no other Germans are around! SO, mass was very charismatic. It was also two hours long. Thats not atypical actually. They clapped during the Holy Holy and Agnus Dei... They oftentimes have to call out it recollect Latinos from the sign if peace. All of this Im used to! (Dad would have gone absolutely insane with frustration!). The Latinos always gather significantly early for mass, like 15 or 25 minutes early. They just chat, sit, look around, fan themselves. Its kinda funny, a number of them actually brought drinks in. They has bottles or water and coke in their pews. Now Im in an incredible place with countless wild animals surrounding me. The park in supposed to hike thru tomorrow is closed. So tomorrow Im supposed to relax.... Relax???? NOT my strong suit at all. Theres much to do, but much of it is pricey. Going from painting the school to paying 50$ for a tour doesnt settle well with me. So relax at the beach it is.... Well see... I feel terribly spoiled just enjoying this nature and this place. MUST PAINT MORE 😝 So much more to say. Brain overload. Im going to try to sleep tonight knowing Im surrounded by exotic animals just within reach. The venomous tree snakes and spiders are keeping me sane and indoors this eve! CongRATS 🐀if you read this far; I probably would not have! Mariela
Posted on: Mon, 14 Jul 2014 02:27:13 +0000
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