Today I woke up at 5:30 am after a very itchy night. Last night was almost unbearably humid, and I was unbelievably itchy. Breakfast was cereal with powdered milk and fruit. The only place you can buy milk by the half or full gallon is in the big cities. They don't even have it at the small grocery store in Platanillo, only the small flavored box kind. Everyone here drinks powdered milk because regular milk would go bad too quickly. The little box milks that kids drink comes in WAY more flavors than the states. You can get: chocolate, plain, vanilla, pineapple, guava and banana. There were a couple more but I didn't know what the fruit was in Spanish. The cereal (a local brand) tasted like they made cardboard out of corn. Of course, breakfast (desayuno) wasn't unbearable. Then, we had a lecture, which I became really bored with because I thought it was basically a repeat of a lecture we had back in the States. We were left with 3 hours to work on our programs before lunch. There is very little bulk work we could do here in Costa Rica because we have no access to technology and information. We all finished early, and of course headed to the swimming hole. Lunch was awesome. We had tomato and cucumber salad, fresh pineapple, rice, lemonade (made from lemons right at TFI) and this sauteed squash type stuff. But it wasn't squash. The lemons here at TFI are green and round, like limes. But then you cut them open and they are yellow inside and taste like a lemon. weird huh?
After lunch we gathered under the work shed to learn to sharpen machetes. We used an electric grinder and files. The Ticos use a sharp, flat piece of metal and run it down the edge of teh blade, which peels of paper thin sheets of metal off the machete and eventually its razor sharp. This takes a lifetime of practice and technique, none of which any of us Gringos could manage to pick up in an hour.
Once everyone had sharpened machetes, we went on a hike down the trails below the cabin I am sleeping in. We saw timber bamboo, which is a native Costa Rican bamboo that grows as tall as trees and can be about 10" in diameter. A pinkajou was hanging out in the timber bamboo and looking down at us. We tried to take his picture but the light wasn't right. At the end of the hike, I was sick of being in the humidity and itchy. When we got back I took a very cold shower (the only kind here) and washed my hair for the first time in days. It felt good to be clean.
It finally started raining, which brings relief from humidity, heat and bugs. I have started wearing my light weight quick dry pants around TFI more and wish I had brought 2 pairs.
So far, my favorite "tropical wet forest" animal sound is an animal called a tink frog. Literally, it goes "TINK!" and sounds like metal on metal. I recorded a video with it in the background.
Jiro's (Hiro) two brothers came over to hang out, and we had a great time chilling out with them. One of them really likes Bob Marley and put on a Bob Marley CD, which just gave us all good vibes. We had a nice evening, even though we couldnt communicate well.
Mary found a cane toad in her bathroom. Cane toads are non-native here and, like Australia, have become a nuisance and a problem. Jiro jumped up to take it out of the bathroom. We joked with him that he should punt it into the woods, and then made us all laugh by doing just that. That frog got some air. I think Jiro hoped it died upon landing.
I'm really glad Mary is here, because there is another outdoorsy girl for me to talk to and hang out with.
|
