Leaving Tamar to sleep late as she wished, Lilach, Daniel and I left the apartment in the early morning to go to a nearby “butterfly dome”, where hundreds of beautiful butterflies hovered around and challenged us to take their pictures. In the gardens around the dome we saw, in addition to butterflies, some hummingbirds and other birds, including a large and heavy Crested Guan which set on a branch a couple of meters above the ground and then laboriously flew to another tree some 30 meters away.
When we returned to the apartment in the late morning, Alvaro was waiting for us with the technician who came to replace the broken water heater. While the latter was working, we chatted and discovered that he was a lawyer by training, but no longer practiced law, and that his parents came to Costa Rica from Spain, where he has business and visits multiple times each year. He told us that Costa Rica has a “large Israeli community” and that he has several good friends from that community. According to Alvaro, Costa Rica has people who came from all over the world and is very welcoming, so it’s easy to become a Costa Rican. I went with Alvaro to the nearby lot, where he was renovating a large complex for Airbnb rentals, in order to pick us an electric kettle which we were missing in our kitchen. He showed me around the complex, describing his plans for the place and introducing me to some of the stray dogs which he was picking off the streets and taking care of. In the afternoon, we all went on a beautiful trail in the nearby mountains, which included many bridges between the treetops — some solid and some suspended and swaying. On the way there, along the main road, we encountered a large group of Coatimundi – extremely cute relatives of the raccoon, with long snouts and inquisitive habits. On our way back, members of the same group (most likely) were still around the same bend of the road.
Leaf-cutter ants carrying colorful leaves to their nest
Family Trips 