Brits and Pals Celebrate

This is a picture of me, Marj, Natasha and Lorena, just arriving at the British Charity Picnic in Santa Ana.  The British community raises funds at this annual event, and all proceeds go to Costa Rican schools and clinics, as well as to the Red Cross.  We had just harvested a slew of mangos at the Finca, so I made and donated jars of Mango Chutney for the charity sale.  However, I also had to stock up on my favorite Brit foods:  Branston Pickle and Picallili.

 

 

Natasha rode a pony at the Picnic.  Until recent years, the British Ambassador always hosted the event in the Residence - Georgina Butler began the tradition with a group of dedicated British volunteers - but I found that this year, everybody loved the parking and ambience at Zamora Estates in Santa Ana.  We behaved like kids again all morning and then, when the kids hit the swimming pool, the adults congregated around the Pimms Bar, Silent Auction, Penny’s Used Books, back to the Pimms Bar…

 

You can’t just walk past this flower!  Isn’t Hylocereus costaricensis absolutely gorgeous?  First of all, you can only see the night-blooming flowers of the Hylocereus (local name Pitahaya) cactus at dawn.  I took the photo of this plant at 5:30AM.  The huge, trumpet-shaped, fragrant flower starts budding at dusk, and then blooms all night long until about 6AM.  By 9AM, the flowering show is over.  This photo is unusual because you can see the flower’s center in full bloom, with stingless bees pollinating it – note the numerous petals and stamens; finished flowers from the night before on the right; and a developing fuchsia/magenta-colored pitahaya fruit on the left.  When ripe, you pick the pitahayas (before the monkeys get them), slice them in half, scoop out the delicious magenta fruit in the center and eat it all!  This is best done alone else you will have to share!  Perhaps we shall have three pitaya fruits at once and then I can invite over a friend or two for a special feast!

Here’s a shot of Danny standing with the blooming Pitahaya cactus flower.  We took this picture at about 7:30AM and the show was over by breakfast.  The mostly epiphytic Hylocereus grows on trees and can really bunch up together, as this one did on a big tree stump located just outside the house at the edge of the forest.  It seems to grow easily here in the Zona Protectora El Rodeo, and some people cultivate it to sell for making ice-cream.  There is just nothing quite like it – delicious.

 

Our little pal, the injured sloth, continues to convalesce in Rodolfo’s capable hands at the Refugio Herpetologico of Costa Rica.  Many thanks to everyone who helped to mitigate the little fellow’s vet bills.  And we could always count on David Holmes (an English friend) to send us the jokes:  “How can you tell that a sloth has recovered from anesthesia?  What’s this about a Sloth Fund!”  You can still donate, if you wish, to the good work they do rescuing injured forest animals and releasing them after recovery.  You can also get up close and personal at the Refugio exhibit, with rescued animals too tame to survive if released back into the forest.  There you can get very close to tame scarlet macaws, parrots, owls, monkeys, and many other birds, animals and amphibians.  It is a must-visit place for tourists who would like an hour or two of something really fun to do in the Santa Ana area, west of San Jose.  Check out their website:  www.refugioherpetologico.com

Just by pure coincidence, I saw a forest sloth just outside the house the other day, along with a bunch of cavorting monkeys.  The capuchin monkeys visit all the time to raid the orchards – the dogs ignore them and I rather enjoy observing the monkeys as they surreptitiously observe me.  So, at first I thought the big creamy creature lounging amongst the monkeys in the forest was just a mature, male capuchin.  The juvenile monkeys playing nearby always leave a large berth around grumpy old males.  But then I looked again, and then got out the binoculars and really looked!  It was a sloth!   I’d never seen capuchins together with a sloth before and wondered how they would behave.  In fact, they just ignored each other!  Even though the monkeys knew full well that the sloth was lounging and munching on a cecropia tree, they jumped and played together all around him, jumping from tree branch to branch very close by, but completely ignoring him.  I guess the monkeys sensed that the sloth was neither prey nor predator, so was not worthy of further attention; kind of like the human sitting down there on the terrace.  Not worth another second’s thought…  The monkeys often come up and sleep on trees near the house – perhaps they perceive the house as offering a kind of security from predators, but I’m not sure.  Next morning, they are always gone and this was true again.  And the sloth left too.  They’re not that slow when they want to relocate!

All of Costa Rica is still reeling over the murder of conservationist and turtle guardian Jairo Mora.  I truly believe there are more good people on this planet than bad but, at times, the good people have to pull together and hit hard.  And this time we must hit hard the thugs and criminals who rob turtle nests and kill, in cold-blood, dedicated and brave protectors of nature; we must not let them get away with murder!  This has happened in the past in Costa Rica, and I join all the voices here and around the world:  “Capture and prosecute these thugs to the full extent of the law!”  Let’s walk the walk Costa Rica!