More monkey business to get crabby about

Tim

Today the girls went back to the animal sanctuary to see the monkeys again so I took my longest walk yet on the beach. After half an hour I came to the conclusion that I was too far away and that without water I should turn around and return. It was only 9 am but already it was blazing hot.

I did see some nice houses, there is only 1 north american style with windows, the rest are Costa Rican style mostly with palm but some with metal roofs.. Every so often you would see one with a palm roof with a sheet of metal. I am not sure if this indicates a leak.

Our house does not have windows but does have screens which most of the other houses do not. We also have wooden shutters that I think are closed up in the rainy season. Nobody has a basement under ground all the houses are built on cement pads.

I waited for the girls to arrive and then Rosie and I watched the first half of the movie Sylvain had lent us. I think it is called Inside man, it is a good story of a bank robbery.

For dinner we walked down to my favourite restaurant -- Soda Katherine where we each had a plate of chicken, mine with beans and rice and the girls with chicken and fries. With a soft drink each the cost was around 5,000 colonnes which is around $10.

Message to Grandma - can Rosie and I put in an order for banana cake next week when we return home please? (Tim)


Rosie
Bonjour , aujourd’hui moi et ma mère sommes retournées au sanctuaire d’animaux . J’ai vu Lulu et Sweet Pea et même Ginger. Lulu est venue dans mes bras encore une fois . Nous avons fait le tour et ensuite nous avons acheté un t-shirt. Ensuite nous sommes allées faire de la plongée et nous avons vu des dauphins de loin. Ensuite nous sommes allées à une autre place. À l’autre place nous avons vu un thon et des poissons arc- en - ciel. Ensuite Macho, le conducteur de notre bateau, à acheté un petit chiot pour un cadeau pour sa femme. Quand nous étions dans l’auto en revenant, il a dit que je pouvais tenir le chien jusqu’à temps qu’il arrête chez lui pour lui donner son cadeau . Elle étais très contente. Ensuite quand nous sommes revenues, nous avons mangé des bonnes sandmwichs club. Ensuite nous sommes allés à Soda Katherine pour souper, c’étais bon. Ensuite nous sommes revenus et nous avons relaxé .

Adios




Francine .
When Macho, our driver stopped by this morning to pick us up for the snorkeling and animal sanctuary visit, we were so pleased…after all, we had waited three days for this tour. Macho in Costa Rica is a nickname for someone is blond. Not at all what we understand « Macho » to be in Canada, though the term is hardly used anymore. So on the boat ride up, we were with three other young couples, in the early twenties. The sea was calm at 8:30 a.m. Upon arrival, Earl greeted us again with the little baby monkey Ginger, wearing a diaper and a parakeet which thinks Earl is her husband. There were other people there, from California who own some property on the Osa Peninsula. I swear one of the women is an actress, played secondary roles in either a tv show or cheap teenager movie of some sort.

Sweet Pea and Lulu were up and about and very active. As I crouched down, Sweet Pea immediately jumped in my arms, to my surprise. Then Lulu climbed up Rosie’s legs to park herself in her arms for awhile. Then Lulu came in my arms and played with my face with her funny little fingers. She even kissed me on the cheek. I carried her around for a long time it seems. Too cute.
So while the others were listening to the tour (which we already were familiar with), we played with the monkeys -- literally. Silly girls they are, hanging upside down, swinging from the vines and trying to steal my camera which I caught on video. After the tour, Earl told us they were launching the sanctuary’s first issue of an electronic newsletter in a couple of weeks and soon then they will have a web site. They accepted my free offer of digital photos to use as they wish to promote the sanctuary.

After the sanctuary, we went snorkeling at two separate locations. The first was absolutely fantastic and the water clearer than ever. I saw an eel which promptly hid under a rock when it saw me. Professional courtesy, I guess. I also saw three rainbow fish -- which are spectacular with their three-dimensional reflective colours. Lots of fish with yellow and black stripes, some purplish cobalt colored fish, clown fish like Nemo and other small ones too. The reef was just covered with fish feeding on it. When you snorkel in the salt water, you don’t need to do much because you float effortlessly….

Then Macho yelled out there was some dolphins nearby and sure enough, a couple of dolphins were jumping out of the water about 500 feet from us. I found some neat shells on the ocean floor. I must say my heart was beating a little faster because of the depth I had to dive to grab the shells. Ka-thump...ka-thump...ka-thump....

It was a beautiful day, lots of sun, fish, birds and of course, monkey!

We came back home, ate some club sandwiches with great Costa Rican bacon (hardly any fat in the pan when you cook it and tastier than in Canada). Willy the vegetable and fruit guy came and we bought bananas, strawberries, cilantro and one onion. We can’t stock up too much with food as we have less than a week here.

Tonite, as Tim and Rosie pointed out…Soda Katherine. Where can you feed three people, plus beverages for $10? At Soda Katherine of course. The food is fresh and always tasty. "Now back to our feature presentation..."

On our walk back, we stumbled upon three big crabs crossing the road. We met up with two of the couples on the boat today and a carload of Canadians from Toronto who stopped to take pix of the crab as well.

The crab was frozen in place with all the flashes -- like a deer in headlights. He must have thought we were some weird Canadian paparazzi.

Goodnite -- tomorrow, we go to Susan’s to cash our travellers’ cheques since this is a cash-based society and there is no credit or debit cards -- only US or Costa Rican cold cash.

Tata