Lizards are abundant here. At night they all gather together on the ceiling, and while you´re doing your haterchy night watch between the hours of 6 and 6, you can lay down and watch them run around. They also chirp, or make a sound like chirping. I´ve never heard a lizard make any kind of noise so that´s fun.
Talk about what´s not fun: howler monkeys late at night, when you´re alone in the dark and don´t know what the hell that roaring sound it. I´ve gotten used to it, but it´s still a little disturbing. There´s also a monkey that kind of makes like a growling noise. So between the two of them, I get a little freaked at night.
Crocodiles in the ocean while we swim. Sarah, a nice Canadian, and I were swimming while Roy and Arnold were body surfing and all the sudden they high tail it out of there. Once they´re practically on the beach do they tell us the crocodile is out. Great, thanks a lot. Roy almost ran into him, so that was good enough incentive to get out. We knew he was out there, but wasn´t too worried about them.
We finally saw a mama turtle! I am told by the other girls at the camp that I summoned it with my dancing by the fire. I´ll take it. It was a Verde, and she didn´t lay any eggs, but Roy said we were really lucky to see her because this isn´t her normal time for coming ashore. We couldn´t take pictures because it was night and turtles are really sensitive to light, so no flash, but it was still amazing. She was probably a meter long and had bright white barnacles along her right side.
Mom - the sandbags are for the hatcheries, so all the sand doesn´t fall out, if that makes sense. The hatcheries (there are 2) are a little higher than the camp, closer to the beach, and so to keep all the sand in, there are walls made of sandbags. I´ve taken some pictures, I tried to put them up, but this computer went all crazy so I stopped.
Some bad news: because of the mudslides in Peru, I might not be able to go to Machu Picchu, which is so disappointing. Hopefully it will subside a little so I can see a little of it, but I won´t know for sure until I get there.
Off back to Alajuela tomorrow, where I´ll be for a day and half. I´m really looking forward to doing a real load of laundry, everything here is by hand, and I don´t do too well doing that. But I try. I´ll try to go to San Jose on Sunday to go to a market and see the town. Everyone I´ve talked to doesn´t like San Jose, but I wouldn´t mind going for half a day.
I think that´s all. Hope all is well wherever you are.
Claire - actually, my name here, according to Arnold is ¨Clear¨ so that´s what I´ve been going by. Ciao.
