Costa Rica 6

Ive been here almost a week and nothing really has happened, and thats okay.  I am intentionally ignoring the news while Im here.  Before I proceed, let me apologize for the rotten punctuation of these recent posts. Latin American computer keyboards dont work the way ours do in Canada, and I really dont have time to figure it out, so youll just have to bear with me.

One thing I have noticed is children here seem a lot better behaved than our North American brats.  They still play a lot and can be noisy and exuberant, but I have only heard shrill squealing from North American kids, since I got here.  I imagine the children here feel very secure and loved because they seem very calm and happy.

Today has been as always.  I splurged a bit and went to one of the forest reserves where I paid the equivalent of twenty dollars Canadian.  Its a lower elevation and the climate is dryer so the vegetation isnt quite as lush and dense as in the big cloud forest up the mountain.  But its a dry day today so there was no mud on the trails. And the bright sunlight shining through the leaves and foilage was downright dazzling.  There was a lot of climbing up steep hills so its an excellent workout.  I think I was the only human present, though the birds and other wildlife appeared to be well hidden.  I did sight a couple of brilliant blue morpho butterflies again.

There is a cheap soda, or, traditional Costa Rican restaurant, not too far away in what I call the Gringo Hippy Compound.  It is a collective of arts and crafts, yoga and natural foods, etc.  where lots of English is spoken and you will spot more dreadlocks than I used to see on Commercial Drive fifteen years ago.
The food is good, tasty, nutritious and cheap and the ladies who work there are nice and totally Spanish speaking Ticas.  They dont seem to like cats much.  There is a beautiful calico who likes to come inside to hang out and shes always chased out.  Poor kitty.  I usually have the vegetarian casado, which is a traditional dish consisting of beans, rice, mixed cooked vegetables, salad, fried plantain, and in my case, cheese, though it could also include chicken, beef or fish.  Very good for the equivalent of say, $7.50 Canadian with cold fruit juice.

Im doing tons of art, still, and working really fast and, I think, really well.  I finished the macaw last night and am well into a drawing of a peacock, which is of course very challenging, especially from memory, but I have more than twenty five paintings of peacocks under my belt and I seem to have memorized their details rather well, though drawing them from memory or from a photo or from life is still going to be pretty challenging.  Peacocks, by the way, are not native to Costa Rica.  I know you already know that, I just like to bug you sometimes, Gentle Reader!