It doesn't get any cuter

Diego and Dora have their afternoon siesta. He does this so she stops bothering him.

Guess who came to lunch?

 These toucans came to eat the platanos that were in a tree near the house.

As I was watching another bird about the same size came to eat along with them. They all rallied and sat on the bananas so he couldn't get any!

 When the rain came the tree fell so we lost our friends.

I just love the view from the balcony!

The portulaca is filling in the driveway nicely. Mario has fallen in love with this plant and looks for it in every nursery in town. I think we have bought the country's supply!

But they are really pretty close up and they will be spectacular once they fill in all the space. He has been adding abono organico (compost) to them and they are really thriving.

I thought I lost the lantana near the bird bath, but it came back after he fertilized it. We have a lot of butterflies that visit this spot. They also seem to love the dog crap in the yard (yuck).

The aftermath - there is a sun!

Annie was right - the sun did come out tomorrow! So far I am REALLY impressed with Costa Rica! There was a lot of damage in our area, there were three washouts from our house to the city. We waited until about 11 to check it out on Saturday. They already had filled in the holes and were moving the debris from the landslides off of the roads. I think it will be a while before we are paved, but we can pass through to town. At one point we had to take a detour and drove through a really scenic neighborhood (with lots of lots for sale - definitely taking this route with pen in hand for the numbers). The detour took us over muddy unpaved roads. There was a steep slick incline that the people without 4 wheel drive were having problems getting up, but the road crews were on it! They had a few dump trucks full of rocky dirt and a roller. We had to wait around a half hour as they dumped the material into the road and rolled it flat, then we all made it up the hill and back out onto the pista.

Costa Rica also stepped to the plate to help those people who had lost everything. Banco Nacional sponsered a food drive and has a link to donate on their website. Banco Costa Rica has a donation line and internet site to donate money.  It is a shame because there really is no house insurance here so these people have lost EVERYTHING, including family members in some cases.

On a lighter note, daylight savings started or ended (I never get it straight) in the states so I am going to enjoy getting up a little later for work.

The plants have benefitted from all the rain and look great! I thought that maybe the fruit hadn't ripened on the trees in the farm this week so I ran out to get bananas. I am still trying to have birds come. I put half of them out the day before yesterday and saw no birds, but when I got up in the morning the bananas were gone! Even the peels. I thought maybe we had early birds. So I put out the second half of the bananas yesterday. Last night we were on the balcony with Mario's brother and his family when I heard the strangest sound. It sounded like the buzz electricity makes. It was pitch black but I could tell the sound was coming from the bird feeder. Mario grabbed a flashlight and the mystery was solved. BATS! I HATE BATS! but there they were all in my feeder eating the bananas. So now I think I will be retiring the feeder. Yeah Yeah I know God's creatures and all that, but did I mention that I am terrified of bats? of all the banana eating animals I could have attracted....

Oh on the pest note, the other night I went downstairs and found the doors still open. We usually close them at dusk, but I guess we both thought the other had done it. The dogs went outside and when they came in I shut and locked the door. Diego made a beeline to the sink and started chasing something along the wall. I screamed for Mario just as a mouse came running right for me! OK so I am also petrified of mice. Who knows why, it's not like the would kill me, but at this point I am not thinking, I am screaming at the top of my lungs and dancing all over the kitchen trying to get past the 2 dogs and the mouse and onto higher ground. Mario came running because he thought it was a snake in the house. When he heard it was a mouse he calmly opened the door and out it ran.

I am starting to identify with Eva Gabor.

Still raining perros y gatos!

Here are some pictures of the area courtesy of Perezzeledon.net:  Floods and landslides.

Rain Rain Go Away

We made the stupid mistake of going to the feria today. It has been raining here non-stop for days. Tropical storm Thomas. The roads were terrible! I never saw conditions like this. They put cement tubes under the road for runoff and I guess the water washes the dirt out around them so the road collapses. You see the cracks and the sunken part and hope that there is actually something solidish under the blacktop as you pass over. Mario so thoughfully pointed out pieces of the road that were caved in like that and said the rest would wash away shortly. SHORTLY?!! Like how shortly? While we are passing over it? He always thinks I am so funny when I am panic stricken. On the way down into town the police had all tractor trailers stopped at Trapiche. We asked if they were closing the road and the officer said not to light cars like our SUV. hmmmm sounded perfectly safe to me. We continued on because it wasn't raining and I foolishly thought it was over. While we were at the feria it started to downpour again. Here in Costa Rica a downpour is like someone tipped a bucket over and is pouring it all over the land. It's hard to distinguish that there are actual raindrops. I was so scared the road would washout to the house. We drove slowly and arrived safely. We passed a downed pole and a lot of the area was without power. Luckily we are not. Hoping that the side of the mountain holds through this bout. They say we are going to get 18 more hours. They have already declared a state of emergency for the country and a lot of people have been killed. Hope this is not a normal winter here.

Trying to stay warm and dry til next time ...