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Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Chili Cookoff in Costa Rica

Last Sunday my better half and I decided to have a date away from the parents.  We headed off to the annual Atenas Chili Cookoff in a nearby neighborhood.  The event is held to raise monies for a local orphanage.  I was primarily interested in buying some books, and thought the cause was worthy of supporting as well.  
We picked up our neighbor down the street who lives with her 80 something year old father.  She needed a break too....while we love our parents, it is not always a picnic taking care of them full time, especially when one of them suffers from dementia.
We had a wonderful afternoon sampling chili, buying books, and visiting with many new friends we have made since we arrived, including some of our soon to be neighbors when we move into our own home.  The event was very well attended and nicely organized.
Yesterday, Mr M (my hubby) and I went for another hike.  We did a big loop from our rent home to an area known as vainilla over to Santa Eulalia and then back to the house.  The route we took consisted of paved road, then gravel, then road under construction through jungle like area and then back out to civilization.  The best part was that we saw a different species of Toucans, which appeared to be Collared Aracaris.  We also saw a hawk of some type being chased in the air by a smaller bird.
We are still having water delivered every 4 days due to the serious water shortage here.  This morning when I was walking my doggie, I saw one of the neighbors stop a small blue truck from the municipal water authority, AYA, and plead with them to do something about the water.  He told them he had not had a shower in 5 days!  I feel for the people in this neighborhood having to endure the shortages.  Hopefully, the issue will soon be resolved.  We are just thankful to have a landlord willing to pay for water to be delivered as needed.
So this afternoon I came across this interesting "walking stick" bug so I had to share a pic of it...pretty neat...definitely great disguise as a stick.

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