Monkeys!

Mario's kids are visiting us from Canada so we went to Manuel Antonio to see the wildlife and spend some time on the beach. Manuel Antonio is a national park. It is well worth the trip and the price of a guide. It is not a zoo so each time you go you see different animals. The guides carry telescopes and set them up so you can see the animals clearly. They are very knowledgeable. We saw many different species of bats on this trip.

 Not being one of my favorite animals, there are no pictures :).

You don't need a telescope to see the monkeys. They run along the beach stealing food and fun things from the tourists. The parks discourages contact with them, but they don't seem to care.

You need to secure everything if you hang out on the beach. We saw them steal a cracker from a toddlers hand!Still they are really cool to watch. I never get tired of seeing them. The kid's got a kick out of them too.

You usually can catch sight of a sloth or two as well. This baby was hanging out in a tree very close to the trail. I missed the shot where he looked right at us, but the smiling face is unforgettable. 

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday. HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

San Ramon del Alejuela and back

This past weekend was the busiest we have had in a  while! We went to San Ramon del Alejuela to the 50th birthday party for Mario's brother-in-law. They have a furniture factory (all handmade), that's where we got the balcony furniture. They cleared out the main gallery and had the party there. Everyone had a wonderful time! We stayed in town because their house was packed with relatives. We wound up at La Posada Hotel in the center of town. It was beautiful! We stayed in the end room on the second floor (#27). There is a sitting area in front of the room with comfy rockers that looks out on the road in front. The woodwork in the hotel is unbelievable. The beds are all carved as are the doors. It was fairly cheap too, we paid $52 for the room with no breakfast.

On the way home we stopped at El Quetzel Mountain Lodge for a bite to eat. They have a lake where you can fish for your lunch, but we didn't. The most incredible thing (aside from the delicious casado we ate) was the hummingbirds! They have a deck where you can watch them come to eat. The guy from the restaurant, also a bird-watching guide, came out and told us all about them. He put his hand out by the feeder and they landed on his finger to eat! You know we bought a hummingbird feeder when we got home!

Aren't these guys spectacular?! We are getting better at taking photos. Although we wound up with lots of finger shots sans hummer. These guys are QUICK!

On the homefront - Dora got her first haircut! She looks even more like a monkey now!!

We also witnessed a caterpillar turning into a butterfly - way cool!! I tried to get photos but I was working so this was the best I could do. I went in to do some work and when I came out there was a floppy winged butterfly. I came out later and startled it and off it flew.

I got my first bird at the feeder! Mario put out pineapple. I thought he was nuts but this beautiful baltimore oriole came to munch. It's a regular visitor now!

Christmas Prep!

I am having the hardest time getting into the Christmas Spirit when it is so hot out. Usually I am freezing my ass off putting up lights and decorations and this year I had to worry about sunburn!

We decided to put the tree on the balcony, it seems that a lot of people here put the tree outside. At first it seemed too wierd for me, but we use the balcony like a living room so now I am OK with it. In fact we almost NEVER use the living room except to watch TV, so we will see the tree more on the balcony. It was fun to decorate it outside with the birds and the butterflies flying by, but so strange to see my flowers blooming next to it. I have always lived in the NJ/PA area so I am used to it being really cold for Christmas.

The lights looked spectacular at night and we can see the tree from our bed. The downside is that every bug in the valley can too so we had a living display of moths and such fluttering around the lights. Mario let me know that we will have to peel them off of the ornaments when we put the tree away. Nice - not! He also reminded me how happy the spiders will be to have the tree as a home. I really wish he would have mentioned all this sooner lol, the tree may have gone in the living room after all.

The stores are now staying open on Sundays woo hooo another shopping day! There are all these little shed like things for sale in the nurseries. Mario told me that they are for nativity scenes. Apparently that is the decoration of choice here. There are tons of lights too. It is really cool how everyone decorates for Christmas. We drove around visiting family this weekend, and the poorest of neighborhoods still had decorations and lights. I was worried that I would miss the glitz of the US, but nope! They do it big here too!

It's just wierd seeing snowmen decorating the houses and grass. I am thinking most people have never seen one in person. So the tree and most of the decorations are up - let the season begin!