Dia uno en el rio sarapiqui

Hola,

Oh what I would give to be able to speak Spanish right now. We aren't in a really huge tourist area and most of the local store owners know nada English. I feel like a complete retard. "Ahh, eeeehh, rrrrrr" then I look at Kim for some help and all I see is a cranium full of biology files and a junior high Spanish file drawer that is rusted shut. We make a good ol' ignorant American pair.

After dinner last night we came back to the Rancho to find that our "rescued" iguana had indeed died. Riggo had set in and you could pick him up and hold him horizontally by the tail. Dunno what happened, but it was sad. Seth, the brother of the manager, buried him this morning. Sacrificing proper burial rites to laziness he chopped the iguana's tail off and laid it by his side, so that he wouldn't have to dig the grave as long.

We had a nice breakfast with the other guests at 8:23 sharp Tico time (8:00 sharp in the developed world). Jeff the gay, vegetarian bird watcher kept Kim's attention with his flamboyant, gesticulative banter. Sweet guy, but lord he could talk. If you know someone that is in the closet, send Jeff in there with them and they will come flying out begging for salvation.

The other two guests were from Belgium. Dutch Belgium they said ademantly. They spoke Dutch, French, Spanish and English. I was feeling bad enough that I couldn't order a package of oreo replicas from the local store to stuff my fat face with, then these two freaks of nature came to breakfast. The kid is 15, but a little strange. He asked in a slow, methodical English, which I could tell his multi-lingual tounge was battling with, if I would like him to beat me at a game of chess. Bug-o-the-minute landed on me just now and I did my internal quiver. I wish I could do like horses and such and quiver my skin to shake these insects off me, but instead I just spaz and let out a "what in the god damn....aaaggggeeeeehi-a-hi-a-hi" Geckos, frogs, and bugs abound on the patio at night.

After breakfast we went on a walk up one of the dirt lanes and found it to be much like some of the abodes in Arkansas. I thought it a waste of mb to take digital pics of such similarity to the rural area that my own family lives in, but I did for comparison sake. We found a cute little snack store about a 1/4 of a mile up the road. Life is very simple here. Very little glass or even screens in the building. The manager of our hotel let me use his Mac to print off an e-mail and it was right next to a huge lofted opening. Wait a minute .... FROG! Be right back.... he's mine!

Frog pic included, they have a lot of cool ones down here.

Went for a leisure float with Miguel the non-English speaking guide. Kim was better at finding the wildlife then Miguel. She spotted howler monkeys and little wild pigs. We saw a bunch of water-dwelling birds. Tomorrow I am going down some white water.

Supper next door tonight, last night we ate at this very cool, tree house like place next to the river. It had big slabs of burlwood for tables and we were pretty much by ourselves. It was very dark, everything is dark here, electricity is too expensive to waste on mood lighting or signage, kind of cool.

Talk to you tomorrow, I will try to get some good river pics, but I don't have a dry bag, so two trash bags and caution it is.

Pura Vida from Costa Rica.

Loud chirping.....another frog maybe?