Exploring the World as a Roving Retiree

 After breakfast Carolin and I were driven into town. I went to the clinic immediately to get the lab to test my fecal sample. The Sr. saidI would have to wait 25 minutes but it was about an hour.  The doctora said I had some parasite but a "quiste" which I think is an egg that you get from drink and food. She gave me another medicine. Four medications on a vacation is a lot to keep track of! Every 8 hours, every 12 hours, twice a day...isn't there an app for this? I walked around the town and then took a taxi to a dog shelter. I decided to give back by walking dogs for a couple of hours, despite the heat and humidity.  Unfortunately,  it was just someone's house and a young man said she wasn't home. So I had to ask the taxi driver to take me to the hotel. Taxis aren't cheap here (what is!) and he didn't have a meter so he charged me 13,000 (about $24)! I went into the pool (and scooped a frog out which was clinging to a vent) and had some avocado, papaya,...

Soon after I woke up quite early it started to rain heavily. Still, over the sound of the rain, I could hear the howler monkeys. It almost sounds like I am near a zoo with lions!  "Howler monkeys usually vocalize at dawn and dusk by passing air through a specially-adapted hyo id bone in their large throats. The result is a deep, grunt-like call that resonates for miles." After breakfast we went to La Fortuna. On the way we stopped at an amazing Ceiba tree.  Because I had another bout of diarrhea,  I went to the clinic first.  I got seen right away but the lab test will have to wait until tomorrow.  Then I had lunch at Organico. I had the best salad (tuna) so far in my time in Costa Rica.  I saw across the street a most peculiar sign: And an artsy cute hanging on the way to the bathroom at Organico ("ins't"?) I walked around the town which I liked, especially the park which was still decorated for their independence day, and I got gelato, flavors Nutella and...

 This morning my painting a hummingbird must have given me good karma because a lovely hummingbird greeted me near my room.  We went for a short drive so we could walk to the waterfall.  The steps down to the waterfall were intimidating but at least there weren't a lot of other people. Most of our group kept walking but the 3 of us older folks returned and had drinks. Werner and Anika talked about car racing interminably (in German). I look forward to having a decent conversation with someone, someday. I wandered to the few stores around there and bought a pair of "pura vida" socks with sloths on them, surely made in China. After lunch four of us went tubing on the Rio Celeste for $55. A 24 year old local man was our guide. I had visions of a peaceful experience I had in the Yucatan. It was level 2 rapids and we had to wear helmets. I found this picture and it was a bit like the couple of hours which I found uncomfortable and often terrifying.  Once in a while it was...

After this morning I might develop a case of ornithophobia! I was attacked by the family's parrot. I only said hello to him! Fortunately, the Portuguese man Nuno is an orthopedic surgeon and advised me to take an antibiotic and buy a surgical wash. The pharmacy said I couldn't get a prescription without a local doctor but the female deferred to the male and he let Nuno have it. The power of men! We had a great breakfast of pancakes, eggs, gallo pinto (rice & beans), and fried plantains with sour cream (made by Mennonites or did she mean Quakers?). We sat around until the van came to pick us up at 11:00. I liked the driver, Sandro. We went to the Melaku (indigenous people) community. They gave us lunch and then a lesson in herbal medicine. We chewed a bit of leaf that had an anesthetic effect. He claimed to have cured one person of Covid and that neither he nor hardly any Maleku people got Covid. photo by Werner Eberle photo by Werner Eberle Then we were supposed to paint so...

 This morning I scratched the two well fed dogs from Miss Junie's.  Then I walked into a quiet town, sat in the park and observed a heron in a boat! While I was waiting for breakfast the rest of the group joined me. I offered to correct mistakes in the English part of the menu and they soon put me to work ("batter spaghetti" puzzled me but, of course, they meant spaghetti with butter). We left at 8:30 and had a slow boat ride back to La Pavona to wait nearly an hour for the bus due to a road closure. Some of our group readvthis 10 minute guide to learning Spanish in CR: (photo by Werner Eberle) Daniel talked to a Spanish traveler (the one who told me to use the jungle as my bathroom when I was suffering from diarrhea)  It was a comfortable van but it took a long time to reach Centro Turistico Las Iguanas restaurant in Muelle. We did see iguanas next to the restaurant! And a sloth or two on the way there but they were high up in a tree. Sloth         ...

 Today we left at 6am for a boat ride through the national park. I cursed myself for forgetting my (new) binoculars but we did see quite a bit without them. Caiman (caiman crocodilus) Then at 10:00 after breakfast we went back to the park on foot. It was a long walk and this time I had my binoculars. Whip tail lizards were easy to see The bridal veil mushroom. This is what it looks like fully grown: We also saw spider monkeys and howler monkeys. What a scary noise they make! A turtle that had been eaten a long time ago, probably by a jaguar Many baby turtles that died, a very sad sight. We saw some live ones and a few in our group wanted to pick them up and take them to the sea but Daniel discouraged them. If they aren't strong enough they will just die in the ocean, he said. I don't think I will get to see a live, fully grown, green sea turtle on this trip! I again was sick with diarrhea and the tour guide thinks I should see a doctor. But we won't be near a clinic for a c...