Canicula

Here in the Costa Rican tropical dry forest their is often a brief dry season in the middle of the rainy season. They call it Canicula which is a reference to the little do star and the dog days of summer. That is definitely what is going on right now. My first few days here were rainy but it hasn't rained significantly since. An old man who lives near us says that it usually ends around August 15 so I'm keeping my eyes on the sky for rain. Anyway, here are a few pictures I took recently.

The other day we went to a research area call Horizontes where they have large plantations of local tree species. There is a huge tower there that I'm guessing they use to look out for forest fires.


The view from the top is impossible to capture with a little camera like mine but here's a hint of what it is like.


While we were there we ran into this little hog-nosed pit viper. This one is pretty small but they say that the little guys have higher concentrations of toxins in their venom than the big snakes (I have no idea if that's true).


On our way back we stopped at the Feria Agricultor (farmers market) in Liberia an bought a bunch of produce. We found this sapote which is a tropical fruit with the texture of an avocado and a sweet flavor that is something like pumpkin pie filling.


Yesterday the battery in the car died. After a few push starts we made it to Liberia today to get buy a new one. Super Baterias seemed like the obvious choice.


Here is an example of the tools of a Costa Rican mechanico. Hacksaw, hammer, vice grips, an old peice of wood. You can fix anything with that stuff.


Well that's it for now. I'll leave you with a picture of what I've been drinking. While Costa Rica has some of the highest biodiversity in the world their beer diversity is quite low. You have Imperial of course. Then Pilsen which tastes just like Imperial. If you want to get really fancy you'll get some Bavaria Dark which taste like the others plus a little hint of caramel. That's it. That's all they have. I'm not complaining though. I can manage just fine with three types of beer (for now).