Costa Rica Again 6

I still feel like I'm writing about nothing.  One can only wander around aimlessly for so long.  I have come to know this place so well, it's almost as though I've lived here all my life.  The rough wild beauty here has become for me almost Disney-familiar, and that is rather alarming.  I fear that I might be becoming jaded.  Then there is the other salient feature of Monteverde, which is the people who live here.  I feel that I am only just beginning to know them, and I would have to pass a long time here if I really want to scratch  even a little bit deeper than the surface.

It's been raining off and on all day, usually drizzle, sometimes a strong drizzle, if you can imagine such a thing as a strong drizzle.  And usually it's sunny, so there are often rainbows.  I just stepped outside to look at a rainbow, but it was rather faint and the drizzle too strong, so it really wasn't worth getting wet over.  I also saw a lot of morphos today, those huge and outlandishly blue butterflies that flutter lazily like drunken rock stars. 

I sat again for a while in Cafe Monteverde.  Inside the few tables were all taken, but it was difficult sitting outside because the strong wind made it difficult for me to work on my art, so I went back inside and a young woman willingly shared her table with me.  I asked her first in Spanish, but she is American and speaks only English.  This American is actually very nice.  She is from Massachusetts,   and works as a volunteer guide at the butterfly garden where she is also staying.  The table with the couches soon became available, so I sat there, then a German couple joined me, so it was nice having a chat with them.  Shortly before, a local artist took sudden interest in my artwork and we had a very enjoyable conversation in Spanish.  Later, while I was showing the German couple one of my drawings of a quetzal, a local bird here (here's an image or two or three to refresh your memory:








I also held up my quetzal for the local artist to see, then I gestured to his artwork on display for the German couple to see and eavesdropped as they chatted with him in English.

I really didn't do much else today.  I just walked as far as the mall (about a forty minute walk), then back again to the café for a banana orange smoothie, then a plate of vegetarian casado in La Cuchara de la Abuela, or, Grandma's Spoon.

I am back at the bed and breakfast in reception.  The wind is blowing something fierce and it is really raining.  It is now twilight.  Esteban's mom just got back yesterday following cataract surgery, and is happy to have her good vision again.  Really lovely people, this family.