Amazing Bugs

Look at this!

 

This insect was floating in the pool the other day, still alive, and we fished it out so it could dry off. It was gone about half an hour later. It is absolutely amazing looking and we have never seen anything like it.

So I turned to my friend, Claudia, who is a protozoologist and also a fellow artist here in Atenas. She also lives part of the year in Saintes, France, and her blog posts from there are so interesting to read. As usual, she solved our insect query in short order and here is what she said:

" It's a Hemiptera, a "True Bug", belonging in the insect group called "Planthoppers". They all look a bit like plants, one way or another. This one, a Fulgora laternaria, is called peanut-headed bug or alligator bug. It's harmless, no teeth! Just a sap-sucking snorkel-mouth. What looks like big, black eyes are just dots to scare potential predators."

So thank you, Claudia, and thank you peanut-headed bug for showing us yet another fantastic creature of Costa Rica.

 

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D.o.g.'s Squeaky Toys

We are currently dog and house sitting for our neighbors. D.o.g. is a young, active border collie and very smart.

D.o.g.

She has lots of toys and they turn up all over the place. We throw them for her and they get buried in bushes, or she drops them and then forgets about them. Up until yesterday, she had been playing with quiet toys. Suddenly, she rediscovered a green squeaky ball and fell in love with it all over again - squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak ......

Eventually we had to hide it for our own sanity. She looked and looked and finally decided it was in a closet. It wasn't but we did discover a brand new squeaky chicken still in its plastic wrap. Bonanza! squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak ....

I want you to enjoy our experience along with us, so here is a video I made:

 

Fun With Dogs from Diana Miskell Turlock on Vimeo.

 

We have come up with some ways to hide these toys:

Chicken in the freezer

Chicken on the BBQ

The only location that stumped her was the freezer. She sniffed out all the other hiding places.

 

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A Busy Couple of Days

A few days ago we were taking groceries out of the back of our neighbour's SUV and left the hatchback open but didn't notice. You guessed it, the battery became dead as a doornail. Jorge, our favorite taxi driver, was called and came to the rescue but he couldn't get the battery to take a charge from his taxi. Nevertheless, struggling with the inadequate tools we had to offer, he managed to pull the battery from the SUV and take it away to a shop somewhere in Atenas. Overnight, the shop managed to recharge the battery and Jorge brought the charged battery back first thing the next morning. He also brought proper tools for quickly reinstalling the battery. Over protestations from Jorge, Lance gave him 20,000 colones, about $40. This included dealing with not only the battery problem but also ferrying me around to buy more groceries, etc.

When called upon, we are well cared for by Jorge. If you plan to spend any amount of time in Costa Rica, it is important to establish friendships with the Ticos and not to squirrel yourself away in some gated community where all expectations are like those in your homeland.

With the battery charged, I was able to drive into Atenas, take out USD from the ATM to pay our rent at Banco de Costa Rica. Then I walked to the Correos (post office) and mailed a card to my mother, walked up to the vet's place and bought a bag of kibble for the dog "D.o.g.", went to the shop where you can pay bills or add colones to a cell phone and added one mil each to Sharon & Gordon's cells (we're looking after their house and D.o.g). One mil is about $2 and covers about three months of basic cell phone service in Costa Rica.

While doing these errands in Atenas, I encountered and had to say hi and hugs to various taxi drivers other than Jorge who have been missing me since we have our neighbour's SUV for the time being. One (Rodrigo) even quizzed me on my Spanish as he is often wont to do ("what color is your house?"). Then to the Coope to buy some groceries and finally home. I even made oatmeal cookies today. Needed two swims after all that. Oh and I also did a wash so we have clean bedding again.

Walked down to our house to check on it and water my orchids. Hotdogs for dinner tonight, not much work. Thursday is Meriam's day to clean here so we try to keep out of her way and just go down to our house. She arrives around 0700 and works until about 1:00 pm or so with unbelievable effort.

It's exhausting living down here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Sunrise

This past week, we have been treated to some spectacular sunrises rising over the Caribbean side of Costa Rica.

Just 146.85 km (91.25 miles) from Atenas as the crow flies, Puerto Limón is the coastal Caribbean's largest city, in the province of Limón. It is one area of Costa Rica that we have yet to explore. The province of Limón has about 125 miles of shoreline between Panama and Nicaragua.

I hope you enjoy these photos that I took over several mornings.

And here is one of an early evening storm coming in:

 

 

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Bigger and Better in Costa Rica

This amazing creature was on the wall of our house yesterday:

It was very large - between four and five inches long, best estimate. I think it is a katydid but would appreciate any help with the correct identification.

It was so amazing looking. The wings look just like leaves, the eyes are brilliant yellow and it has a red edged ruffle on the back of its head.

Insects here can be very large!

 

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Another Visit to Our Medical Clinic

This morning we had our regular four month appointments at the Barrio Jesus EBAIS clinic. Unfortunately, there was some misunderstanding between the Atenas blood work clinic and our assigned appointments at the Barrio Jesus EBAIS.

No problem, our doctora said we can come back in four months and gave us enough scripts to carry us through.

Sitting in the Barrio Jesus EBAIS clinic is always a lesson on learning how to live here. Apparently a nasty insect was sitting on my arm and a Tica swatted me and killed whatever it was. Then she showed me her hand ... a dead, bloody insect ... and she went and washed it off.

They have a TV at this EBAIS, cooking shows and soap operas, in Spanish. An elderly woman came in on the arms of two people and the nurse looked after her. It's just very laid back and really nice.

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Eyes on Costa Rica - Update

Costa Rica continues to remain under a microscope. The number of identified countries and quasi-countries from where people have visited this blog has risen to 105. The latest countries are Nigeria, Belarus and Macau.

Since November 2012 there have been many visits from different cities and towns throughout the world - over 16,000 visits from over 2,300 individually identified places.

The red dots indicate the approximate location of individual places. However, when they get cluttered, one location can be masked out by another.

The USA accounts for about half the places. The most northerly places have been Tromsø, Norway, followed by Murmansk, Russia. The most southerly places have been Timaru, New Zealand followed by Temuco, Chile.

As well, visits continue to occur from unidentified places. Collectively, these include visits from "unknown country", "anonymous proxy", "satellite provider", "Europe", "Asia/Pacific Region", "U.S. Armed Forces Europe", "U.S. Armed Forces Pacific" and unidentified places within a given state, province or other region of a given country.

The rate of increase in the number of countries has leveled off. I will be surprised if many more emerge.

 

 

 

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