I woke up this morning to a scream and Summer running out of the shower.  A lizard had fallen onto her as she was washing her hair!  Mornings are the best time of day, unless a lizard jumps you.  They are warm, sunny with clear panoramic views.  As the day progresses it gets hotter and at around 3pm the rain starts.  We live in a rainforest so rain is a part of our experience.  We get up with the sunrise (6am) and go to bed a few hours after sunset (6pm).  On the mornings we have got out early and set off down our dirt track in our 4×4 we have been confronted by sloths, strange looking animals walking slowing across the road.  One sloth stopped half way across, looked at us for a moment (while Fin is scrabbling around in the back of the car trying to find his camera) then slowly, without a care in the world, continued crossing the road disappearing into the undergrowth.  We all sat in the car not quite believing what we had just seen when suddenly (well not quite suddenly as sloths do nothing suddenly) it poked its cheeky, inquisitive head out and stared at us as if to say “haven’t you gone yet”.

James and Fin came back last week raving about this “pig” they saw on the road that morning at 5.30am.  I thought they were pulling my leg and ignored them.  However, that evening I was googling animals in Costa Rica and heard a loud exclamation in my ear, “that’s what we saw this morning!”.  It was a tapir!  An ancient animal related to horses and rhinoceroses. They migrated from North America to South America 3 million years ago.

Each day brings something incredible with it.  Each day I’m blown away by the diversity of our surroundings.  Mornings are my favourite part of each day, however, the afternoons bring a lovely cool breeze.

I will end with what am I missing? ……  cheese and consistent electricity.  There was a 12 hour power cut the other day.  We had just been to the market which takes at least an hour to get to by car.  It seems to take us all day to do a supermarket run.  We got back, put all the food into the fridge only to find inedible food the next day due to the fridge being off during the power cut.  We also couldn’t cook dinner.  The word “flexible” is useful out here!

Kate