Semana Santa

Jose holds up a deadly Coral snake he killed just outside Janet’s apartment on Easter Sunday. Note the color bands: Red & Yellow May Kill a Fellow. Also found at Tigre: harmless false-corals with black separating yellow and red bands and they are not complete circles.

Holy Week. Traditionally celebrated in Costa Rica with huge, crowded Christian processions held in just about every Costa Rican village and town. Passion - they really get physical on Good Friday – in some towns, the designated Jesus actually drags a cross and gets hung up; then, on Saturday, he gets shrouded, hefted up by many hands and carried down the streets; and by the Resurrection on Sunday, just about everyone is carrying home some incoherent body from all the family fiestas… Everybody is on vacation - No work! No school! Off to the beach, river or mountains; camping, sporting and having a great time.

We stayed home the entire week except Wednesday, when the Four Horsemen celebrated their 9th Annual British Birthday Boys Party. This year it was a rather subdued affair. Pestilence continues to recover from surgery, and couldn’t party to excess, though he did manage to moon the camera… War’s family abandoned him for the beach. Death is taking more care what he eats and drinks these days. Famine was exhausted with a sore throat and coughing - and no, he would not accept any honey-lemony-herbal remedy from the likes of me; only a dose of Gin & Tonic would do. He is still readjusting to paradise after a week in pleasantly chilly (to him) Michigan.

Normally, during Semana Santa, our employees prefer to stay home and work, and get paid overtime - but not this year. Everybody wanted to go camping. Where did they go? Right here at Finca El Tigre’s Rancho Abajo. Why would Janet and the Parra gang prefer to sleep in the jungle with all those nocturnal creatures – big scary spiders and deadly snakes, when they could remain in the comfort of their own beds, just 500 meters up the road? Because camping is fun!

And what does that mean for us? We find ourselves with the whole place to ourselves. Home alone! No staff. Yippee! Let’s go all out and play one of our favorite games – Guard Patrol. So we don our N.O.L.A. S.W.A.T. caps and head out to do the rounds. Up at the water tanks we have a view of the entire Finca, and on out to the Nicoya Peninsula. The Guards meet for a tryst at the stable yard, where the dogs still laze around. The dogs take over night duty at dusk.

We visit the chickens. We watch Roger the Rooster pace back and forth just outside the hen house, strutting his stuff and puffing his feathers. Should we let the girls out and get a good show? Chicken watching is such fun – you definitely learn all about ‘pecking order’ - seems every animal has a behavior we can recognize in the human species. And Roger Rooster has such fun going after all his girls.

But it’s too late in the day and predators lurk about!

We finish patrol back in the kitchen for gin & tonics, glasses filled with ice. Solar living is good with modern, efficient appliances. The dogs take over the patrol for the night.

So much has suddenly burst into bloom! The entire countryside has fragrance in the air from blooming coffee and citrus and so much more…
…Solanaceae species are in bloom and fruit. Need I say more? The family of strong medicines, poisons, intoxicating fragrances and … mankind’s beloved tomato. In the garden, I associate the Solanac family with exotic scents and spices and sensory pleasures. Everywhere, the butterflies, birds and bees flutter all around the Actinus arborescens (Guittite) creating a mouth-dropping spectacle. You just stand there, paralyzed, watching the scene. Time seems to stand still. So many species of bees and wasps – an entomologist’s treasure trove. Other El Tigre Solanacs in bloom/fruit: Brugmansia candida, Datura species (Deadly Nightshade), Solanums (Naranjillas), Capsicums (Full range of peppers from Sweet to Piquant such as Tabasco, Habanero, Cayenne, etc.), Cestrum species (strong smells: sometimes enticing, sometimes stinky), Nicotiana tabacum (yes, the smoking kind but we don’t).

Achiotillo (Vismea baccifera CLUSIAC.) is also blooming and fruiting. A few of the white-faced monkeys at El Tigre rub the orange sap all over their faces as a kind of makeup. This morning, some of the monkeys were climbing all over the canopy of a huge Miconia argentea (Santa Maria) tree, feasting on the fruits and not paying any attention to Flopsy and me, sitting below. The dogs used to bark and harass the monkeys, and the monkeys responded by throwing sticks and fruits down at them. Now they just ignore each other. This is progress - becoming harmless to each other…

There’s great bird watching now with so much in fruit. It is said that to see the birds, look for the fruiting trees and insect habitats. At Tigre, just sit down near a fruiting tree and enjoy the show. It takes a few minutes for the birds to get used to your presence, but soon they come right back out and begin feeding again and you get a great show. If you want a list of bird species at El Tigre, then Google: bird list, Hacienda El Rodeo, Mora, Costa Rica. One of the best bird-watching trees in bloom right now is the Hortiga (Urera baccifera). Saw a kind of bright, orange-breasted warbler - not sure what - Skutches Book still in storage. What I’ve learned is that you don’t need to walk to find birds - sorry Bill and Cyndy! But Cyndy did it though, after battling and winning breast cancer – she hiked all the way to Tigre hill and back.

Billy B. Boa

Jose holding Billy B. Boa
The guys found Billy B. Boa heading for the hen house for a quick snack. Everybody came over for a look and all of the kids decided that they liked Billy B. He was so easy going that we could almost pick him up and drape him around our shoulders. But Jose quite rightly reminded us that Billy is a big boy and might constrict a bit too hard so they settled for just petting him for a while. Then we decided to relocate him away from the hen house. Jose found a branch for Billy to wrap around and then hoisted him up and hauled him off to his new home: a large Fig tree located just below the house.
What a parade. Jose led the way holding Billy aloft on the branch, Billy’s head bobbing around lazily, looking us over with aristocratic aplomb, as if this was quite the natural thing - to be treated with the proper pomp and circumstance accorded to his species. All of the kids followed behind, everyone all excited about our new pet - a very laid-back Boa Constrictor. Marcia and I darted around the scene taking photographs and Janet brought up the rear, bellowing her fury at us all - How Billy would eat the cats and small dogs. How she wanted that Boa down in the Charral, far, far away. How if animals went missing it would be our fault for adopting that blasted Boa. Janet was really pissed. Well, she need not have fretted.
Billy lasted one night and disappeared. We have not seen him back at the hen house. No hens have gone missing yet, even the wild ones wandering around the stable yard with their little chicks. I think Billy took Janet’s suggested and headed down to the Charral. A few months a go, I saw a huge Boa down there. Perhaps it will meet Billy and they can be friends. Or perhaps one will kill the other. Such is the way with the jungle. One thing is for sure, Janet utterly denies taking the machete to him!

Besides Billy B., another mascot has adopted us: Iggy, the Orchid Eating Iguana. We discovered Iggy the morning I had planned to photograph a magnificent cattleya orchid, just budding into bloom. The orchid suddenly disappeared from the night before – the flowers and the whole plant – gone! Was it those blasted Toucans? No, our orchid-eater was none other than Iggy, whom we had unwittingly dislodged from an old stone wall pulled down a few weeks before. So he moved to the big Guazuma tree located next to the house where we have a lot of orchids. Had.

March in Michigan…
…is still winter, make no mistake about it. The Lake-effect brings in the snow and, if you see the sun shining bright & sunny through your kitchen window, don’t go outside - not even for a minute - it’s even colder when the sun’s out. Freezing, tear-cicle making cold of the crying kind. Even the kids take regular breaks from ice skating to thaw out their frozen feet. They sit inside, sipping hot chocolate until their feet starts to burn, hot as fire, thawing out slowly, but the kids can’t take the burning pain so they go back out on the skating rink again and it feels better. I know that feeling well.
When it starts to snow, the temperature rises to around freezing point – perfect for skating, snow skiing and building snow forts - winter wonderland fun - the sort that kids live for. Not working adults. Not most adults and certainly Not Gerald.
So why is Gerald flying up to Michigan on March 11th - on his 59th birthday!!!
Because he is a Saint and I owe him. I don’t have my passport this week - our lawyer needed it for residency paperwork – and I can’t travel without it.
Mom is suffering from a horrible case of shingles! She feels intense pain alternating with prickly numbness and has lost mobility of her left hand. On top of that, Cyril is in the hospital with major vascular problems. So even if she could, mom isn’t allowed into the hospital because she is contagious for anyone who has not had Chicken Pox. Both are deeply depressed. Mom is usually a strong, straighten your back and carry on sort of pragmatic, self sufficient person but I could tell by her voice on the phone that we needed to go to Michigan immediately.
…but first I had to get my passport back and sort out construction decisions…and I was so upset by how my mom sounded that I couldn’t stay objective so Gerald agreed to go immediately.
You know that Elton John song: “When you are down, I’ll be your clown”. Oh how Gerald knows how to make us laugh!
So he will go to Michigan and get them howling over his latest batch of bawdy jokes, run errands for them, review health plans, cook lavish dinners, play scrabble, debate Atlantic magazine articles, gape at history unfolding on CNN, soak in the hot tub with grandpa…
Be a wonderful son-in-law. Thank you my love for getting up on your 59th birthday and exchanging paradise for a visit to your sick in-laws in Michigan. Yes, ladies, I am lucky…wait a minute…
…wasn’t that Gerald seen over at Ryan’s Pub in New Orleans? He was standing at the bar with a big crowd until well after midnight on, wasn’t that March 11th?
Well, yes it was. Gerald couldn’t get a direct flight from Costa Rica to Detroit and he needed to pickup some winter clothes anyway so decided to pop into New Orleans for an overnight. Well, two nights actually. And the party’s just getting started down in the French Quarter after midnight. So he had a happy end to his birthday after all!
He continued to Michigan Thursday and called me from Ann Arbor.
Turns out that the weather has turned the corner and Michigan is now basking in balmy temperatures approaching 50 degrees Fahrenheit! I can just see the Frat boys in Ann Arbor, sunbathing up on the roof, relishing the fine weather.
University of Michigan is my Alma Mater. I even send them money once in while, much to Gerald’s chagrin. “Why send them more money after spending thousands already in tuition?” Well, most of us alumni just do. I spent my formative years at U.M. College of Pharmacy, learning, growing, playing and recovering. Interesting, I use my pharmacy knowledge more just living here in the forest at El Tigre – mixing repellant lotions and the like – than working in the hospital or retail pharmacy, where it was more production-line work than truly helping people. I loved working in small, independent pharmacies where I could get to know everyone. Not many of those left now - gone the way of the corner grocery store.
Friday
Talked to mom yesterday and she and Cy already sound much better on the phone. Perhaps other family will also manage to dig out of snow storms and visit as well. Who knows? Gerry might end up with a house full of my relatives up there in Michigan.
Meanwhile, I’m managing El Tigre and dealing with the house renovation. We are well into the finishing phase with a lot of painting and furniture decisions. Can you imagine Gerald left in charge of selecting colors and textures? I’d end up coming home to something looking, at best, like Ye Olde English Pub. Or who knows what. He swears that he’s not color blind but his perception of green is not the same as mine, which he calls blue or grey. We are past the 15th deadline but not by much. April 2nd is moving day!
Latest at El Tigre:
La Tigre came home yesterday morning and she is beautiful. Thank you Sylvia for creating a magnificent Vitral Pintada that captures Finca El Tigre at sunset with a well-fed Jaguar lounging contentedly within a magical, colorful jungle. We have named the stained-glass work of art, what else? -- ‘La Tigre’. The scene changes continuously with the light and shading during the day – and the colors burst forth with backlighting, producing a breathtaking work of art. Sylvia Laks is definitely the artist you want if you’re looking for a stained-glass painted work of art, large or small.

In the forest, we have noted much less leaf drop this year due to the long rainy season. The trails feel much cooler and shadier than typical for the dry season and hiking is delightful. On the down side, we have seen far fewer flowers and seeds than previous, dryer seasons.
No/very few flowers/No seeds – Better luck next year! : Cedrelas, Brosimums, Cojoba arborea, Pseudobombax septenatum, Lysilomas, Terminalia oblonga, T. Amazonia, Bernoullia flammea, Gyrocarpus jatrophifolius, Hura crepitans
In bloom now: Species of Acacias, Bauhinia, Crotons, Cupanias, some Cassias and Sennas, Gliricidia sepium, Ingas, Enterolobium cyclocarpum, Albizia, Miconia argentea, Plumerias, Tabebuias, vines in Sapindac and Bignoniac families. Many herbaceous flowering now – gorgeous Hortiga blooms.
Fruits & Seeds: Thounidium decandrum, Ceiba pentandra, Hymenea courbaril, some legumes, Citrus, bananas, Jorcos- Garcinia intermedia, Luehea seemannii, Guazuma ulmifolia, Ocotea veraguensis, Picramnia antidesma & latifolia, Sloanea terniflora