28 April, 2001

We packed up and did a little cleaning in Simón and Vanessa's, said our see-you-soons and our thank yous to them and got to Monteverde at dusk. The drive was gorgeous as usual. We saw this bright orange tree that we hadn't seen before and a huge rainbow that only comes out okay in the picture.

Not sure where we'd be staying and wanting to gather our stuff that we'd left at his house before the trip to the island, our first step was to hunt down Frank. He offered us his old office (a separate large room down a path from his home) and we would have taken him up on it, gratefully, if we hadn't agreed on an exchange with the Hotel Bellbird (where we stayed with Axel last time) in town.

Just as we were getting settled into the room, thinking about where to eat, Steve remembered to call Frank and let him know we'd be staying at the hotel. Katie, Frank's wife, answered and asked if tonight wouldn't work for us to come over for dinner, sorry for the late notice and all that. Steve asked her to hold on a second to ask me (I could here the whole conversation) and nodded his head vigorously as he said, "Honey, does tonight work for dinner at Frank's?"

We ate tasty, thin-crusted home made pizza, really enjoyed talking to Frank and Katie, and finished off a silly movie with the kids. To look at him you would never guess that a children's movie could make Frank laugh (guffaw is a better word) so hard he was crying. We're still not sure if the movie was hilarious or if it was just the air of levity created by being around a room full of people having a good time together. Either way, we enjoyed ourselves.

We had run into Jeremy on our way into Frank's house earlier and he'd let us know that the students would all be going out to celebrate their first test being over. We were feeling sleepy and relaxed, but decided to see if they were still warming up at the first bar, or if they had already moved on to the dance club. We figured we were too pooped for dancing …

Just as we were about to turn into the driveway of the bar, a mob of tipsy students, led by cousin Travis, accosted Sandy. Travis jumped in front with Bb and most of the girls piled in back, leaving some poor students to walk to the club. Looks like we were going dancing after all!

We hung around for the first half hour or so, watching the others (who had been celebrating since about 7 p.m. - it was now 11) thinking that we weren't really in the dancing mood. Travis offered to pay for all of Bb's drinks if she wanted to catch up to the group. She declined, but got led off to the bar anyway and made a very strong drink. As she sipped it quietly with Steve (Travis was having none of this wallflower stuff) Travis came around again and decided it was time to dance.

Bb, unprepared and full of left feet, stumbled around the floor for the first few minutes, but got warmed up and had a great time being led in a fast and improvised swing around the floor. Trav, you're a great dancer, runs in the Ritchie blood. Thanks for dancing with me!

Steve got into it too, and after that and we danced until 1 a.m., taking pictures, watching people dance and having a great time. The later it got though, the weirder the DJ's choices got. Having only had one drink, we were not able to ignore the bad tunes. Besides, it was late and the kids were looking ready to go home as well. It was cold, windy and drizzly and everyone wanted a ride.

"Can some people sit on the roof rack?"

"Sure, as long as you don't do anything to the big white box on top."

"The thing that takes up the entire rack?"

"Yup. Try not to even breath on it."

"Okay!" Followed by truck rocking and crashes above.

All told, we had three on the roof rack and the rest piled inside -- there were 12 people in or on Sandy. Unquestionably the most she has carried while we've owned her. The students were so thankful and couldn't tell us enough how great we were -- it's a long, uphill, muddy walk home otherwise.

After dropping them all off, we drove back to the hotel, tired and happy.

We had noticed on our stroll around town before eating, that Return of the Jedi was playing at a cafe just up and across the street from our hotel at 3:30 p.m. Seemed like the perfect thing to do on this sleepy, cloudy, drizzly day. Despite Steve's assurances to the contrary, Bb doesn't believe that it gets sunny in Monteverde and she's just fine with that. It's nice to have a place to go that's cool and rainy.

We had just watched The Empire Strikes Back with Simónessa (our temporary nickname for Simón and Vanessa) so it was perfect that Return was playing. Turns out the cafe owner drapes a big white sheet on one wall of the cafe and aims a projector onto it. In the middle of the afternoon, it was hard to see some of the detail, but it was really fun, nonetheless and Bb had never seen this one. She's now hooked and wants to own the whole series on video or DVD (big hint for anyone thinking sending a gift for Bb's birthday at the end of May).

The cafe was crowded with kids, Frank's twins, Richard and Francis, among them, for this Sunday matinee. The cafe served free popcorn too. When the show was over, we went to pay and found out the matinees are free! Great. We'd enjoyed a bowl of the famous (Steve's been talking about this, the best milk shake and ice cream he's ever had, for years) Monteverde mint chip ice cream, pre-show, and paid for that and were on our way. On the way back to the hotel we couldn't help talking about what a great business idea it is for the cafe to host the free "kids" matinee (they sold a lot of pop and food) and also how wonderful it must be for local parents to have somewhere to send their kids for a few hours on a Sunday afternoon.

We drove (lazy us) up to the station, chatted with Travis and the other students, found Frank and decided on 3:45 p.m. to meet back up with him. Travis gave us a little tour of the station, which had changed a little since Steve was here: the pool table was gone, but there was a computerized card catalog and a library now. Much better for studying, admitted Steve -- but not nearly as fun. We left Trav to his work, but made plans to grab a beer with him later on.

That gave us just enough time for a short (hour and a half) hike through the forest adjacent to the station. The path into the forest goes from driveway to beautiful tropical forest in about three steps -- absolutely wonderful. It was sunnier and less windy this hike than the last time we were in Monteverde and we enjoyed the both quiet and the exercise tremendously. We met up with Megan (a student on a different program to whom we had given a short ride the last time we were around) again, just as we started out. She was very frustrated with the way her research project was going, so we commiserated with her for a while (Steve more than Bb, since he'd had to do the same thing when he was a student) and learned that every morning, she got to see a Resplendent Quetzal, as its nest was on the way to one of her ant traps (that was her compensation for a so-far unsuccessful experiment). We were so excited and asked if we could give her a ride in exchange for showing us where the nest was. She said sure, and we agreed to pick her up at 6:30 a.m. the next morning. We were so excited, but tried to remember that we might not see anything.

Some of the highlights of the hike included: watching a huge and beautiful violet-colored hummingbird, seeing the always fascinating Blue Morpho butterfly (a buttefly the size of a salad plate, the tops of its wings are brilliant indigo), hunting unsuccessfully for a frog tucked inside of a bromeliad, watching mist swirl through the tree tops, hearing the wonderfully eerie "squeeky swingset" call of a Black-Faced Solitaire (small bird, big voice) and admiring a variety of lichens and mosses growing on fallen tree trunks along the path. While still unwilling to retract her professed hatred of "hiking" Bb has started to admit that these walks through the forest are pretty darn fun.

At about 4:30 Frank finally tore himself away from his professorial duties and we followed him out of the station and down the hill to Stella's Bakery, where we had a very good conversation about dozens of topics. Among them were things such as the rigors of expatriate living, the potential to make a good living in Costa Rica, the relative merits of a few business ideas, the housing situation (for us) in Monteverde, and what Frank referred to as our "Mission". We thought (hoped) we might get him for an hour, but in the end we sat there until after dark -- maybe 6:30 or so. Thanks Fank, we really enjoyed the pow wow, it helped us get our heads around some ideas with which we've been struggling.

After collecting our gear from Frank and Katie's house (a million thanks to them for letting us store it there!) we collected Travis from the station and headed down to the Jungle Groove Cafe to enjoy another great conversation. This one about (among other things) the joys of having a close family, the trials of university life, and just how incredibly un-Costa Rican Monteverde is (though very wonderful, nonetheless). On the way home both Bb and Steve admitted to having mixed feelings about not living in Monteverde, but that for the time being it is wiser to be somewhere that is a little less remote.

We bundled up (the wind was still howling and it was still drizzling) and scooted out of the house to meet Megan. We brought binoculars, the bird book, both cameras. We were ready. We walked about 300 yards down a narrow path right of the road and Megan pointed up into a dead tree trunk, still standing, with several holes in it.

"The nest is in the top hole. See the quetzal's tail?"

We sure did! and Megan went on her way. Thank you so very much Megan.

We waited patiently for about 10 minutes, watching that tail twitch, disappear, reappear. Then all at once the whole bird was out! It's hard to describe the excitement on seeing such a beautiful, rare, endangered bird so close. He was only about 10 feet away, straight line. After he seemed to catch a bug or two to feed into the nest, he flew out to what Megan had said was his favorite perch and puffed and preened for us, then flew off to where we couldn't see him. As he did, the female swooped into the nest. We saw a bit of her back and front.

Then they switched again. By about the third time, we figured out their routine -- as soon as one would fly off we would immediately shift our gaze to the nest and usually catch the arrival of the other. Despite the predictable routine and the complete lack of shyness on the part of the male, we fear that we may not have gotten very many good pictures. Shooting from uneven ground, through the jungle, in the dim sub-canopy lighting, with occasional rain and unpredictable wind is tough! We've often thrown around the idea of trying to do some professional photography but at times like this that idea seems like a whole lot more work than when you are sitting on a beautiful beach clicking away at a sunset.

After watching for about half an hour, running out of 400 speed slide film (plenty of then-useless 100 speed film, but the birds just didn't want to sit still for the second-long exposure it would have required) and with both birds were out of our view: he had flown off and she was inside, we hiked on down the trail to see what there was to see.

Unfortunately, we came to an abrupt end of the forest. Open pasture lay in front of us. The stark contrast of lush, tangled, viney-thick forest to flat, cropped green pasture was too much for Jocelyn. She started crying as she thought of all the animals and plants and microorganisms that were either dead or had to fight to live in not enough space, because of this field. And it was a nice field. It hadn't just been slashed and burned. They do this, you know, all the time. Literally. Not a day does by on the road (and even now from our apartment) that we don't see someone burning what used to be forest to the ground: black stumps and vines twisted and smoldering. Or a field burned yesterday or last week that is gray ash and crippled dead stumped trees. Yes, this field was nice. Old tall trees were left standing, but all undergrowth was gone. It was then that she realized it wasn't enough to half-heartedly try to help the environment: recycle her plastics and papers so she could ignore and forget all the daily actions that so powerfully and detrimentally impact the environment.

Quite a tiring morning all in all. But we did see, in this field, a pair of Golden-browed Clorophonia. These little yellow-bellied birds (about 5 1/2 inches) are so beautiful, it's breathtaking. Their heads are iridescent all over, but especially on their heads, necks and breasts. The heads are blue-topped with orange and the male had a turquoise collar that turned into a black line between neck and chest. She wasn't quite as boldly colored, but beautiful as well. Picture hummingbirds as the move around, they change colors right? That's the iridescence of which we speak, but it's light, brilliant turquoise blue, orange and yellow. Incredible. And we wouldn't have seen them, if there hadn't been pasture there …

The fence making the border between jungle and pasture.	This is looking from the pasture into the jungle.	This is where the jungle used to be.

Our next activity for the day was attending a Venta de cachivache (rummage sale) put on by the Friends' school and tipped off to us by Katie who was helping to put it on. We were hoping to find a blender and other such things with which to furnish our new kitchen. Katie warned us that it would be mostly clothing. Beebee was just fine with that.

We did find a juicer, but decided we didn't really need/want one. The rest of the time we spent searching through five tables of clothes. Steve was a champion, playing hanger and mirror for Bb. We came away almost two hours later with six shirts (Banana Republic, Gap, Anne Taylor); a skirt (handmade); a dress (from Indonesia) and two scarves for Bb; and a pair of pants and a shirt for Steve as well as a pie tin stamped with a 10 cent price (it's nearing antique status). Oh, and three books. All for the bargain price of about $7 US dollars.

Bb was in heaven. Shopping, brand names, practically free prices and not being a primary consumer all at the same time!

Next on the agenda was the Monteverde cheese factory. We got there only to find it closed! Of course. May 1 is Labor Day in Costa Rica. Big holiday. Bb was crushed. She wanted cheese, milk and ice cream to take to her new home. Never fear, the supermarket in Santa Elena was open. Whew. We bought two gallons of ice cream (vanilla and coffee), two liters of milk, a kilo of butter, a pound of parmesan and a kilo of Monteverde Montino cheese, (stringy, but creamy and oh so good). Our little camping fridge was filled with dairy. Bb was such a happy girl.

It was late by the time we left town, which meant lots and lots and lots of traffic. It took us about six hours to do a three and a half hour drive. We made it to the new apartment by 6 p.m. and wanted very much to make Vanessa's yoga class, but but by the time we unpacked and were debriefed by the landlords, it was too late. We unpacked, cleaned, did about five loads of laundry (we washed every piece of clothing we owned) and rearranged instead.

The view from our living room