Same old, same old.. Roosters at 5 a.m. closely followed by grandpa howler who sounded like he was in the bedroom with us. The noise of the surf outside was also accompanied by the cicadas or whatever it is that lives in the trees and sounds like a turbine screaming. I got up (sleep was impossible by now) and filmed the morning symphony so I have the sound track for future use. It's daylight now at 6 a.m. and I've been typing out on the balcony. The dawn begins to appear at 5:30. It's amazing how the howlers know when it's exactly 5 a.m.
Last night I was plagued by no see ums who managed to each take a chunk out of me. I think I wore down my fingernails scratching. Tonight they'll go hungry as I'll paint myself with poison and see who dies first, me or the bloody bugs.
The local squirrels are out in the trees over our heads doing their acrobatics. These squirrels are bigger than ours and are a rusty color on their backs with huge bushy tails. They seem to take delight in cheating death while jumping onto branches that shouldn't be able to hold them. They also enjoy eating the almonds and then throwing the nuts down onto the tin roofs. Well it's time for a breakfast of granola and yogurt. The monkeys have shut up and now they're probably on the move to find a place to rest for the day being as they've managed to wake up the whole world. It's amazing how noiselessly they move through the trees once they've finished howling. You could walk right under them and never know they're there (until they pee on you).
After breakfast we walked down the beach to town and then through town and down some of the backstreets rounding the West end of the beach and then headed East back towards the beach where we were yesterday. The tide was much higher this time. Met a lady from Victoria and chatted with her for a while and then walked the beach back to Samara. We checked out some of the souvenir shops and then went to the fruit stand on the way back. Picked up some fruit (pineapple, limes, coconut and guacamole) and as we were leaving the kid there was squeezing oranges into juice. Now that's real orange juice not the stuff they sell down here which tastes more like orange pop. We each had a large cup of that and I think next time we'll buy it from him as it's the real thing. I also noticed they had ice cream! That's now on my list.
We haven't had a coconut since we've been here and they're laying all over the place. I borrowed a rusty machete but ended up cracking it open on a rock. Jo drank the juice and then I began prying out the meat. mmmm it was great. Next time I'll use the machete and open some from the ground.
Jo just read in a book that the tides lately have been between 6 and 8'. That's a lot of water and the beach is so flat that it represents a few hundred feet! She also read that no alcohol is sold from Mar. 20 to Mar. 22nd (Easter?) Now that's important! We've been planning what we'll need to bring back home so we'll need to stock up before we leave here next friday morning. We also need to pick up some souvenirs which needs to be done before then.
For supper we walked down the beach to Shake Joe's and had a burger and a beer while I contacted a few of you via skype. Fun talking to the kids especially Isabella and Diego when we can actually see each other.
Before leaving Shakes we put on some bug repellant as the sand fleas really attack with a vengeance after dark. Seems to have worked as I'm not scratching tonight.
Behind us and below our bedroom window are a family of Ticos (locals). They get up at dawn and the little guy gets picked up by a van to go to school at 6 a.m. In the afternoon it's siesta time and then they eat supper around 8 p.m. The lady has an outdoor kitchen and does her laundry and washes the dishes outside. Not sure how many live there but there seems to be quite a gang of them from Mom and Dad (grandparents?) to daughter and a couple of young ones. She has a beautiful garden of flowers and a variety of palms. They also have a young dog which the little girl looks after. We've also noticed a lack of cats around here. That's no loss for me. Most of the dogs have owners which is something you don't see in San Jose where dogs live off the streets. There are some resident chickens which I guess you'd call "free range' if you can call garbage free range. Garbage pickup here is pretty random. We put our edible scraps in a container only accessible by chickens and birds. Everything else is put into plastic bags (including toilet paper) and they pick it up when they get to it. Today was the day and just in the nick of time as it was starting to pile up.
For any of you who have a computer and haven't already done so download skype. It's free and you can call anywhere in the world for .02 a m
inute and if you call another computer it's free and if you have a video camera you can see each other. Best thing we've done and I highly recommend it.LINK OF THE DAY
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=30899&l=9d2bb&id=680056043
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