Good morning. Woke up early to our first real rain. The clouds are low and thick on the south side of Lago Arenal, but I can see some blue sky peeking through overhead. Hard to tell what sort of a day it will turn out to be.
We arrived on the north shore of Lago Arenal on the 22nd. It is absolutely lovely here. It is much cooler and more humid here than at the Nicoya beaches. Admittedly, it is a welcomed change. We have landed in a bird haven. As I type, the Oropedulas are calling to each other with a call that my niece, Eloise, describes as sounding like R2D2. They are fairly large with mostly black feathers, an organ beak and a bright yellow tail. They tip forward while they make their funny sound like a pendulum. They are also the most amazing next builders. They make these large hanging baskets. Matt and I first saw these birds in Tikal in Guatemala in 2007. Nice to encounter them again.
The owner of the inn where we are staying, Suzy, just plopped down doe ripe fruit on a perch in on the deck where I am sitting. 5 of 6 different kinds of birds descended. One was type was a Chocolaca (not sure of spelling). They are referred to as Tree Chickens here - not sure if it's because they look somewhat chicken-like or used to eat them. They are fairly large, tawny birds with a sizable beak.
There is now a black bird here so black and sleek it looks like black velvet with the most vibrant red under wings. It looks like it dipped it's black beak in white paint. 2 woodpeckers now have joined the party.
As I sit here, I can hear the howler monkeys somewhere nearby and the motos of people on their way to work. We are just a kilometer from the small town of Nuevo Arenal. Not much more than one main street and a few surrounding restaurants. However, some say they are the best restaurants in Costa Rica! We went into town last night to hear some live music. It was quite a scene. Mostly an older, gringo, expat scene with 3 gringos playing covers of old rock songs. The music was incredibly load in a small open-air bar. Lucas was a bit over-whelmed and mesmerized. It was fun and interesting to experience...a way of getting a picture of what life is like here - gringo and Tico.
We had such wonderful interactions with Ticos when we were at the beach. This is currently Costa Rica's summer vacation, so there were so many Tico families at the beach. It was great for our Spanish and made for fun interactions. I am sad to leave that behind. Shopping in town is a great way to get more of that. Matt was in Nuevo Arenal yesterday getting groceries and had a great fun as he found his way around the grocery store with a helper entirely in Spanish. Lots more of that to come as we will be cooking for ourselves the rest of the trip until we land in Panama for our last week.
We are staying now at Villa Decary, a beautiful inn. We have our own small cabin. Lucas and I made banana muffins yesterday. Fun to figure out how to do it with the ingredients we have available to us. We are settling in here, finding our groove. I think ultimately I wish we weren't moving around as much as we are. It would be nice to settle in a place longer to meet people and get to know an area better. At the same time, seeing the diversity of landscapes and weather and flora and fauna is wonderful, too. We passed through some gorgeous farm land on our way from the beach to here. As we crested the hills above the lake, we found ourselves at the base of some huge wind turbines that produce 20% of the electricity for San Jose. It was awesome and the wind was blowing! Our friend, Jim, told us that Lago Arenal is a sort of Mecca for windsurfer as the wind on the lake can blow up to 60 MPH.
We got a little taste of the wind on the lake yesterday as we went out for a 2-hour kayak. We paddled into the wind for a bit but most of the trip was with it at our backs...luckily. It was pretty rough going. We were in search of a 6-foot long, orange and brown iguana! We didn't see it sadly. Still fun to know that it exists!
It's hard to believe we've ended our first week here already. It's going fast...as I knew it would. Oh, a toucan just landed in a tree in front of me. It is feasting on some sort of a big berry. It has to cock it's head to the side to see the fruit around it's big beak. It picks a berry of the stem, holds it at the tip of its beak then opens the beak and throws his head back a bit to "toss" the berry in. It's so playful and casual like we might do with a peanut or popcorn. "Tricks are for kids!"
Lucas seems content. He is eating more these days which is good for all of us. He has gotten a bit boney up top...hard to imagine, I know! Seeing his ribs and spring stick out makes me long for his more juicier days. Not quite ready for that to go away. He jumps right in with Spanish when he can and is totally into exploring each new area. Yesterday we climbed up the hill behind our little cabin to explore the barded-wire fence that he was pretending to be power lines. He wanted to follow it the whole way....totally willing to bushwhack through the lush rain forest. I love it! We are also reading books, doing puzzles, and painting naked on the deck of the cabin!
I promise that pictures are coming soon.
xoxo
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