Me Gusta Costa Rica 2

Day 2 - We are in a lovely little 2 bedroom casita in the mountains surrounded by jungle, with occasional clearings for farms, pastures and houses.  Despite  being a calm and pastoral setting, it is extremely noisy here. The howler monkeys scared Ken in the middle of the night.  They really do sound like those idiots who make ape sounds in front of the gorilla cages at the zoo, only more so.  There are dozens of colorful birds flitting and squawking and cheeping and trilling in the trees off our back patio.  We have roosters crowing and cows mooing down the road.  It took us a while to figure out what the occasional banging sound was.  It's the mangoes falling off the tree next door onto the neighbours corrugated fiberglass porch roof.  They then roll off and down the steep hillside to be rapidly eaten by Coryn's horses in their pasture below.

Bonehead move of the day - the barred screen door to the patio automatically locks when you go out.  We finally MaGyvered it using the cord from Ken's tablet and a thin stick to push the latch open through a narrow opening.  Were a little nonplussed by the buzzard eyeing us as we were desperately trying to get back in.

Went to Tilaron to do our banking and shopping.  Found out not many Tico's speak English in the smaller villages, and that everything we've learned over the past month totally flies out of our heads when faced with a real Spanish person speaking rapidly.  Fortunately Tico's are extremely polite and like to laugh.  Lesson - always carry the Lonely Planet Costa Rica Spanish Phrasebook and a pen and paper and you'll get by.

Shopping is an all day event.  The grocery stores are more like slightly larger 7-11's and the fruit and meat may not be the freshest.  So by the time you go there for your miscellaneous stuff, plus the carniceria for meat, and the panaderia for bread, and the verdularia for fruit and veggies, the day is gone.  Unfortunately for Ken, no bagels or bacon.  Breads are tortillas or a sweet, cakey type of loaf, often flavored with pina (pineapple) or guava or mango. Yum.