Pictures for last post

For some reason I was unable to post pictures for 2 days and a couple hours Internet time. Blogger.com showed that the files were being successfully uploaded, but they were not appearing along with my most recent post.

Yesterday we rented a motor scooter, went to the Bri-bri Indigenous Reserve, & Shar bought a bunch of carved casabas and such.

To Manzanillo

We caught the noon bus to Manzanillo on Mon. Got a place--$30/night with screens, fridge, fan & a even a 12" TV that will let you watch whatever channel they happen to be watching on the owner's TV.

On my first night, or should I say first morning, I got a reminder of what roosters are like in these little villages. Let me first say that I'm not a city guy--I've lived around chickens. Though I've never had them myself, my neighbors have. The difference is in these villages it seems everyone has chickens, along with the requisite rooster. Sometime after midnight Tuesday morning I was awoken by what seemed like a plane crash, but was actually a rooster crowing. I immediately thought, "Why is there a rooster making all this noise right next to my bed?" Waking a bit more I realized said rooster was not actually in the room. My next thought was: Why in hell is this goddamned rooster crowing into the window 2 ft. from my pillow? I lay there in the pitch black, the only sound between crowings being the gentle swoosh of the ceiling fan and the frog and wild bug/bird noise somewhere outside. Each crowing was answered by other roosters of various distances. I eventually realized he was not at the window, but merely in the yard outside. The whole bit about cocks crowing at dawn is bull. There was not a lumen of sun anywhere within 1000 miles. These guys seem to have a competition to see who can crow loudest and earliest. Hey even the Gospel writers couldn't get the bit right about how many times the cock was gonna' crow before Peter was gonna' deny Jesus . Ya' can't really blame them. Anyway I went for my 6 a.m. beach run which took me on to the Manzanillo-Gandoca Forest Reserve. There was a small strip of sand between the reef and jungle I could run barefoot on. (Shar had admonished me not to run in the jungle because of fer de lances.) I posted pictures. This may be the most idyllic running course I've ever had!) In the afternoon I saw the rooster that had woken me. He was the size of your average beagle. I told Shar that maybe she should go talk to him in that wonderful way she has of explaining the unfathomable, obtuse and esoteric that perhaps he does not have to get the last word in. If another rooster thinks it's dawn at about 1:05 a.m., maybe he doesn't always have to be right, he should just let it go.

I also posted a picture of a bird I shot the other morning at Rolf's. I don't have a bird book. There are some 800 bird species that live or migrate to Costa Rica, and I think I might be able to name about 6.

We caught Rolf's truck back to his place again--back in Puerto Viejo. Tomorrow we'll rent a motor scooter & go into the Bri-bri Indigenous Reserve so Shar can do some shopping for whatever they make.

Okay perhaps this is more of a comment/addendum to Shar's last post, so it would probably have more appropriately placed as a comment to her post under the comment link. However people have rarely commented to any of the posts, so I suspect comments would not be read or perhaps none of this is being read. In any case my typing and photo uploading does provide something of a contribution to the non-profit running this Internet access.

I hooked up with the guys I played with last year. They were playing at a bar in town. The guitar player has switched to 4-string banjo. Last year he was playing a guitar built for nylon strings, strung with steel strings with the result that the top of his instrument resembled a model of a small hill.
They play totally unplugged and unmiked. Besides the string player there is a conga player, a rythm box (a carribean version of a washtub bass--a strung stick resting on a large rectangular wooden box) player and they've now added a maraca player. It was my first night out with the guys since I can remember. I bought them each a beer. The rythm box player informed he was not drinking beer, he was drinking ron & could not mix the two. I told himn to order a rum. He got a substantially impressive glass of the stuff. Fortunately it only cost me 2000 colones.

The photo is of the old harbor that gives Puerto Viejo it's name.

rough life

It's been rough here in PV. It rained this morning so we only went to the beach to swim twice. We had lunch of several cheeses with sweet red pepper, tomato, red onion, avacado, tuna several fruits and bakery multi grain bread. This was at the cabina where we have a small frig. We returned the bikes and are faced again with deciding which of the half dozen truly excellent restaurants do we want to go to if we rule out the half dozen just acceptable ones.
Tomorrow we will dine at Maxi's no doubt, on real Caribean fare. This is the place right on the beach in Manzanillo where we will head on the bus tomorrow for a few nights. We are taking only one pack for this. That's as far ahead as we are planning. Steve has a tentative offer to join a local music group. He would need a day job, like diving for langosta like the other guitar player and singer. He is not sure how lucrative that would be.

More Puerto Viejo

This morning I went for my 6 a.m. run on Playa Negro followed by a quick swim. As I was getting out of the water, I realized I had not zipped the pocket that was holding the key to my bike lock. I walked over to Peter's, the Austrian guy we've rented from. He gave me a huge bag of keys, (he said there are about 80 that fit the locks) and a hack saw. After trying about 50 keys, one actually worked. Peter will charge me 1000 colones (less than $2) for the new key when I return the bikes.

We are exchanging a dollar for 512 colones. Last year I think it was about 490, but prices seem all the same. We may catch a bus down to Manzanillo (the end of the coastal road about 7 miles south) in a couple days to stay a night or 2. There is a nice snorkeling beach there, and a national reserve jungle of sorts extending pretty much to the border. We may also catch the bus to the border and head down to Bocas del Toro in Panama. I feel no pressure to go anywhere or do anything.

BTW--the photo is of Shar buying a small (travel-sized) pina (pineapple)at the Puerto Viejo Farmer's Market this a.m. We also got oranges, peppers, tomato, and some organic chocolate from a guy who made it.

Shar--back on a bike in Puerto Viejo!

We arrived in P.V. yesterday afternoon, got a place at Rolf's, and rented 2 bikes @ about $4/day each. Shar says she's not ready to take the 13K ride to Manzanillo, but she's getting around here just fine. Shar got to eat at El Loco Natural, our favorite restaurant, last night. We swam at Playa Negro today--there's a picture of Playa Negro with the town in the background.

We had some very sad news this afternoon: When we inquired about Toukie, our favorite bird (a rainbow-billed toucan who has resided at Rolf's our past 3 summer visits, we were told he died last Nov. It seems he choked on a bone he got out of the garbage. I'm sure the whole family must have been heartbroken because he was really quite a guy.

Shar snapped the close-up of the strawberry poison arrow frog a couple hours ago late this afternoon. I'd say it's actual size is about 3/4 of an inch long with it's legs stretched. Bye for now!

To Puerto Viejo de Tallamanca

We spent a night in San Jose. I was up before 5 to insure getting a couple a seats on the 10-o'clock bus to P.V. (I probably didn't need to do that.) It's a 4 hour ride with one bathroom stop, and another passenger stop in Cahuita before getting to P.V. It costs about $15 for the 2 of us on a comfortable bus--more comfortable than the planes anyway. Yesterday before leaving San Juan, P.R. I reserved a place via email at Rolf's, the German botanist who runs Cabinas Tropical, where we've become regulars over the past 3 years.

Shar's on a different computer upstairs in this hotel. She's said the same stuff I bet! Later...