Brahamas, Iguanas, Strange Amphibians

Burping brahamas, petunia eating iguanas, and Texas size earthworms that are really amphibians...that pretty much sums up the last two weeks.

The other day while on our morning walk, we heard the strangest bellering from some cows or four legged type cow critters.  Anyway, I remarked to our neighbor that I had never heard such strange noises from a cow.  He responded that those noises were nothing compared to the noises he heard one night.  He said when he had first moved to the neighborhood here he heard some very odd sounds one very early morning.  He got up in his scivvies to explore the origin only to discover burping brahamas over his fence near his bedroom window!  Seriously?  I have yet to verify this phenomenon, but it does sound intriguing.

Now, about those petunia eating iguanas.  I purchased some beautiful petunias to put in three large planters next to our pool.  One of the planters is shaped like a big frog.  The plants were doing great and providing lots of color.  One day last week my dad, the Costa Rican sloth, was laying in his hammock and shouted that I should come see my petunias as they were quickly disappearing.  As I approached the planters I understood what my dad meant.  Right in front of him in the hammock was a big stinkin iguana making a lunch buffet out of all of the flowers off the petunia plants.   Plants actually bloom more profusely if you snip the dead flowers regularly.  So, in interest of living communal peace and harmony, I must find a way to communicate to Mr Iguana that he is welcome to come for buffet, but only after 5:00 pm.  This way, we can enjoy the flowers for the day and he can eat and prune at the same time.  

With all of the welcome heavy regular rain downpours we have had there have been apparent sightings of one of the most oddball critters we have encountered.  Unfortunately, our encounter was with the critter's remains rather than alive.  Apparently, there is an amphibian that looks more like a snake or Jurassic park size earthworm that periodically comes out during the heavy rains.  Our neighbor, John, informed me that the name of the amphibian is a purple caecilian.

We also had the opportunity to visit the farmer's market in Alajuela yesterday with our neighbors from Texas who just returned to Atenas last week.  The market is the largest of it's kind in Costa Rica.  We had a great time exploring all the stands and even tried out some new exotic fruits.  We purchased a big slice of soursop (Guanabana) since my hubby has been wanting to try this super fruit.  I made some sherbert out of the piece which was enjoyed by all of us this afternoon.  The sherbert tasted sweet and sour and had very aromatic smell.  I felt it was a great palate cleanser.