Costa Rica 6, Seventeenth Day In Monteverde

I will begin, Gentle Reader, with a list of the various items I have brought with me in my baggage this time, and some of my reasons why: 1. ten pairs each of socks and underwear (I am housebroken, you know), 1 extra pair of jeans, two extra shirts (I'm not going to be on any catwalks this year), 3. 4 disposable razors (one usually lasts me three weeks, but you never know), 4., toothbrush, toothpaste, deoderant, nail clippers and sunscreen (if you need to know why, then you're not old enough to be reading this blog!), 5. bandaids, pain killers, antibacterial ointment (ditto), 6. hair scissors (I like to cut my own hair), 7. peroxide, for my toothbrush and as an antiseptic, 8. meds for my thyroid qnd pituatary condition, 9. clock radio, 10. sketchbook and pencil crayons and coloured pens, 11. notebook, 12. Bible and two devotional books, 13. novel in Spanish, 14. food for my flight, 15. trail mix and chocolate chips, for nutritional supplement and snacks and comfort, 16. extra belt, because I have bad luck with belts, 17. laptop and headphones, 18. bristol board, scissors and glue, for affixing finished drawings for my hosts in Costa Rica, 19. 3 bandanas to protect my head from the tropic sun, 20. duct tape, 21. passport, 22. needle and thread, 23. travel docs, 24. Costa Rican and US currency, 25. random plastic bags for laundry, etc, 26. earplugs (because I hate noise, and walls can be very thin), 27. prayer cards with the names of various people I pray for regularly, including you, Gentle Reader. I also brought one hundred extra pencil crayons and two packs of ten coloured pens each, knowing my capacity for self-sabotage. Today, I almost needed them. When I went to the cloud forest reserve today, I stopped at the Cafe Colibrí near the entrance, to have a peak at the hummingbirds at the many feeders there. I was seated at a well-hidden bench on the side near a hummingbird feeder and ended up chatting with a nice Scottish couple who are here for the first time. I showed them one of my hummingbird drawings, but had to take a couple of items out of my knapsack in order to fit my sketchbook back in. I was so distracted by our conversation that I left my bag of pencils and pens on the bench, and didn't clue in about the loss until a couple of hours later in my room, so I walked mostly uphill the three kilometres back to the reserve. Fortunately, some kind soul turned them into the cafe, and there my pencils and pens were, waiting for me. On my way to retrieve them, it was consoling thinking that just in case I would never see them again, that I had that emergency reserve of materials, including two new pencil sharpeners in my room to use if I needed them. I know from long experience that being on vacation can be very much the equivalent of undergoing two frontal lobotomies! The reserve was lovely again, of course, and not at all crowded, and best of all, NO GROUPS! Can it get any sweeter, GR? I wasn't in there long, and just took the gentle route, since I didn't feel like wearing myself out today. Last night, I went with Esteban to the Saturday mass at the catholic church in Santa Elena where he attends regularly. There was quite a croud packed into the small church, close to two hundred, many young people and a lot of families. It was interesting hearing the noise from the bars outside as a kind of existential contrast. I won't go into detail about my experience there, though it was very positive, but I will say one thing. If you are visiting a Latin American country, and you want to really begin to understand the culture, attend mass there, in Spanish, at least once. It doesn't matter what you believe in, and when you go, you will thank me afterward for this advice.