Here’s a shot of Gerry and Jose sorting out the car. We had hoped to jump-start the generator using both of our two car batteries in series – but we still couldn’t produce enough charge to get it started. Jose even tried running the car, but no luck! The generator battery was 100% dead! 2012 has not had a propitious start. Our solar power system had not been operating normally for several weeks and then, on New Year’s Eve, the battery of our diesel generator died, which meant no back-up to the solar system. Everything was closed for the holiday, of course, so we couldn’t purchase another battery until Monday. This was an unprecedented event for us with the solar system – the first time since going solar six years ago that we were without back-up power. Over the years, no matter how cloudy and rainy the weather, we could always charge the batteries with diesel power (normally two hours of generator power is enough to top-up the batteries). It stopped raining weeks ago; however, most days remained overcast until…well, luckily, until just about the time that the generator failed. Suddenly, a few days ago, the sun came out and we could survive on 100% solar power, if we were careful in conserving energy and not running down the battery. However, the clock was ticking – we had fallen to 50% battery charge, when we realized that we would have to drastically conserve energy or risk losing power. What that meant to all of us at Reserva El Tigre was that we had to conserve power and water! We could only use well water and major electrical appliances during the sunniest part of the day, when the panels were generating solar power for the battery bank. After sunset, therefore, we all had to minimize the use of power – just a few lights and no opening the refrigerator! Gerry bought everybody candles in case we used a little too much power… Okay, so that would mean a nice romantic New Year’s Eve dinner. Que va!
Our plan was to barbeque top quality burgers for New Year’s Eve. However, it was such a windy night, that it took Gerry numerous attempts to light the charcoals; the wind kept blowing out the fire. Finally, after nearly 30 minutes wrestling with the grill, he got the charcoals burning well and came inside, his hands black from the coals, for a well-deserved cocktail. And then – suddenly, a big gust of wind knocked the grill right over and sent the burning charcoals flying! So we rushed outside and put out the coals with the garden hose – using just enough water to put out the fire, of course, because of the generator problem… We eventually calmed down, however, with the help of another cocktail, cooked the hamburgers in a skillet, and devoured them hungrily, if not romantically, accompanied by a very fine bottle of Chilean wine (Clos Apalta 2000) that tasted fine despite a rotten, exploding cork. We then had a glass of Graham’s LBV port and went to bed long before midnight, as usual.
Can you identify this arachnid? I call him a ‘tarantula manso’ because he didn’t bite me even after I’d accidentally pulled off one of his legs! I found him hiding out in my riding boot in Costa Rica after returning from New Orleans. It had been ages since I’d last gone out on the horses, so I grabbed my riding boots and shook them out as usual. But sometimes shaking out a boot is not enough! I stuck my left foot in my boot but couldn’t quite get my foot all the way to the end because my big toe prodded and nudged at something that felt like a piece of cloth. Had I left a sock in my boot? I pulled out my foot and reached into the boot with my hand and groped around and felt something like a big puff of wool yarn. So I pulled it out and put it on the floor. And it immediately unwound and began to move away.
That was the spider you see in this picture. My first instinct was to scream - but in surprise, not fear; I no longer fear spiders! My second thought was that the spider had had two opportunities to bite me but did not. When I stuck in my foot, he could have ruined my day but did not bite! And then, I pulled him out quite roughly and pulled off one of his legs. He could have bitten my hand! But he didn’t bite. This spider must not die! So after taking this picture – notice the spider has only seven legs left after his close encounter with me - I carefully removed him to an elevated part of the retaining wall outside.
He later left and presumably found a cozy hole somewhere. If anybody else from the Finca had found this spider, it would have been killed. Hugo told me, “You should kill that!” I asked him why – had a tarantula ever bitten him before? No, but scorpions had stung him before. Well, yeah! I would have killed a scorpion too! My neighbor, Gabi, told me that, by coincidence, a tarantula had crawled into one of her boots too! Sadly, she didn’t realize it was in there and she crushed it with her heel.
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