As one door closes sometimes a window is opened

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A sad day for Jalova as Ian, my mentor and all round brilliant person has to leave Costa Rica and return to Scotland. It's definitely going to be (and in fact has been because I am writing this after the event) a very different place at Jalova without him. I learnt a lot from him in quite a short space of time and I will miss his leadership in the weeks to come. In fact listening to Old Crow Medicine Show as I type this which was the song Ian would play on a Friday night when the food order was away and everyone was sat down ready to take their first sup of beer. Ahhh the memories made when on an adventure are the ones that stay forever.

With sad hearts we said goodbye to Ian and then concentrated on our special day off in Tortuguero village – this to allow us to attend shorebird training at 3pm in the Rangers station. So, you may be asking yourselves what is shorebird training....or you may be thinking seems self-explanatory. Anyhow, here's the low down. Every year, at least a couple of times a year (March and September) the environmental government organisation in Costa Rica arranges a survey whereby on one given day in the respective months across 12 estuaries spanning from the north to south of the Caribbean coast in Costa Rica, volunteers, bird enthusiasts and the like take their binos, bird books and piece of paper to the relevant estuary/river mouth and count all the shorebirds observed (and what they are doing). The survey is about 2 hours long and in the morning (early spotter catches the bird as they say....well we say in Jalova). The training therefore was to help us know what birds to look for and how to differentiate a semipalmated from a Wilson's Plover etc. As ever some of the birds like to be tricksy and look like each other but we were given some good pointers. The field guide book also has some useful notes to. Shorebird trained there was enough time to grab a drink and then grab the boat back to Jalova (sans Ian) 😞

The big clean (take 2). So, like last month, at the end of the month before new volunteers join the ranks the Base is given its monthly spring clean. Lots and lots of pots and pans and cutlery later big clean complete we rested up for the long weekend ahead of us.

Long weekend – having decided I preferred the town feel of Turrialba compared to the city madness of San Jose I went back to Turrialba for the weekend escape from the jungle. In the month since we were last there they had not been a deluge of rain, so the once upon a time impressive waterfall remained a trickle. Feeling adventurous I booked a short horse ride in its place. My horse (more the size of a pony.....but not a Shetland) was a mare called Tender. Having said our hellos in the usual horsey neigh way we set off up a hill into the sugar and coffee plantations. Tender (not like her name) was (despite the strict rules) trying to overtake the lead horse and despite my protestations was not taking no for an answer. In Spanglish (on my part) and some good English on the part of the guide I discover that Tender, who is usually a dote was feeling a bit agitated having been ridden the day before by someone who thought they were the milky bar kid on a mission to get milky bars! Okay, so my Spanish guide Jorge did not describe it akin to the milky bar kid but I am sure that is what he meant. Anyhow, tempestuousness over, Tender calmed down (as did my heart rate) and we had a lovely easy walk for a couple of hours in the hills overlooking the valley along from Turrialba. Horse riding over, I treated myself to a large tub of ice cream and a siesta....remember this folks, travelling is hard so you have to take advantage of any restful moments, and basically rest. I am pretty good at that – so much so I've learnt the Spanish for it “Mi gusta dormir todo el dia”.

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Comments

[angela whitney]

Impressive!
Howdy neigh...bour! Lovely to hear from you - it's been a while since the last blog! Very impressive use of Spanish and very impressed with your decision to horse ride, go Whale!! xxx