La Vida Loca!

We've all been back in Costa Rica a week today; Jim arrived a week before us. Our trip here was thanksfully uneventful. The flight was only a few minutes late, and Jim was there to pick us up. Jumper travelled really well, and was really happy to see Jim. We drove straight to Monteverde and got here around 1 a.m. We have spent most of the week getting the house cleaned, the garden cleared out and getting settled.

Two days ago when we were driving near the stable where Kevin got his horse Imperial we saw a huge snake in the road. We've determined that it was a boa constrictor and not the dreaded feu de lance, which can kill its victims in 4 hours or less. The rule of thumb in approaching a snake is to remember that it can strike you within 1/3 of its length. The snake we saw was about 7 feet long, so I may have broken that rule in taking the photos. This snake was about as thick as Jim's upper arm.

Kevin and Catie and I and one of our neighbors went for a 4 mile hike near our house on Saturday morning and we found this bird hopping around under some trees. It was just learning how to fly. We have observed that there are many more birds near our house than in past years, which is wonderful to see. There are many flocks of parakeets that fly near our house in the morning.