Week 8 - Costa Rica

Filming is almost half way through. Our schedule has us filming for 6 weeks, then a break week and then another 6 weeks of filming. The break week is the time when Alan and I make sure we have enough animals to last the next 6 weeks of filming, so it’s not really a break for us. However, sue to that fact we only have 3 months on our visa, we need to leave the country for 72 hours to renew the visa. We were thinking that we might visit Panama for a few days, but the production company has decided we are going to the USA. So Orlando it is, and we need to organise our flights. So early this week, Mylene and I put our heads together to work out when and how.

I took the girls to the beach in Puerto Jimenez on Monday morning, where they were happy building sandcastles and playing in the water for a few hours. Monday was a public holiday for Mother’s Day, so I was hoping to bonus an extra present this year, or at least breakfast in bed or dinner, but it wasn’t to be!

Tayen and Saige on the beach in Jimenez

This week is again full of animal adventures. We went up the public walking trail in Dos Brazos, and I saw my first terciopello and a coral snake. We also went out to the road we had found on the weekend after work on Tuesday, only to find that the road had been fenced off, and most of the rainforest on either side bulldozed! This kind of thing happens to us a lot. Nearly every person we see walking along the roads is carrying a machete, and they seem to slash every bush and shrub along the side of the road. Our neighbour Oscar is great at this. The road outside our house used to be full and bushy until about 3 weeks after we arrived when Oscar thought he would clear the road. Even after repeated requests for him to leave it (which he cheerfully agrees to) we still find him slashing the plants back on either side of the road. Still we searched the road heading out to Matapalo, and found a few interesting things alaong the way.

Tayen ready for bug hunting!

A juvenile Green Iguana, one of 6 we found asleep in a tree

The power is out for most of the day on Wednesday, and Alan surprises me by coming home from the studio at 10:30am. The power is out in Pto. Jimenez as well, and stays out all day. Malcolm and Mylene come out to our place for dinner, and stay to do a night shoot in our garden of the fire-bellied orb-weaver that has set up in one of our trees. They film until just before midnight.

Tayen is such a good wildlife spotter. She has found quite a few bugs that we have needed, as well as knowing the calls of the macaws and chestnut-mandibled toucans. She races outside every time she hears them. On Wednesday she was wildlife spotting again, eyeing some squirrel monkeys playing in the trees in the front of our property. So we all raced down there to have a closer look. Sure enough there were around 6 of them chattering to each other and jumping from tree to tree. It was magical to see. Unfortunately we couldn't get a photo.

The girls took some time out to do something they had never done before, but something I had grown up doing – running through a sprinkler!!

Having fun in the sprinkler

Fire Ants. These tiny ants are everywhere on our property, and you almost can’t walk anywhere without getting stung by them. There seem to be varying strengths of stings, depending on the kind of fire ant you get stung by. I’ve seen grown men run screaming while they were slapping their legs. Poor little Tayen was stung this week by 9 ants on the one foot, and the actual sting hurts, but then after around 30 seconds the fire begins, and it feels like you are burning. So far this has been the worst thing we have experienced in Costa Rica!

This week we are feeling rather stressed at how many animals we still need to collect for shooting. The invertebrate diversity in Dos Brazos seems to have reached a plateau. We are still finding lots of bugs, but all of them we have either used before, or can’t use as they aren’t predators. We need to find some different habitats to find a greater diversity of bugs. Who would have thought it in Costa Rica!!

The weekend brings a few exciting things our way. Carlos and his wife Roci have been keeping an eye out for wildlife for us, as they know we want to see as much as possible. So Saturday they come over with the cutest bundle of fur I have seen – it is a baby 3 toed sloth! We have been hanging out to see a sloth, and this one we actually get to hold. We are so excited and I can’t keep the grin off my face!

Who wouldn't love that face?

Too cute!

Sunday it is party time! We have missed/will miss out on so many birthdays of family members that we decided to have a party to celebrate. We bake a cake, sing happy birthday, play pass the parcel and have a great time! Happy birthday to Tamara, Kristen, Grandpa (Garry), Oma (Yvonne), Pake (John), Oscar, Annie, Laura, Aliyah, Robbie, Emily, Adam and Tayen's friend Willow.

Saige is helping with the clean-up!

Icing the cake

Icing (frosting) in a tub!

The finished product

Party time!

Playing with pass the parcel prizes!

And hooray!! We have internet that works at home! It is so unbelievable, I almost don’t want to jinx it by saying that it works! Tristan managed to get an internet key in San Jose that is compatible with ICE (the telecommunication company in Costa Rica) and it has a aerial strong enough to pick up the signal from the towers! It has only taken 2 months, which for Costa Rica is not too bad, apparently!