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upside down popsicles
Tuesday, January 29 2019
location: Casa Trogon, Agua Vista Lodging, Montezuma, Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica
A solo monkey came swinging through the trees this morning just north of the casita. He (or she) had a white face, making him look like a little old white dudebro in an uncanny valley sort of way. So he was probably a white-faced capuchin. I later mentioned this to the guy who operates Aqua Vista and he said it was unusual to see isolated capuchins.
Yesterday I'd been unsure if the view of the sea from our casita was towards the Costa Rican mainland (that is, eastward or southeastward) or out into open ocean (southward). I couldn't see any distant landforms in the sea, so I was beginning to think the view was into the ocean. This morning, though, there was less haze in the air and I could see mountains beyond the sea and even mountains beyond those mountains, meaning the view is across the Gulf of Nicoya. The nearest land in that direction is about 25 miles away.
As I worked today on the project I am still cursed by, I recreated a bit by switching at some point from caffeinated Earl Grey tea to kratom tea, which I'd successfully smuggled through Costa Rican customs. (At this point I've smuggled kratom into Ecuador, France, Uganda, and Hungary.)
After class today, Gretchen walked home. To walk in that direction, she had to supply all the human effort to climb up all those crazy switchbacks as Route 624 ascends the escarpment above the beach. When she stumbled into the shade of the casita, she said something about being almost sick. At the time she was wearing her purple dress, which was covered in wet patches that I assumed to be sweat. But it was from her bathing suit underneath; she'd been swimming in the ocean. Gretchen immediately jumped into our plunge pool and within minutes she was completely restored.
Later we went together to the larger "infinity pool" near the center of Agua Vista, that arrangement she'd had to fight for. That pool is beautiful, its eastern edge a subtle waterfall for displaced water, creating an almost seamless connection to the water of the gulf a kilometer away.
At some point this evening, I saw an interesting bird with a long tail having feathers with patches of missing barbs on them, making the tips of the tail feathers resemble downward-pointing lollypops. I've been having good luck looking up unknown birds by just typing descriptions into Google Image Search, and my luck remained good for this bird. It was, I learned, a motmot. Interestingly, my impression that the bird resembled a kingfisher was leading me in the right direction; motmots belong to coraciformes, an order that includes kingfishers.
This evening, Gretchen and I collaborated to make spaghetti. We boiled the spaghetti with broccoli and then added red sauce. But the sauce was weird (perhaps it contained too much sugar) and so the meal was disappointing.
This evening I allowed myself to drink both beer and booze, which I can normally do while on "vacation," though I still have to have one drug & alcohol free day and one other day where I do not drink alone.
For whatever reason, I've been unable to shake my interest in the Chris Watts family annihilation case. Evidently I'm not the only one, and we seem to be in the midst of an ongoing YouTube obsession with the story. (It's rare that I follow such a non-political news story in real time.) I've been particularly enjoying the simple talking-head-only posts of a guy who calls himself The True Crime Loser. I've watched several of his uploaded videos the very day he uploaded them.
A rufous-naped wren. It's a large wren that is somehow even louder than familiar North American wrens.
For linking purposes this article's URL is:
http://asecular.com/blog.php?190129 feedback
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