Thursday November 24- happy birthday Ron-56 yrs young.

it's a cloudy morning in Playa Potrero, but no signs of a storm, yet. We get up and go for a walk on the beach at 7:30. We find the "fair" that takes place every Thursday. We would call it a market, but in Spanish, it's a "feria". We return for breakfast around 9:00. Of course Ron gets spoiled and I make him an omelet and cut up a fresh pineapple. We are going to return to the fair to get more fresh produce. We are looking to buy mangoes, oranges, avocados, and anything else that looks good.
We walk the beach again and are lucky to spot two new birds.

A Sanderling, I think after so after consulting the bird book. So happy to have found a book on Costa Rican birds to help me to identify them.

A couple of Pelicans sitting on a moored boat.

What Ron and I believe to be a Red-Lored Parrot by the picture in the book.

The Great Egret again with it's reflection.

Another Geeat Egret, but it's the other one that caught my eye, a Muscovy duck. Don't believe we've seen one of those before.

Picture a little out of focus but I was afraid to scare it if I got too close. I wanted to try to see it's features a bit better. The book says that this bird can be black or white and the males have "warty" faces. This was a male.

We got to the fair only to find about five stalls. Disappointing. We bought a papaya (paid more than I would at home, but it is fresher), got two big mangoes, and bought some home made mango chutney.

We then decided to return by walking on the road as it was a new section of town. This is what we saw, for Wendy.

A grocery store in your name.

A local cow walking down our street just beside us.y

Love these beautiful palms

Ron has found more flowers

Also encountered lots of chickens, no turkeys though. They are either hiding or being roasted for today's dinner.

Christmas cactus? 

The full cactus tree.

This tree is in the middle of the road. I love that this tree is more important than needed space for development. 

Upon our return we were warmed up so we put our bathing suits and went down to the pool. I had a swim and Ron fell asleep while reading. It's very peaceful and serene here. 

It has been raining off and on for the last hour so we will stay in, actually we are sitting out on the deck, me writing the blog and Ron reading, actually, he's snoozing agin. Really wild life we lead. He will probably watch some football games later and our reservations are at 7 tonight. The big downpours are not scheduled to start, according to the weather network until around 10pm. Let's hope  we get back from our meal before the deluge. 

Can't stand the pace of life. Ha.

Made some mango Daquiris for Ron's b'day

Saw this little rascal just below our deck.

I can't believe that I'm becoming a birder. I sat on the deck with the binoculars that my future brother-in-law so generously lent me for the trip, and sat waiting for any movement in the trees just in front of me. I actually saw a very colourful big bird, but rather than focus and try to really see what was there I turned to get Ron's attention to look, and of course the bird was gone. I remember seeing a lot of bright orange. I saw this little one in the picture. It is a scissor-tailed flycatcher. I saw another big black bird which was probably a black Turkey. It was quite entertaining.

Just got back from our Thanksgiving supper at El Castillo (the Castle). It was buffet style where there was a salad, green beans, carrots, brocoli and cauliflower, mashed potatoes, stuffing, Turkey, gravy, a bit watery, and dessert of pumpkin cheesecake. It was good. That was Ron's birthday meal. It started really raining while we were eating. It's off and on like someone was turning a tap. Anyway, the majority of the rain should come overnight. Might be a stay home day tomorrow.