Banana Flower

 

A banana flower in our hotel's (Cabinas Tropical) garden--you can see where the bunches of bananas will form. Rolf and Juana have been providing us with banana's and limes from their place outside of town. They had us over for dinner last Sat. and Mon.--Rolfe's b-day.
 

Oral Surgery II

Three years ago (see 2009 posts) I removed a tooth for Lenny. I visited the other day and he said, "Mahn I have other tooth to come out." "Now?" I asked. He said, "De sun too hot now, too much blood flow. It bettah to do at night." I returned yesterday since it was overcast. I asked if he wanted me to pull the tooth. He said "Yeah you do eet now." There were a few amused neighbors on his porch. He got the string, did the requisite loops and knots, and placed it around the tooth. He told me he was ready. I lunged, he grunted loudly. I looked down at the loop at the end of the string and saw it was empty. I thought it had slipped over the tooth without taking the tooth with it. Lenny was moaning while clenching his jaw. I asked if it had slipped. He said "No it come out!" He spat blood, then opened his mouth to show where the tooth had been. I saw a bloody gap in his gums. "Tahnk you mahn! I could not sleep last night 'cause de pain. I awake many hours." We spent ten minutes looking for the tooth on the ground with a neighbor woman before I spotted it. "I keep all dem!" he said proudly. "Dem charge 10,000 ($20)to pull tooth."
 

PV

 

This is the quietest I've seen pv. Not good for the locals, but very nice for us. We've had the hotel largely to ourselves. We took the morning bus to Manzanillo yesterday and were among the very few people in the park. We had our favorite cove to ourselves for the morning? Shar shot the above video there.

Un Cocodrillo en Playa Negra

We left home around 7pm Friday,got into the airport in Aluajela before noon Sat. Rolfe had business in San Jose, so he picked us up and drove us the four hours to Puerto Viejo. We went for our first swim at Playa Negra yesterday morning. After about ten minutes in the water a Tica woman called to us from the beach, "'Scoose me but there eese a crocodile in the next pool. She pointed beyond the wrecked barge landmark on the east end of the beach. We got out and walked to the other side of the wreck, anxious to check it out. I really didn't believe her. I thought, here's a Tico family from San Jose here for the weekend, and they saw a log or some exposed reef between waves. Her husband met us. He showed me the photo he had taken, I made out a black object on his camera screen. It could have been anything. I asked how big it was he pointed a length between us, "Tres metros?" I asked. He nodded. We looked for a few minutes and seeing nothing, went back to our swimming spot and back in the water. After another five minutes another woman called to us,"There is a crocodile over there." I decided to become a believer. I walked with the woman to the other side of the wreck again. On a the way I found out she was from Turkey and owned the Mango Bar which is just east of the beach. We kept talking after reaching the other side of the wreck.She suddenly stopped and pointed, "There!" I looked and less than fifty meters out was a huge crocodile cruising along the surface before disappearing below again. He was at least 3 meters! His head alone looked to be at least 18inches. I said, "My god, he's a beautiful animal!"

We decided to ride our bikes along the beach a few K east to Playa Cocles for our afternoon swim. We went looking for the croc this morning, but did not see him. Shar wants to check again this afternoon and see if she can get a photo.

Barbecue Pig

Friday we went out for the great pizza a couple Italian guys make here. One of them told us they were barbecuing a small pig the following day. Shar decided to have barbecued pig Saturday night with pizza blanco, while I had eggplant pizza. Today we saw another place barbecuing a pig on our way to swim at Playa Cocles. So Shar went back in the afternoon to photograph the finished product & a short movie before they finished it.


Also yesterday we went out to swim in town in the afternoon. We saw the same guy selling sea turtle eggs on the beach. He stopped at the Police Station before hitting the beach. The two policemen sitting out front each bought a bag.

"Everybody Eating Turtles"

We took the 7:15 a.m. bus down to Manzanillo yesterday. We sat down at the place in the photo where the two of us had gallo pinto, huevos fritos, jamon y cafe (black beans & rice, fried eggs, ham & coffee) for 3400 colones (about $6.60). We walked into the Gandoca Reserve to our favorite little cove & sat until it started to sprinkle lightlly. We caught the 12:45 p.m. bus back to P.V. Later we took a swim off the point in PV. There was a guy on the beach selling huevos tortuga (turtle eggs) 5 for 2000 colones (less than 4 bucks) out of a cooler. Late in the afternoon I went to Lenny's to play music on his porch. He told me, "Now it turtle season, everybody eating turtle." I told him about the guy with the eggs on the beach. I asked if catching turtles was legal. He said, "No mon, dey catch you, you go to jail mon!" He said it was the same for selling eggs. (The guy selling turtle eggs on the beach was about 100 ft. from the police station.) He said turtle meat was very good, "It make you strong! You eat it an' you jus' feel de' power come on you! You never eat turtle?" I told him no. He said, "It de' best thing to eat. Dis' marning dey' bring in two turtles." He pointed to the place next to his neighbor's, about 25 ft. from where we sat. "Dey kill de turtles right dare."

I spoke with Rolfe today about the turtle season. He scoffed, "They don't put people in jail for killing people here--I doubt if anyone goes to jail for killing turtles!"

2 pics

Shar shot this Green Poison Arrow Frog, Dendrobates auratus, the other morning. Rolf says a pair of them have taken up residence in the bromeliads at the base of the coconut palm standing a few feet from the base of the stairway to our room & balcony.



We took two Toyota pickups to Manzanillo with Rolf & Juana's & Juana's sister's families. After a couple of sunset Imperials on the beach, we went into Maxi's for an outstanding dinner of whole snapper & grilled veggies.