I have to wash the sand out of my Brylcreem!¨

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Ah don have tiiiime to be lookin fer ma moooonkay!

We spent just over two weeks at the Rainsong Wildlife Reserve, run by the Large Texan Mary (again, exactly Kathy Bates in Waterboy) , where I got to wash some crates, move some cacti, and some rocks, and some dirt, and some lumber, and wash some more crates. D cleaned some cages and moved even more things, and cut things with a machete (cries of ¨whar´s Daaaareek an his macheteee?¨could be heard echoing through the hills). D had a slight crush on the machete, even bringing it on a hike with us. I snuck off to play with the animals as often as possible. The anteater had to be my favourite. If you put her down, she would stand on her hind legs and open her arms as if she wanted a hug, and if you didn´t pick her up she´d lean as far toward you as she could and then fall over. If you flipped her onto her back she´d roll into a ball around your hand and close her eyes as if she was totally relaxed. She´d get bitten by the ants and run away from them. Tarzan tried to take the hair elastics out of my hair as if he was grooming me, and he threw my hat into his pond and peed on me (Mary, overheard on the phone: ¨Is there anythin aaah kin do about ma monkay peein on people?¨). Tarzan ran away, and Mary did not have time to look for him (obviously there is more important business at a wildlife reserve than the animals), but after two hours of traumatizing a small boy who was looking for him, Tarzan was returned safe and sound to his cage (after having bitten the small boy). I got bitten surprisingly badly by a turtle - who knew a small turtle could have such a powerful jaw? The reserve got a new baby porcupine, not much bigger and even more fluffy than a teddy bear hampster, the mother had had twins and abandonded one of them (which is pretty common). The reserve´s crazy neighbour was shooting at iguanas and some of the bullets strayed over rainsong property so the police were involved. (Did I mention that everyone has a gun here? Even McDonalds in Guatemala had a security guard with a shotgun, alone with every bank, shopping centre, and fast food joint). Anyways...enough about the shotguns!

Surfing makes me angry

We stayed in a three story ¨Tipi¨(Teepee) in a nearby town with our volunteer friends, from Germany, England, the US and Canada, respectively. We all tried surfing, and I couldn´t even stand on the board, even though I tried for a few hours. I don´t see how anyone finds surfing relaxing. D did pretty good, but cut himself pretty good on the fin, and gave himself a rash on the stomach from sliding on the board. I later tried boogie boarding, but it was pretty boring. I don´t think I am one for the watersports. We went to a reggae party at a bar on the beach, which had pretty much the population of the whole town at it, including one drunken canadian who passed out on the sand and whom we put crabs on for amusement.

A Natural Theme Park

We find ourselves now high in the hills of the Monteverde (Spanish for ¨green mountain)¨Cloud Forest, a cool and misty place where we are in the middle of a sudden downpour. On the bus ride up (and up and up and up!), we saw only forests, fields, and cows, and the rare house, and D was like ¨where are you taking me?¨ I was a little worried myself, with so few signs of civilization, especially after having assured D that there would be a bank machine. However, it so happened that there emerged suddenly from the wilderness a town full of bars, ATMs, tour agencies, and souvenier shops. Which in retrospect wasn´t unlikely, considering that Monteverde is one of the most popular stops on the tourist trail. Its popularity stems from the fact that it is one of the most biodiverse areas in central america. The Children´s Rainforest is nearby, an organization from whom I remember ¨buying¨and acre of rainforest with a donation when I was younger. Also nearby is York University´s ¨Las Nubes¨sustainable coffee plantation and research station.

Do you Rappel?

D and I went on a zipline tour today, which (for those who don´t know) consisted off jumping of platforms and sliding down cables to which we were harnessed. There were 14 cables, up to 2250 feet long and 450 feet high, and all had amazing views. You would think it would be scary, but it wasn´t really. The scary part was the ¨Tarzan Swing¨, which involved jumping off (or getting pushed off, as in my reluctant case), a platform about 10 metres off the ground, dropping straight down until the rope tightens, then swinging out over the forest. It was actually pretty fun once you were no longer standing on the platform looking down. Also we rappelled straight down 90 ft. Don´t worry, we have lots of pictures. While we have been here, we have also gone on a hike over suspension bridges strung out over the forest, visited a butterfly garden (which had lots of butterflies, in direct contrast to the last one we went to), including large Owl butterflies, which have what look like owl eyes on their wings and the very cool morpho butterfly, which changes different shades of blue and turquoise due to irridescence but is actually brown.

Snakes at Night

There was also the hummingbird garden, where the little speed demons whizzed about flashing different colours and drinking their sugar water. And two herpetariums (one which we went to twice to observe both diurnal and nocturnal behaviour - snakes are D´s favourite), where we saw lots of snakes (who knew?), including abouty 10 species of very poisonous vipers, coral snakes, the ¨bushmaster¨who wins for coolest name, giant pythons (D was very interested in the feeding process which he unfortunately did not get to witness), and a number of other non-poisonous but rather helpful snakes (one which ate the poisonous vipers, one which ate rats, and a number which ate bugs and other pests). Also there were some tiny frogs, including the poisonous dart frog, the ¨blue jean frog¨(so named because he looked like he was wearing a pair of blue jeans), and the ones with the orange squishy feet that you see on every costa rican souvenier and whose name I forget. Also a few turtles and some lizards, which are quite bizarre looking creatures generally. I´ll leave their description for the pictures. Unfortunately I cannot talk D into either the ¨Cheese Tour¨or the ¨Coffee Tour¨. Who wouldn´t want to see how cheese is made? Or get a ¨Unique souvenier - coffee roasted by yourself!¨? Of course, it could be considered an unnecessary expenditure of funds from which I was easily talked out of.

¨I have to wash the sand out of my Brylcreem!¨

Tomorrow we are going to San Jose, and from there probably over to the Carribean side of Costa Rica for Garifuna culture and a rasta vibe (where, to D´s satisfaction, women are expected to ¨pay their gentleman´s way around town¨). We will soak up as much sun as possible to bring back to Canada when we leave on the 12th. Not long now. This may in fact be my last blog. I will return to Alberta where I will go to Fort McMurray to experience the theraputic properties of bitumen. Thank you all for coming along on this adventure. If there is anything to be taken away from all of this, it is this jewel of wisdom recieved (in robust Texan accent) by one of our fellow travellers: ¨you dummy! you shoulda gottena trawler off the coast of Florida!¨

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