Week 6 - Costa Rica

Monday bought on a migraine that I could have done without! I was due to go out bug hunting with Carlos that night, and looking after 2 kids while having a migraine is not the best combination. So Alan went out instead. He had spent all day shooting the amblypygids which went ok, but he couldn’t get them to eat much other than moths.

My migraine had disappeared by morning, so Tuesday night I went out with Carlos to a new trail across the river. This wasn’t really a trail at all; we were walking along a creek for quite a while, and it was hard going! Then we turned from the creek to climb up a cliff face – it was around a 60 degree angle we were climbing, through chest high grass and shrubs. I was not comfortable with this at all, not knowing what might be hiding there. All I could think about were vipers, tarantulas and wandering spiders, and was madly hoping that Carlos would lead us to a trail. Which he finally did, but it was a very disused trail, and so not much of one at all. Part of the trail was used by horses, so I saw the largest mammal I had seen yet! As well as the bugs, we also saw a vine snake and a primate of some kind, but it was too dark to identify.

The caterpillars we had been feeding up had transformed into chrysalises, and this week they finally emerged as beautiful Owl Butterflies. Alan ended up using them as background animals for the TV series.

The Owl butterfly emerging

The Owl Butterfly

We’ve been finding a lot of animals that we would love to use in the TV series, but we can’t use them when we have them as we need to stick to a schedule. This has been a bit difficult as often the animals we have collected only have short life spans, so by the time we will be able to use them, they may have died. So it was a great relief to hear from the production company that we will be able to shoot the animals in which ever order we like, as long as we give them an idea in advance of what is actually happening, for scripts to be written. It will also allow us to hold the animals for a shorter period of time, meaning that those that can be will be released sooner.

Alan and I were reading this email from the production company while sitting outside on our porch. I suddenly felt a tremor, and thought that Alan was rocking the bench seat we were both sitting on. When he denied it, we both realised that the flower stalks planted just outside the porch were moving, and the dishes were rattling in the kitchen – we were having an earthquake! I have to admit I got a bit scared. It is the weirdest feeling to see everything moving around you when you have no control over it. It lasted for under 30 seconds, and then everything was still again. Apparently earthquakes are quite frequent in the Osa, but that this one was pretty strong compared to others they usually have.

On Thursday we finally got our own internet key – hooray! This one was issued by ICE, the only telecommunications company in Costa Rica, who had just started selling the internet keys again after not selling them for a few years. Let’s hope this one works well!

Tayen, Saige and I went into Pto. Jimenez to have lunch with the crew, and we visited the local playground, where we spotted a white-faced capuchin monkey sitting in one of the coconut palms. I managed to get a blurry photo on my phone of it chewing a coconut and ripping the green skin off it. The girls were very excited, as this was the first monkey we’d seen up close. The only other one we’d seen might have been the same monkey crossing the nearby bridge in front of our car. While at the playground, the girls met a met a little friend called Dejanita, who was teaching Tayen how to swing upside down and cross the monkey bars. She didn’t speak any English, but this didn’t matter to either girl as they both chatted away to each other in their own language! I knew enough Spanish to ask her name and how old she was (6 years old) and to tell her our names, and how old the girls were. It was nice to see Tayen and Saige playing with their new friend.

The white-faced capuchin monkey

Later that night, after Alan had finished up at the studio, we drove home and the girls fell asleep in the car. We carried them straight into bed fully clothed, and when I checked on them before I went to bed a few hours later, I noticed a stone in the girls bed (they are sharing a double bed). I wondered where it had come from, then noticed that Tayen pockets were bulging! I pulled out all sorts of things, and could not believe how much she had collected throughout the day and how on earth she had fit it all into her little pockets! I just had to take a photo of it!

Tayen's pocketful of goodies!

On Friday we noticed that our little tadpole pool was also a breeding ground for mosquitos, which we didn’t need more of so we decided to empty out our pool of wrigglers and carry all the tadpoles to a large puddle out the front. This puddle has not dried up since we’ve been here. So the girls helped to catch out the tadpoles, and to collect a few for us to keep in a vase to watch them grow.

Collecting tadpoles

releasing the tadpoles into the puddle

Our tadpoles that we will raise

Meanwhile, Steve had set up our internet key, which we found did not work at our house at all! Tristan’s internet key only worked in a few places around the outside of our house, where it could pick up the signal coming from the tower in Puerto Jimenez. We expected this internet key to have a stronger aerial, and so to pick up a stronger signal in more places. We had also purchased the fastest internet plan available, but this was obviously a waste since we couldn’t even pick up a signal! This whole process was getting very frustrating!!

On Saturday night we had Carlos, his wife Roci and their two sons over for a potluck dinner; Steve came along too to help be a translator, as Roci and her sons don’t speak any English. I made a lasagne, and Roci made some pizzas, so it was an Italian potluck dinner! The girls were very excited to meet the boys, who are 11 and 14 years old. They had great fun having balloon fights! It was nice to have a social night with some of the locals from Dos Brazos.

Dinner with Steve and Carlos, Roci and their boys

On Sunday, the power was out for quite a long time, and we were trying to make orb frames; drilling holes into the bases for the branches to go in, so it took a lot longer than it should have. There was also a bit of an electrical storm that night, and the wind was up so Alan didn’t end up going out bug hunting with Steve.