Tuesday, November 4, 2008: Yes We CAN!

This morn we enjoyed a delightful walk on the beach, and I brought my tripod. There were many photo-ops of diving Pelicans and Social Flycatchers! Check out the wild ghost pelican shot. The pelican resting in a tree seemed relatively undisturbed by this dark invader…or Darth Vader Pelican. Coffee and Gallo Pinto for breakfast..again and with joy. I’m liking my new Tico lifestyle. During desayuna, we wore our Obama shirts and received mixed glances from other patrons. We’re spreading the word, because today is the DAY!

Driving to the beach for snorkeling was an adventure within itself. ROUGH is an understatement. One road was so baaaad. Deep crevices and very steep. We couldn’t even ascend in our 4WD. Yes, we had a 4WD, and thank GAWD! We wouldn’t have been able to see most of the places we explored without it!

We found ourselves at Danta Beach with its lovely black sand and ambled over to one of the most pristine white sand beaches I’ve ever seen in my life – definitely the most beautiful beach I’ve seen in CR. My heart was very happy. The new fins worked great, but my mask was still leaking. I only had a couple of mini panic attacks but eventually acclimated to the still waters. It was as good time even if we didn’t see any turtles. We saw a bunch of fish (thanks to Explorer Scott). I played around with my new H2O camera…it was okay, not the exceptional quality I was expecting. Still, the water was fabulous and simply beautiful. Another great adventure.

We had to high tail it back to Sugar Beach Hotel, shower and check out before 1:00’ish even though they didn’t seem to care one bit about when we departed. So, we hung out on the balcony just in time to receive entertainment from the local iguana…a flamboyant creature shimmering with greens and blues.

I scored about 40 pictures. His narcissistic self embraced my PhotoObession needs. He showered us with delightful performances of climbing a bush seemingly too-small-for his weight, ending with feats of eating and watching us watch him.

Back on the road again before 2:00 and amazingly we returned to Playa Azul before 4:00…even with getting lost…again! On the road, we passed a place that had a Parakeet flying around in circles and Scott didn’t humor me by stopping for more photo ops. But when we realized we were on the wrong road and had to go back, I prepared a pre-emptive exit from the car to snap some shots. Back at the Parakeet place and the little guy must have departed. An elderly man across the street was trying to tell me where the Parakeet went. No luck. I didn’t understand even with both our valiant efforts at communicating. Soon a bus filled with uniformed children arrived. As children poured out of the bus, I was trying to ask about the Parakeet and by accident asked, “Habla Espanol?” Here I was, an English speaker asking cute little Tico kids if they spoke Spanish. They took my mistake in jest yet were still unable to assist me in my search of the evasive Keet.

With only about 25 kilometers remaining before arriving at the Sanctuary, we found two women hitchhiking in the rain. We picked them up. Turns out they were returning from work…quite a long trek they made on a daily basis. It’s impressive to me. We Americans can be so spoiled with all of our luxuries and these two gals seemed to be lacking what we would consider to be necessities…transportation for one. Even with the language barrier we had a pleasant conversation. They both worked at a local hotel – one a cook and the other a maid.

Just before returning to the Sanctuary, at the top of the hill that leads to the complex, I saw a little building with turtle tours. I had just been telling Scott how we should check out the Ostenial for turtles. Well, Mike from Boston ran the place. We met his 3 dogs, including old Ginger, who is at the end of her life. She was a sweet, old, girl. Her stiff, old, body was reminiscent of our sweet boy, Jack. We signed up for a 9:00 am tour TOMORROW where we may see a MILLION turtles in their natural habitat. Olive Ridleys – live ones unlike several of the dead ones (yes, so sad) we found on the beach.

We had dinner with Dave and Susie from West Virginia. Dave said he liked our Obama shirts (surprising given how they were starting to take on a life of their own after several wears and zero washings) yet Susie didn’t seem as happy about it. It was a pleasurable dinner nonetheless. Those two and their fascinating stores made for interesting dinner companions. Harry hung out with us for a while. We heard an eerie sound coming from the trees. He detailed how it was the sound of the mysterious Cullego Bird. Apparently, many people have perished in search of this bird who makes the mysterious calls. I had no desire to search for it, because we had some CNN to watch back at our townhouse!

We planted ourselves in front of the downstairs TV…Ruffles in hand. YES WE DID! Scott and I mailed in absentee ballots. Go-BAMA! Save the drama for your mama! Finally, hope enters the white house in the form of a black man.

Obama’s acceptance speech moved me to tears. I taped it on my camera. Another good day.