The Golden-Cheeked Warbler is ALIVE and well! Long live the yellow-butted-woobler. (someone, a human being, actually thought it was called that). I expect to have better pictures soon. But this was my first attempt and i was happy enough.
Day 9, January 26
Zac had to work this morning and that was lame. I turned into a pouty child because of this. He spent a few hours at a computer lab this morning while I wandered around the surrounding countyside streets. The wind was out to get me however, so my walk was sort of short-lived.
When he was done we went to another preserve called Ecological Sanctuary. It was nice and such, and there were very few people but the trails were not maintained at all. A few times the trails just kinda dropped off into the river or a cliff or something, so we had to turn around. Then I lost one of my sunglass lenses. Bummer.Then I became a bit more agitated because we still had not seen a sloth, what??! However, we did see about 25 coatis who just kept coming down the hill, one after another. The adults didn't mind us much, but there was one baby who was rather skeptical of us being there. He kept ducking and peeking around the trees, checking us out - very cute of him.
We also saw a Sun Bittern, which was snazzy, since you don't see those guys every day. We saw a Black-throated Green Warbler which for a second we hoped/thought was a GCWA. I really wanted it to be a Golden-Cheeked. We saw a bunch more agoudis, no sloths, and another huge leaf-cutter ant colony. It was freaking huge! I don't know how they do it. Go ants. We hiked back into town and played an abnormal amount of yahtzee. I won 17 out of 24 games. Alas, I am the yahtzee master.
Day 10, Januray 27
We checked out of our beloved Mar Inn, and went for a good hike before our shuttle to Liberia left. In Liberia, the driver dropped us off on the side of the highway. Fun. Please don't spend much time in Liberia if you have a choice. Liberia is a shithole. We found a hostel and somehow, I agreed to stay there. I must have evolved as a person or something? Luckily, we didn't get scabies or some other weird crap. Dear god. I suppose it did have some, what would you say, 'character' but well, frankly, EW!
We walked down the street in search of a couple beers. We found what we were looking for and then reluctantly met some cracked out scumbag from Florida who made frequent trips to the bathroom every few minutes to get his fix. Lovely. Jackass was up to zero good and I'm hoping he's locked inside a Costa Rican jail cell for a good chunk of time. We bolted when he was in the bathroom at one point and kept on going. Headed back to the sketchy hostel and tried our hardest not to touch anything in that place.
Day 7, January 24
Stayed in a great little hotel last night. Woke up to breakfast of coffe, coffee, coffee, and toast and bunches of fresh fruit - papaya! I love you! We took a cab to Santa Elena Preserve and spent the whole day playing there. Beautiful place. It rained most of the day, but hey, that's what happens in the rainforest and we were glad we had gaiters with us. We saw lots of funky bugs, flowers, birds of course, a coati, but otherwise no other mammals. The place was great and there were hardly any people there - always a plus!
Later that night we got suckered into paying for a night hike...Yes, I know. It was totally dorky and not extremely informative for us but we saw a tarantula and a few other cool things....
Day 8, January 25
We stayed at the 'nice' hotel again- 30 bucks and that place rocks! Slept pretty well, but the wind! Oh my god the wind! It was out of control. Felt like the hotel was breaking into little pieces. Luckily, it didn't.
It was pouring rain this morning, and so we waited until about 9 30, then we just went for it anyway. Some guy yesterday told us where to find Emerald Toucannets, so that's where we booked it this morning. We saw three of them and I was excited because they were adorable and so good lookin' at the same time, and one posed very nicely for a photo op.
Afterwards, we hiked up towards the Monteverde Preserve towards the hummingbirds. AND THEY LANDED ON OUR FINGERS!!! They were so tiny and so cute. Tiny and cute. Ahem. We saw nine species and I think one might have flown into my ear.
We were about to leave, but then I saw an olingo slyly wandering around. So that was pretty awesome. I had seen one the day before, but just for a second. We managed to get a pretty good look at this friend. Apparently, they are fairly rare and difficult to see, so we were pumped.
We finally left the cloud forest and started the hike (still raining) back to town, about 7 miles or so. We saw more agoudis and a bunch of birds on the way back. When we got nearer to town, it was dark and Zac fell into a drainage ditch (good planning city of Santa Elena) and almost did something bad to his ankle/foot/leg. Very soon after, he almost got hit by a car that decided to not stop at the Stop sign, but then again, really, does anyone stop at Stop signs in Costa Rica? No. So we were relieved to arrive back in one piece, more or less, at the hotel....Shampoo! We bought shampoo! and we used it! Wow!
I washed some clothes in the sink and dried them downstairs in the hotel dryer...but in the process managed to lose a pair of underoos.Wandering where they are...
Great day even though though the rain turned us into giant wrinkly prunes by the end of it!
2004 was the Year of the Skink, 2009 is the Year of the Armadillo. Less than 24 hours, and I've already seen 5 of them. Cleo welcomed me back the night I got in, which was very thoughtful of him. Cleo is the armadillo who hung around the trailer last year. I noticed that Cleo has been extremely busy digging the hell out of the ground recently. I'm probably going to break my leg playing frisbee..but that's okay, cause the little guy's gotta eat.
Anyway, I made it safely to the ranch. On the drive in, I noticed the idiotic Frio Canyon housing development had made zero progress in the past year. At least I couldn't see any from the road - AWESOME! That was heartening for me. I stopped by Mike and Audrey's (the couple who runs the barn, good crazy people!) and they gave me big hugs and I caught up with them for a while. On my way out, I ran into Paco Loco Ken (my new name for him). He told me we could use his family-sized three bedroom tent since the trailer is going to be so cramped. I love nice people, and Ken is hilarious. I stayed at the Frio Canyon Lodge that night cause I couldn't get into the trailer.
I drove into the ranch the next morning and was relieved that Mike had managed to find the trailer key - I had my doubts. I cleaned and moved all my stuff in - mainly food, ha! I'm still horrified, absolutely terrified, of the new roommate Zac and I will have. I mean, shit, the trailer is NOT meant for three people. I'm going to try my hardest to be civil to this person, but I can't guarantee anything. Oh boy.
Bill (Old Naked Bill), one of the head construction guys, came over to say hi. Apparently, 'several' mountain lions have been seeen on the ranch in recent months. Yay. I guess I'll keep an even bigger eye out for them this year, since you know, I haven't been worried enough about them the past two years!
Later, I convinced Mike to help move the second trailer into the only other good spot, which is also next to our trailer. It turned out to be a long process. Mike came over and realized he didn't have the right something or other to move the trailer, so then he just talked for a while. Then we went to talk to Ramona (the cook for the construction workers) and she called her husband, Frank, to come over and help. Ramona was super nice and I drank her over-sweetened iced tea while we waied 45 minutes for Frank to get his chatty little bum down to help us. Eventually the trailer got moved and i was grateful for the help, again, thumbs up for nice people! Our trailer has a good tilt happening, so that's gotta get fixed ASAP before I lose my mind.
I went for a little hike this evening on the ranch and saw two more armadillos. I spent a good amount of time watching them. Their eyesight and/or hearing leaves a lot to be desired, so I was able to get right up next to them without them really noticing. They are really rather cute in a goofy way. And their legs are all hairy and funny looking. It was very tempting to pet them, but well, they can potentially carry leprosy, so I refrained. I've been exposed to enough weird diseases and stuff lately, so I think I'll avoid one more for now. Also on the hike, I was bummed to find a dead aoudad (an exotic deer from the Barbary Coast). It had been killed by something, perhaps a mountain lion. That's when i turned around.
It's extremely dry here right now. Mike and Ken said it hasn't rained for almost 6 months, and it's not hard to tell.
But apparently, the GCWA brings the rain every year. So i made sure to do a little rain dance, and what the hell! It's supposed to rain on Sunday. Niiiice.
Driving into Leakey was bittersweet. It's the last season here and that makes me sad. I actually really love this place, it's like a little sanctuary. And it's where Zac and I met, so it'll always have that going for it too. We've (Zac, Melissa, and I) have had some pretty great memories here - and some pretty not great ones too, but at least we can laugh about those now. I'm going to miss coming back here evey year.
Also! Please - Leakey is not pronounced like a leakey faucet, it's like Lake-y. Thank you.
Woke up to a Striped owl screeching and screaming like it was going out style. Holy crap! What a gut wrenching noise that guy made. I was only half awake, since it was about 4 30, and was rather concerned there was some hideous crime being committed. Then i realized it was just the owl.
We got up and ate tortillas with almond butter and then the old man (who owned the property) came over with a gigantic coconut for me to drink. Ohh la la! What a tasty treat! It's too bad Zac is allergic to the coconutty, but more for me!
Soon after this elating moment of coconut drinking, there was tragedy: Zac realized he forgot his binoculars. We determined he had left them in the back of Sunny and Ben's car in Florida. I was mildly pertrubed as well- good thing we have the zoom lens!
We hiked around the park, which mainly consisted of beach. We hiked up to one end called the Whaletail, where there were lots of tide pools and a big reef. Then we walked to the other end, where the beach pretty much ended and it became rocky and met the jungle. And! We saw White-faced Capuchin monkeys! MONKEYS! Two adults and one little baby. I was quite thrilled, as they were my first monkeys in the wild. So cute and curious!
The rest of the afternoon was spent playing in the ocean like two hyperactive 9 year olds. I had a hard time giving the coconut up after the juice was gone, so with all my will and strength (okay, mainly Zac's), we used the saw-toothed part of the pocketknife to cut it open. This took patience.
Also noteworthy: The family had a dog. Said dog came over to me and wanted to be pet and was all snuggly. Another dog came by who also wanted to be petted, so I obliged. The first dog apparently became annoyed, lifted his leg, and PEED ON MY BUTT! Sigh. The dog peed on my butt, come on!
It started down pouring in the late afternoon, so we decided to grin and bear it by putting on our rain gear. We walked the few miles into town and got dinner at a tasty pizza place. No queso, por favor! Haha.
It eventually stopped raining, so we walked back to the tent and went for a nice night hike. There were so many bats! One touched my foot as he was snagging a bug, cool! Also a lot of crabs on the beach, weird bugs and moths, and an opossum (i forget which kind).
We had a tasty and nutrtitious breakfast that consisted of pickles. Then, on a super full stomach (please note sarcasm), we packed our bags and hiked to Marion Ballena National Park (above). It was supposed to be a 3 mile hike, but we made it a 6 mile loop. When we got there, the park ranger gave us directions to the camping area in Spanish, so we just paid close attention to his numerous hand gestures.
While hiking to the camping area, we passed someone's property and decided to just ask if we could camp there. Okay, really since we didn't understand the guy's directions, we thought this was the camping area. It ended up working out really well, and we ended up camping here for a couple nights. There's where we camped below.
We played on the beach the rest of the day. The sunset was rather idealistic and when it got dark, we took a nice stroll on the beach. Got back to the tent and ate wasabi soy beans for dinner - again, very filling! I wondered if the water really was okay to drink? I had a hypochondriac moment wondering about Hepatitis.
Welcome. Welcome to Leakey. The town is reaeeeaaallly hanging on to that '75 win. Musta been a pretty sweet game.
This was taken right in town. I won't lie, I agree with their sentiment.
The mighty Frio River. People flock from neaby counties to tube (or as they say and spell, 'toob') this slow moving river. But! the water quality is surprisingly healthy, and the water is a nice blue-green color. And the headwaters are smack dab on the ranch, which I think is pretty cool. But, the springs are all sucked dry right now so it's not quite as nice as it could be. Come on, rain, you can do it!
The mountain laurel smells like grape koolaid. Or is is coolaid? I have no idea. But my point is that the stuff smells like shiny happy pretty things and i could sniff it all day long (but apparently it can make you vomit, so you're not supposed to). But i want to!
