May 24th

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Up with the birds again and enjoyed some free time even before the breakfast miraculously appeared. It’s going to be scorcher today!

The first photos hardly need explaining – banana trees, our deck with breakfast, flowers nearby, a lovely tree we dubbed the RAINBOW TREE, amazing bougainvilleas of all colors. The second set of mine include the natural fences that are everywhere. The soil must be so fertile – some take and grow into trees, some just stay dead sticks. We saw in the neighborhood a plot coffee plants.

We drove about 2 hours north to our place #2 – the “ecolodge.” We went up up up, like the Road to Hana but with hills and no ocean. Sometimes there was only 1 lane, even though this is “national road # 126.” We were surprised to see that this was also the road to La Fortuna – surely we won’t come this way with the family next week? Maybe. Can’t imagine it in a bigger vehicle – but David says we will.

We stopped at the La Paz Waterfall Gardens to check out the lunch choices for the family’s visit. It is an amazing place.

The local area is La Virgen, and there are plenty of shops and restaurants, though it’s very tiny by American standards. We had a delicious lunch at Marielo’s soda. Jean had vegetables, fajita meats, salad. David had garlic grilled tilapia plus the typical casada things: rice, beans, salad. Even a little pudding gratis. With drinks, and 2 packs of snacks – about $28.

The inside of the Eco lodge is spartan but huge, so we really enjoy having a dining room table to eat and do our blogs on for instance. There are 2 bedrooms: one with single beds; the other with queen, both draped in mosquito netting. The bathroom is downstairs. The veranda is the width of the house, and overlooks some interesting trees. Wendy is the hostess, and has a 19 month son Samuel. The entire family lives on the “compound.” The sister gives massages if needed, and brought us a fantastic dinner we had pre-ordered. Shrimp fried rice, tomatoes, a marvelous pasta salad with tuna and onions, and fried plantains. We now have leftovers for tomorrow.

After unpacking we went for a stroll down the road, along with our newly acquired dog friends. Then we drove into town, maybe 7 minutes, back across the Sarapiqui River (they do white water rafting further down, and we are going on a boat birding trip soon) to buy a few staples. And you can see that I actually got to sit down and relax!!! In the hammock on the veranda as David downloaded his photos.

We will label the bird photos for those of you interested. We can still hear howler monkeys in the distance, and today we saw masses of green parrots (noisy as well), and every so often a Montezuma’s oropendola flew over.

Soon to bed as we have a 6 am birding tour with Wendy, followed by a delivered breakfast.

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