On Monday, the thermometer in the shade was registering +35. I sat in the sun without any sunscreen for a very short time and today my belly is the perfect shade of pink where I can still feel the warm heat of the sun within my cells without it being an actual painful sunburn. I attribute my highly developed sun bathing skills to all the time spent behind a BBQ where I gained my complete understanding of the relationship between heat and meat. Ok, I need to get a grip. I may have had too much sun between my ears.
Yesterday afternoon, Craig and Natalino walked into town and hung out at the beach most of the afternoon. They had lunch at a beach side lounge and had a nice time.
Meanwhile, that afternoon, I drove into town on my own to do some grocery shopping. I went to the same butcher shop that I had been to before, but this time I went prepared hoping to walk away with exactly what I wanted. I simply wanted some good lean ground beef so I could BBQ some burgers and so I let the butcher know that "me gustaria un kilo de carne molida primo" and I came away with some really nice hamburger. I picked up a few more supplies at Iguana Verde and as I was trying to back out of the parking lot I got to see,once again, just how genuinely nice (and friendly) the people are here. I was having a hard time to back onto the road with the traffic and a truck parked in my line of site. Three Ticos stopped the traffic for me and guided me onto the road then gave me the familiar peace sign as they went by. People in this little town are just so nice.
Late in the afternoon, our yard got invaded by a colony of army ants. We were warned by the owners that this can happen. The locals actually consider this a blessing because if they enter your home, in about an hour they will rid the whole house of any other living things and so they are great exterminators. I hesitated starting to made supper in case the ants took over the house but after marching along the pool, across the grass and attacking the BBQ, they left without coming into the house. Jenna and Natalino got a little too close to the ants and did get bit. Jenna learned online that a good treatment for these bites is to apply toothpaste to the area of the bite and this is what they did. They both claimed that the toothpaste did in fact help.
Ann and I made supper while the boys and Ally played board games. After supper the guys and I watched the new Star Trek movie which I received for Christmas. We invited Natalino to stay the night and we all went to bed fairly early.
Something Jenna found in the pool
This child is always doing school work. She DID NOT get that habit from her father.
Early this afternoon, Ann, Craig and I drove to the rodeo grounds to see if anything was happening. Nothing was really going on at that time but a charming, more than slightly inebriated middle aged Tico (a term used for Costa Rican man - a woman is a Tica) came and explained to us that things did not really get started until 6:00 pm. Before telling me this he offered to park my car. Even I understood his Spanish and I laughed at the thought of giving up my keys to a total stranger, not to mention a drunk one. Ha Ha! He was however, quite charming and I could tell he enjoyed the fact that we were Canadiense and not Americano. He was also impressed with Craig's Spanish language skills and made a point of letting me know.
We did some grocery shopping and then went back to the house where we had a nice Skype session with Barb, Gabby and Jack. Later, Craig walked to the bus stop to meet a friend of his who was coming to Samara from San Jose. His name is Natalino and he is originally from East Timor. He went to school with Craig in Norway and is currently studying in San Jose. We met the boys at a restaurant in town for supper and then walked to the rodeo grounds to see what was going on. We walked there in the dark along the beach with only Craig's headlamp for a light. What we found when we got there was a big fair ground area with blasting Latino music and an outdoor rodeo arena. The arena was setup in such a way that you could not see inside and you had to pay 5000 colones/person to get in. We could not figure out what exactly was going on in there and since we were all tired anyway, we opted out of the rodeo and made our way back to the house. Craig seems happy to have an old school mate here tonight. They are out chatting on the patio and Natalino will be making use of the sofa tonight.
Having supper at the Lo Que Hay Restaurant (right on the beach) with Craig's friend Natalino
While waiting for our food, the girls go onto the dark beach to watch the stars
You have to love a restaurant equipped with hammocks. Jenna obviously thinks its a great idea. I always told the kids that I wanted to open up a restaurant someday where you had the option to have a nap before going home. I love it.
On the walk back to the house we come across a skinny stray horse. I think they are kind of like stray dogs around here
Its 11:00 am and Craig and I are just sitting at the table on the patio typing away on our laptops. He however, is more than likely doing something of much more importance and consequence. Its been a lovely morning so far. I got out of bed at 7:00, made my way to the beach for a slow 5 mile run. I made my way to the east end of the beach and was able to jump over the creek because it was low tide and get to the rodeo grounds area. It sure sounded like they were having a good party there last night. We could hear the music in the distance last night and watched the fireworks from our pool area. I have to convince everyone to go to the rodeo with me today. Anyway, I ran back into town on the road then down main street to the beach and then found my way home. It was quite hot this morning and by the time I was done, I was a sweaty mess.
Late yesterday afternoon, Ann and I went for a walk up Calle Santa Domingo beyond our house. We walked for a couple miles down this rural, narrow gravel road and looked at vacant lots that we could develop if we ever win the lottery. On this walk I learned that sometimes monkeys do fall out of trees and get killed. I saw one dead on the road and then on the way back watched a vulture eating it. I thought that was an awesome thing to see and ignored my wife's scolding as I took photos of this "circle of life" moment. I wonder if this particular monkey was just the klutz of his troop and Darwinian theory rewarded his uncoordinated nature with this fall to the road below or was he perhaps a bold teenager, showing off to his friends and Mother Nature rewarded his bold naivety by using gravity to pull him from the gene pool.
Sweaty mess
Random photo of some honey at the store
All kinds of potential if I wasn't such a chicken
Monkeys do fall out of trees
And if you still have an appetite after the last photo, lets make supper
This morning the Samara Adventure Company ( with Alex as the guide again) picked us up and drove us beyond Carrillo and Estrada to a point along the Ora river. From there we kayaked downstream, observing the wildlife until we found ourselves at Playa Camaronal. Except for a few local men who were wading in the water and pole fishing, we were the only ones there and we had a good time swimming in the surf. We had a picnic on the beach and then paddled back up river for awhile.
One of the highlights of the trip was when we had to cross the river at one point with the truck. I was amused to see a local guy with a small car getting hung up as he tried to exit the river and got hung up on the edge of the river bank. The funny part was the expression on his face, as though it was really not a big deal and that it happens all the time.
Alex, our guide
We watched this iguana swim across the river
The whole family
Enjoying the sunset before having supper at the house
