Here's Shar buying bags (made with cordage from the same plants used to make Panama hats)& maracacas from an indigenous fellow on the Kekoldi reserve yesterday. They raise Iguanas for eventual release there too. The shot is of Junior (who I'm gonna'play with again tonight at El Loco Natural) & his son--the youngest of his 24 children on the road into Puerto Viejo.

A shot of Punta Vargas in the distance at Cahuita National Prk which we walked through yesterday. Then there's a shot from snorkeling here in Puerto Viejo. We are expecting Jonathan (a boyhood friend of mine) & Carolyn to meet up with us here next week.

restaurant reviews

I'm working my way through restaurants, menu items and daily specials in an effort to give good recomendations to Arlee and Shawn while they are here. It's a tough job, but somebody has to do it. We Got some interesting fruit at the market, both we had already eaten from Puerto Rico. Mangosteens are from Asia and the other smaller perhaps distant relative is from the Amazon. Then also a couple snake fruit, which do look like they are covered with snakeskin and are from a palm. I did write Arlee and recommend she get trensitas, braids, while here. She has the perfect hair and wouldn't need the extentions. I donot have the hair for it!

You can click this for a larger view. These two frogs hang out in the bromeliads growing on one of the palms in the yard at our hotel. The one in the upper left is the female which we don't see often. The one to the lower right is the male which can be seen & heard daily. We only had that one day of rain except for the occasional shower here or there. We've been being lazy: reading, swimming, a little snorkeling, riding our bikes, or walking around. I may play music tomorrow night with Nango and the band (I found out how to spell his name) at the In & In Bar. I'm enjoying eating pejibaye, which are a traditional indigenous food. It's a fruit from a species of palm whcih needs to be boiled for 45 minutes. They are starchy, filling (I hear nutritious)& quite tasty. A guy boils ém up & sells ém on the side of the street here.

Rain

It's generally rained while we've slept every night we've been in P.V. This morning the rain did not let up. It's about 10:30 a.m. now & it's still pouring really hard. It is the rainy season after all, & fortunately Cabinas Tropical is a nice place to just relax at.

(Click these images for larger views.) During this morning's coffee we were visited by this green poison dart frog. It's at least four times the size of the strawberry poison dart frog who's picture is among last year's posts to this blog. (We still see & hear the strawberry dude daily, the green is not as common in the garden here, though we've seen them before.)
Then there's the night action shot of me playing with Junior at El Loco Natural with Ronnie on rythm box (a sort of single string bass) and Carter (hard to see) on congas. Today we road our bikes down to Grape Point (Punta Uva) where there happend to be some sort of triathlon thing going on among the Ticos. Cool.

Steve Lospalluto replied to mylast post about the hummingbird and I informed him: Yeah after I left the Internet place, I realized I should have mentioned the bird chilled out for a few minutes, chirped, and eventually flew away. He/she was hanging out again by the evening among the palms in the yard. I think it was a rufous tailed.

While drinking coffee in front of our room this morning I looked down and saw this individual laying on the tiles a meter away from me, shaking and apparently stunned. I figured he had flown into the wall or screened window. I called over to the young woman from Venezuela who was laying in the hammock in front of her room. She started snapping pictures. So Shar told me to get our camera. (I should have done it at a much higher resolution, but it gives you an idea. It's either a rufous tailed or steely something or other hummingbird (Rolf has lent us one of his two copies of the huge Birds of Costa Rica) We also checked out an immature common black hawk who has been making a lot of noise while hanging out around us, and a couple of palm tanagers. The usual visitors in the neighborhood, include Passerini's tanagers, black vultures, some unknown doves and many other unidentified species.

Th night before last I got to play with Junior, the old Calypsonian, again. Afterwards he invited Shar & I to visit him at his house up in Home Creek. We may take him up on that. I may go play with The Survivors tonight even though Lenny is no longer with them. I got the banjo back from him to give to Django. I hope things are okay with it all. I saw the rythm box player, Elario, on the street the other day, and asked about the situation with Lenny. He told me the story and said, "Im no speak we no more."