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| 3-toed Sloth that fell from tree |
Where did the time go – wow ‘uno semana’ (1 week) gone. It’s been great! I’ve met some very interesting and smart people from everywhere. The class is predominantly Swiss and German, but there are Dutch, Italians, Americans and Canadians.
Class runs 8-12, then lunch at a local place (the ceviche is awesome!). The typical meal is casada and is rice and beans, salad and either fish or meat. After lunch it’s off to the ‘playa’ (beach) for a cigar and cerveza. It’s tough duty! :-)
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| La Avion restaurant - C-123 aircraft |
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| Bar inside C-123 :-) |
For those of you that remember the Iran-Contral scandal in the mid 80s, I ate a restaurant which was made around one of the aircraft used to run supplies in Nicaragua - based out of San Jose Costa Rica (C-123). Check out the pictures. The other C-123 crashed with a survivor which kind of kicked of the whole thing in the US.
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| Chillin in bay after 30min ride. |
Thursday, I went jet skiing out on the open ocean followed by snorkeling and it was a blast!! The water temp here is so warm (78deg). It’s fantastic!
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| Talk about a green frog!!!! |
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| More monkey business!! |
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| The Aguti... is it a big rat??? |
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| tree branch we hung Sloth in |
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| One of the many beautiful beaches! |
Saturday I went through the National Park here in Manuel Antonio. It’s a preserved rainforest and it’s amazing! The beaches are pristine and there’s ‘mucho’ wildlife. I saw an aguti (guatusa in Spanish) and I’ve never seen one of
these before – looks like a cross between a rat and a deer. There were monkeys galore, a few Sloths, birds, butterflies, bats, raccoons, deer, exotic frogs and birds of many kinds. However, my Sloth story takes the cake.
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| Photo opportunity :-) |
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| My Aussie hiking outfit - :-) |
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Could they be any cuter
- 3 toed Sloth |
I was finishing my hiking after about 3 hours and hadn’t really had a good look at a Sloth but really wanted to get a good view of one. I said a quick prayer. “God, please let me come across a Sloth I can actually see well”. Okay… what happened next was unbelievable and extremely rare according to the locals. I heard a crashing sound way up in the trees (150ft) far from me – then I heard a big thud on the hill and saw what appeared to be a log rolling down the hill towards me. The object stopped at my feet as I jumped out of the way. To my utter disbelief, it was a SLOTH!!! Talk about answered prayer. An Australian family came up the path at that time and we tried to figure out what to do. The Sloth appeared alive and I couldn’t believe it. Anyway, the Aussie man and I eventually picked the thing up and put it on a low tree branch. It proceeded to climb and hook up with a larger tree. Unbelievable! An encounter of a lifetime. See the pictures above and check out the you tube video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifYImYC67Lc. :-)On Sunday, I changed lodging from my hotel and moved in with a host family in the town of Quepos. This will allow me to practice more Spanish as I eat breakfast and dinner with them. They’re great people and I still have my own room separate from the house like a hotel. It’s more of a studio apartment.
The Spanish is ‘muy dificil’ but going well and I’m in a one-on-one class with the instructor which is great! Until next time……. Adios
-David
Thanks for the interesting update, Dave! WOW . . . how amazing that a SLOTH literally dropped "in your lap" after your prayer request! I guess that's proof that we need to be careful what we ask for!! I clicked on the link to the U-Tube video about the sloth, but it came up and said "the video you are trying to see is not available!" Their was an "error" when I checked out the monkey one, which said "try again later." So . . . I didn't get to see either! Your photos are great, though. Thanks fo rposting them. Living with a host family should prove interesting -- up close and personal!
ReplyDeleteLove,
Mom