The other night a small gray cat showed up on our doorstep, and after lots of neck scratching, bowls of milk, and a dinner of leftover pineapple fried rice, she doesn’t appear to want to leave. We batted around a couple of names (Tica, Au Lait/Olé) before deciding on the most suitable one: Saint Theresa, after the beachside village where we’re staying.
So without further ado, here she is:
Although we discover new interesting plants and animals every day, I rarely bring the camera because of how unpredictable the tropical rains are here. So while I don’t yet have any photos of 4-foot long green lizards, I do have these, which were taken today.
The other night a small gray cat showed up on our doorstep, and after lots of neck scratching, bowls of milk, and a dinner of leftover pineapple fried rice, she doesn’t appear to want to leave. We batted around a couple of names (Tica, Au Lait/Olé) before deciding on the most suitable one: Saint Theresa, after the beachside village where we’re staying.
So without further ado, here she is:
Although we discover new interesting plants and animals every day, I rarely bring the camera because of how unpredictable the tropical rains are here. So while I don’t yet have any photos of 4-foot long green lizards, I do have these, which were taken today.
Posted by C.J.
Sometime during the summer of 2006, we were having dinner with Brianne’s parents and the Mets hat I was wearing covered an increasingly unruly head of hair. When Brianne’s mom commented on it, I smiled slyly, and then a dark look of comprehension crossed her face.
“You’re not going to cut it during your trip, are you?”
It was more a statement than a question, but I didn’t deny my future intentions concering hair length. But here we are in Costa Rica, swimming and surfing every day in a place that is way too warm to continue looking so biblical. In my opinion, the look reached its pinnacle while in France and has been in a slow decline ever since:
And so, armed only with a Leatherman keychain and an underpowered pair of clippers, we went to it.
I’ll talk more about it later, but we’ve spent the last couple days visiting with Jesse Horton, a childhood friend of mine who I hadn’t seen in about 12 years. Today Jesse introduced us to Roy, a man responsible for a very successful turtle hatchery based on Playa Bella Vista.
While we were there, Roy checked two nests that had already hatched for late bloomers, and lo and behold there were six 3-inch baby green turtles, covered in grit and eager to head for the relative safety of the ocean.
After a quick examination and many close-up photos, it was time to let them go. They were so tiny, so perfect, and so determined! It took about 30 minutes for the newborns to find their way to the water, but seconds after they did, they were gone.
While walking back to Jesse’s car, he noticed a wild nest, and there we found one dead baby and one live one. As with the rest, we guarded lucky number Seven from hungry birds and watched, proud as new parents, as it disappeared into the surf. Basically, it was the best thing ever.
I’ll talk more about it later, but we’ve spent the last couple days visiting with Jesse Horton, a childhood friend of mine who I hadn’t seen in about 12 years. Today Jesse introduced us to Roy, a man responsible for a very successful turtle hatchery based on Playa Bella Vista.
While we were there, Roy checked two nests that had already hatched for late bloomers, and lo and behold there were six 3-inch baby green turtles, covered in grit and eager to head for the relative safety of the ocean.
After a quick examination and many close-up photos, it was time to let them go. They were so tiny, so perfect, and so determined! It took about 30 minutes for the newborns to find their way to the water, but seconds after they did, they were gone.
While walking back to Jesse’s car, he noticed a wild nest, and there we found one dead baby and one live one. As with the rest, we guarded lucky number Seven from hungry birds and watched, proud as new parents, as it disappeared into the surf. Basically, it was the best thing ever.
Upon arriving in Lima, we found ourselves with nothing to do and seven days to do it in. Because out this, we experienced a week of lazy Sundays- getting up late, going to matinees, eating long lunches, etc, etc.
Miraflores District, Lima
One night we attended the concert of Jorge Drexler, a talented Uruguayan singer/guitarist who is best known (and then only barely) in the U.S. for winning an Oscar for his song on The Motorcycle Diaries soundtrack. It was a great show, with an audience that knew all his lyrics and was not afraid to make that fact known.
Another day we attended Lima´s Octoberfest… in any other circumstances we probably wouldn´t have gone, but again, what else were we going to do?
Other than that, we did absolutely nothing culturally enriching. No museums, no galleries, no nothing. It was like we were mentally preparing ourselves for the next (and final) part of our trip- a month or so bumming around the beaches of Costa Rica.
Well, the day after my glowing first impression of Huaraz was spent battling food poisoning… the second instance of the trip, and only slightly better (if such an experience can be described that way) than the first time because I wasn’t trapped on a disgusting train in Vietnam for twelve hours.
Early representation of Falcor from
The Neverending Story
Brianne spent the day visiting the local museum and walking around town, and by evening I had decided to try the thing that made me feel better the last time- Skittles and Powerade. It worked. The following day I was back among the living, and we walked around Huaraz some more, haunting coffeeshops and markets.
The next day we joined a tour bus going to Chavin de Huantar, an almost 3,000 year old archaeological site located east of Huaraz. It’s primary use appears to be a temple, and the religion practiced there was obsessed with jaguars, which are represented everywhere.
We arrived in Huaraz, Peru less than an hour ago, and already I´m in love with the place. Never have I seen so little of a town and liked it so much, but I do.
Why?
-Because on the taxi ride to our hostel, we passed a Thai restaurant (one of the only ones in S.A., apparently) called “Siam de los Andes.”
-Because the girl who showed us to our room throughtfully brought us two mugs of coca tea “for the altitude.”
-Because there is a party going on in honor of the owner of the hostel, and five old (drunk) Peruvian men are playing guitars in the living room and singing at the top of their lungs. I asked the girl which one the party was for, and she told me he was upstairs, already asleep.
-Because there´s a parade going down the street, complete with banners, costumes, and fireworks.
To summarize, Huaraz is great, and we haven’t even seen it in the daytime yet.
