Fun with birds. . .

Unfortunately, no picture with this, so you'll have to use your imagination a bit.

Yesterday at breakfast, we were in the rancho with the guests, when suddenly, a racket kicked up high up in the skies.

Patricia and Seidy came out of the kitchen really quick and started yelling "Lappas, lappas!"

It took a few seconds for the editorial department to process lappas into English, and by that time, I had missed the opportunity.

They were Scarlet Macaws, two red ones and one blue one. They are rare in this area and we don't see them very often. Beautiful, big birds with brightly colored plumage.

They sound like geese being waterboarded, though, a very disturbing noise.

Miguel and Keneth were able to see them flying over as they were down on the driveway working at the time.

Sometimes you don't need to. . .

be the one that drops the egg on someone's head. As the three followers know, breaking an egg(s) over someone's head is a birthday tradition in Costa Rica (along with other occasions).

The other day, Miguel asked for a letter as he was applying for a loan, and needed employment verification. Keneth, who works with Miguel, was being nosy and asked Miguel why he needed the letter.

Miguel told Keneth that it was a reference and that he was leaving here to go work at a large hotel in Fortuna. Keneth was disappointed and asked everyone, everyone, if this was true. This went on for two days.

Finally, in the morning, I confirmed to Keneth that, sadly, it was true, that Miguel was leaving, and the next day was to be Miguel's last.

I told Keneth that since Miguel will expecting an egging the next day, we would have to get him today. Keneth gladly accepted the egg and about 20 minutes later came running up with a wide grin on his face. Miguel wasn't entirely thrilled and was wondering what had just happened.

Keneth told him: "Felize viaje!" which is happy journey.

A good suggestion is just as good, or better, than doing it yourself, it appears.

Lounging about. . .

This is what the monkeys typically do when it's hot. Not much action, just waiting for it to cool down so they can go jumping around and swinging about. Not a bad gig if you can get it.

Hanging about. . .

This fuzzy little dude looks like something out of "Land of the Lost" swinging about.

This is about as active as the sloths get and it may look like it's moving fast (thanks to the blurriness of the picture courtesy of the editorial department) but it's not moving hardly at all. It was just stretching out its hands and would occasionally scratch itself.

The little one

You can see the youngster just below an adult (apologies for the pic, the editorial department was doing the snapping).

When it gets warmer, the monkeys like to lay low and sprawl on a branch. They are more active in the mornings and late afternoons.

The little one hasn't quite figured this out yet. On another occasion, when Lucy was watching them in a different part of the hotel, the little one was hopping around and bouncing off the resting adults.

The little one pushed it just a bit too far and bounced on an adult, who rolled over and backhanded the little fellow away. The little one wasn't hurt, it caught a branch, swung away and kept hopping around (out of the reach of the adults).

Snowtime V

Back to the snow! OK, this is the last one. . .

Once Mini-B got her footing, there was no stopping her from bounding through the snow.

She did extremely well on the flights from Costa Rica up to Madison and back. We did get a tranquilizer from the vet and only gave her half of what he recommended.

She was able to fly in the cabin with us and was part of the carry-on baggage, tucked under the seat in front of us.

Compared to here, she was extremely mellow and didn't wriggle or struggle to get out of her soft carrier at all. She did great and we'll probably take her on another trip in the future.

When we got back to Costa Rica, the first thing she did (after going up to let Bejuca sniff her) and wander around a bit, was to stretch out on the rocks in the driveway and soak up the sun and the warm temperatures. She may have enjoyed playing in the snow, but she is a Costa Rican pooch and enjoys the tropical weather.

This is a rain forest. . .

After barely a drop of rain since our return on January 1, it started raining here on March 1 or so and lasted for four days or so. Not a typical rain, but a constant drizzle, with plenty of cloud cover (like Western Washington).

We needed some moisture, as things were starting to get pretty dry and this was the perfect type of rain, not the hard, driving sort that happens a lot of the time. The gentle drizzle allowed a lot of plants to soak up the moisture and the rain went into the soil, rather than cascading over it.

This brought out some flowers (quite a lot of orchids have opened up), we've spotted more sloths around (when it is dry, they head deeper into the jungle where it's cooler and there's more moisture) and some of the bushes and trees that were wilting a bit have sprung back to life.

It has also brought out the questions from guests:

"When will it stop?"

"It's not supposed to rain in March, why is it raining?"

"It's raining, what can we do?"

The answers: We don't know, we don't know and you can do anything in the rain. It's still in the 80s (or maybe mid 70s) when it's raining, it's not a cold rain.

Understandably, some folks are upset when they come to Costa Rica expecting sun and they get wet. A friend of ours, who owns a hotel, said she had some guests ask for a refund because it was raining so much.