Sloths, Spanish, Steve

Costa Rica is FANTASTIC!!

We arrived on Friday and settled quickly into our Home Stay accomodations. The house is nice and Maria takes good care of us. Her cooking is excellent and we are very comfortable there.

Sunday we took a trip to Tortuguera National Park.

On our way there, first we saw a smoking volcano. The morning was sunny and clear and beautiful. Then we saw a BANANA PLANTATION with a processing plant. There was nothing industrial and the whole process was outside. We watched the people working hard, taking bananas from the field and sorting them into the boxes that arrive in our supermarkets.

Next we took a 3 hour boat ride on a river flowing into the Carribbean through the rain forest. We saw SLOTHS!! One sloth was rather active and we saw his face. The other was close enough to touch but he was just hanging there -- like a sloth. We also saw the JESUS CHRIST lizards. This is the lizard that runs across the top of the water, also known as the basilisk. Steve was the hero in spotting an 8 foot crocodile with a hunch back that we were able to get very close to. He also spotted a large green iguana.

After the boat ride, we took a walk which ended on a Carribbean beach. This beach is famous for nesting green sea turtles. We saw several nests where the giant mom sea turtles had hauled themselves up the beach and layed their eggs. We were told a few babies have already hatched and made their way to the ocean.

On Monday we got down to our main business of learning Spanish. When we arrived, we were tested to let the school know that we are muy estupido. After the initial humiliation was complete, we were assigned to an excellent teacher and we are learning. We are working hard, so of course we will be fluent in no time!