Here and There Blog

Each day around 3:30 - 4:00 pm the arrival of dozens of parrots is a loud affair and only competes with the church bells for sheer deafening volume. The parrots are common here but not a normal activity for me so for the first few days it was fun to watch. Parrots below.          

I've only ever seen one sloth and it was at the Baltimore Aquarium.  Nice but not exciting. After 3 hours in the rain forest in Costa Rica I thought I wasn't going to see any animals. Then right at the end of the tram, this one was hanging from a tree as sloths are known to do.

Normally when you look at the picture on your tourist ticket, you don't give it a second thought. It's there, you're in, move on. In the rain forest though, who knew?  The warning we were given was "don't go off the trail" because there are snakes.  And this little viper was all happily relaxing and our warning was "don't use a flash". No flash.

This is the Rain Forest Adventure Park located on the border of Braulio Carrillo National Park, located outside of San Jose, CR. A tram takes you through the trees and up and along both forest floor and ceiling. Due to lack of sunlight, the flowers are found only in the open areas. All leaves have damage due to ants and caterpillars.  At times the clouds gave way to blue sky to frame the canopy.

My life revolves around the downtown area and Parque Central. This area is a hub of fast food, shops, people and pigeons. And a few sculptures too.  The sweeper has endless work for his still, steel body. The ever present pigeon watches on.  This one wasn't leaving for anything and posed away.  Gaudi inspired pigeon roost.  In case you can't get enough of real birds, how about some historical interpretations?

Well that was easy! The restaurant next door to the hotel had the local beer and one was even a dark Munich Dunkle style lager. Fairly decent and a nice surprise.