Days 5 and 6, catching up!

                                       Day Five:  Small delights, unexpected

It’s delightful to have time to cut and arrange brilliant tropical flowers and foliage in arrangements for every table.
It is a delight to have a pool next to the kitchen in a warm climate. If you get hot while you’re cooking, you jump in and then continue with your preparations, refreshed and feeling very exotic!
Another delight is all of the background noises of nature here. There are layers of sounds here: the waves are most distant but are a constant and in the day, bird songs are ever present. At night they are replaced by crickets and the occasional soft hoot of some sort of owl calling from a tall tree just off the kitchen. Occasionally but regularly, from early morning ‘til dusk are the penetrating hoots of howler monkeys which sound like a combination of a lion’s roar and what I would think gorillas would sound like if they were up in trees. These guttural calls come from all points of the compass around the house, making you feel as if you are surrounded by them.
Delightful is the scent of the Ylang Ylang flowers in the rain.
Fresh picked papaya, sliced starfruit, and sweet guavas are all a delight to enjoy for breakfast. I am going to ask Mai to help me open a coconut that I brought back from the beach for another local addition to my plate.

But best of all are the fireflies! Not in large numbers so a delightful discovery when you see their blue-green flash in the dark. I’ve looked for them in the garden each night now and seen them three times. Since I grew up in Southern California, my experience with these tiny miracles consisted of the ones in Pirates of the Caribbean that mesmerized us as kids at Disneyland. They might have been miniature lightbulbs on wires, but we fell in love with them anyway.

                                          Day 6: Tortugos everywhere!

I am not really seaturtle-crazy, but they seem to be all over, doing all sorts of things right now, here on the west coast of Costa Rica and so I am taking advantage of the opportunity to experience the extraordinary and brief time that they are here with us on land.
The moon was so bright last night that I didn’t want to waste it under a roof so I went down the Playa San Miguel to see if there was anything happening turtle-wise, figuring even if I didn’t see anything, I would certainly enjoy a nice walk. I didn’t see any hatching or nesting turtles, but I did come upon two giant sets of tracks heading out of the water, up the beach and then arcing back down again into the waves: two females came up the beach and decided, for whatever reason, not to nest last night.
This evening a new friend and neighbor, Wendy and I ventured back to Corazalito beach: the scene of the hatchling massacre and redemption. Fortunately, no mobs of predators this time, but probably because most of them were full. Apparently this morning’s hatch was so prodigious that you couldn’t walk on the beach for hatchlings—literally! As soon as they sun went down the lifeless sand came to life, erupting squirming flows of charcoal hatchlings seemingly at random up and down the beach. We had the privilege of watching three or four nests hatch with the largest one at 75—give or take a few. Wendy and I enjoyed a beer while we sat in the warm sand and watched them make their unerring way down to the water and swirl away, over and over again.

Olive Ridley hatchlings

This evening we were not alone there being a number of local families bringing their children down to experience the spectacle—and help out when they thought it was warranted. It was hard to witness some interference (like “helping” dig out the nests) but heartening to see parents showing and having their children witness the amazing life cycle that is completed in their own community, hopefully inspiring respect, appreciation and then a desire to protect these ancient creatures.
I am sure I will dream turtles tonight!