Fuegos artificiales en la cresta a medianoche de anoche

(Fireworks on the ridge at midnight last night)

FELIZ ANO NUEVO, AMIGOS Y FAMILIARES!

(HAPPY NEW YEAR, FRIENDS AND FAMILY!)

https://www.facebook.com/reel/855114060719166

 

Vientras de Navidad/An0 Neuvo esta manana:

Christmas/New Years Day winds this morning: 11182102

 

I didn’t see anyone on the walk (7978 steps) this morning, but I took some good pictures and a video so you can see what New Years Day looks like foliage-wise here in Costa Rica. Not too shabby, eh, you guys in northern climes? 🙂

 

 

I also  — as promised in an earlier post — got some images of tarantula lairs:

 

 

From what I’ve read, when a tarantula is home it weaves a web at the entrance as a kind of “tripwire” to let it know when something has arrived at its doorstep so it can see if its edible.  I did not try tripping the webs to see if I’d get a response.  Tarantulas are nocturnal and it was broad daylight when I was out walking.

 

Weather Forecast

 

The weather forecast for Bolivar Province (where I am right now) says it will get up to 89 degrees today at around 6 p.m. I’ll believe that when I see it.  They probably mean at lower levels than here (4500 feet).  89 would be a record here, I believe, by several degrees.

 

Spent Time with Cat and Nicky Yesterday 

 

I spent some time with my landlady Cat and her son Nicky yesterday.  Nicky and I are on very similar wavelengths; Cat and I agree on most things political although she isn’t as “into” the weeds as Nicky and I are. She considers some of it conspiracy theories that we don’t. Nicky and I follow US politics (we’re wonky that way) more assiduously, so we see where some of the so-called conspiracy theories have legs and facts behind them. (Epstein Files, for example. Epstein had his fingers in lots of pies across the globe; he wasn’t “just” a pedophile and trafficker of young girls, although that was certainly heinous enough all on its own to earn him eternity in hell — if hell is real, which I don’t believe it is. Which is too bad, in his and T-Wrecks’ cases.)

 

But Cat was telling me that when the rainy season returns here in about April, for a brief period of time a swarm of what look like flying ginger-color ants appear out of nowhere and can sting like mad. She says when I see them to duck indoors and stay there as much as possible until a day or two later when I’ll see their dead carcasses littering the ground. Then it’s safe to venture out again.

 

She says there’s also a nasty large bee or wasp that packs a wallop and raises welts for days. I know about that one. Haven’t seen any of them yet, though, so I reckon they are around at a different time of year than the seasons I’ve experienced so far.

 

ORAL HISTORY OF THE GRECIA FERIA IGUANAS

 

Cat said that her husband once caught a smallish iguana and was keeping it as  a pet. A friend wanted to take it for a while, so the friend put it in a kind of harness to keep track and control of it, but it got away and went down into the stream near the feria.

 

She said apparently it was pregnant because starting around that time (30 plus years ago), iguanas started popping up all over the area.  She said at one point, they were at her mother’s house a good long way away from the feria and he spotted something HUGE in a tree above the feria from as far away as they were.  He got his binoculars and discovered it was a MASSIVE IGUANA (bright green and yellow), which is why they spotted it in the tree in the first place.

 

But I just looked up the natural history of the feria iguanas and learned that they are native to this area (at least two of the species are, the green and the spiny black ones) so I think it was just coincidental that a friend of her future husband lost an iguana there. After all, if there weren’t already iguanas there, there would have been no one for his to mate with unless she happened to already be pregnant when they lost her.  His pet may well have helped add to the population, but I very much doubt that it was the “Eve” that they imagined it to be!

 

Still, it was a charming story: 

single, errant iguana becomes the progenitor of the world famous Grecia feria iguanas!

 

 

Have I told you lately that I adore my landlady and her family?  I do, I do, I do. 

 

We simply MUST stay in touch after I move!!!  

 

That’s about all I have so far today. Carry on!