Crocodiles, monkeys, and. . . Scorpions

Our great family friends arrived last week and promptly met a mother scorpion carrying 9 babies on her back. By the time my talented photographer friend Carol took the above shot, the tail had been snipped off.

But before that, they met William, our neighbor and taxi driver extraordinaire. The man runs like a Swiss train and has been a tremendous person to call a friend. Like many Ticos, he is eager to help, philosophical, kind and if you come and visit you will meet him at one time or another. He is full of hilarious aphorisms like, "the worst thing you can do is give up before you try" or "better to arrive slowly than never arrive at all". A personal favorite, "the milkman is not going to tell you he has watered down his milk." (!)  He even has this handcuff type 'puzzle' that he has been known to throw to passengers to see if they can solve it.

The kids are on a two week semester break and what a time we've had. J's bosom buddy Sam has been reminding me through his eyes what an incredible place of beauty Costa Rica is and how exotic it can be at every turn.

From snakes

to toucans

to sailing North Pacific waters

and taking in these kinds of sunsets

  a lot of fun has been had. We will miss Sam.

 We had an up close and personal experience with white-faced monkeys this week.

and 100 year old crocodiles. Yes. They are as creepy as they sound.

Picture a small dog and you get how big this iguana is- it looked like a small dinosaur!

 This fellow was motionless in a river bramble. Our boat captain was leery- turns out porcupines really can shoot!

We saw a zillion crocodiles, one after another. . .

Back at our temporary ranch, simple pleasures reigned supreme.

 As beautiful and majestic as the surroundings are,  and Guanacaste is ruggedly beautiful. What none of us will soon forget is the sacrifice being played out by the caregivers of the house we rented. The couple had left behind their 6 and 9 year old children in Managua to be cared for by a grandmother so they could come and work. The sadness in the Mom was impossible to ignore.

Photo by Carol Waldenberg


It made it an even greater gift to see our kids playing in the surf and radiating joy;

Carol and I couldn't help but to imagine what if it had been us? Still trying to wrap my mind around the hardship and feeling very lucky.