Day whatever, we are on tico time

It is been a few days since I last posted, and I wanted to let you know that 1) I am alive and 2) I have not forgotten about you.
For that matter, I have lived life to the almost fullest. The refuge center has tired me out since it is mostly manual work for now (I need to learn how the refuge center operates before taking care of babies). I have never seen so many leaves in my life. Costa Ricans have to raked leaves as much as Sicilians have to sweep the Mt Etnian dust of their porch. Because of the rain, the leaves fall quite often and easily. I thought I knew how to rake leaves until I met Jimmy. After spending a good hour on raking little piles of leaves all over the garden, I gleefully walked back to his quarters to let him know of my accomplishment. Jimmy walked around and told me the spots that, I not only missed, but shook trees to let more leaves fall to the ground. "Falta mucho, uh?"
My smile had faded on my face and I started raking again. Jimmy was an amazing raking partner. Never complained once, and finished pretty much the whole garden while I was still working on my little patch of grass, but I guess that's what it's like when you are a gardener in Costa Rica.

After coming home to my cold shower, my bed and clean clothes, I try my best to enjoy dinner. As I mentioned, the hotel has an amazing restaurant, but in the past three days I have been out in town to eat. I have enjoyed my Costa Rican meal, which consisted of beans and rice with a fresh fish. The lady who prepares the food for the animal at the refuge also owns a restaurant. I saw Xo and Chai, the deer, ran for their food and Tuki Tuki, the toucan, attack other pets for food, so I figured that she must make delicious human food as well. Let me tell you that I devoured that meal. The fish was doused in a Caribbean sauce, while the rice and the beans were a nice complementary side dish. The most amazing thing to me was the fried plantains that came with the fish. It was like a banana cookie that I was allowed during dinner. I would have a bit of fried plantain and a bite of rice and beans, all in the while enjoying Angelina's large family walk in an out of the restaurant along with their two little kittens. The meal came with a free drink called Tamarind. After doing a bit of research, I found out Tamarind is actually a tree (they use the seeds for the drink), which is originally from Africa but was introduced to Central/ South America by the conquistadors. It is sweet and sour at the same time, and best of all (for me), it is filled with Calcium. Instead of taking my pills everyday, I am now drinking one Tamarind Drink a day. It keeps the bone doctor away!

Last night, I went out into town to eat with some of the volunteers at a restaurant called Flip Flop. It is the most hip restaurant in town. Therefore, we had to wait a whole whopping 10 minutes to get seated. Obviously, there is no real hostess here, so we jut waited for a table to get up and sat down when we had a chance. I had a burger and fries, as for the last two days I had been eating Costa Rican food and raw fruits (which is a big no-no according to my travel nurse from Passport Health). My stomach definitely enjoyed it more than it should. I earned that American passport fair and square, and the German girls were eyeing my burger with envy. I shared my fries, as any good food-sharer would and germans eat their fries with Ketchup and Mayonnaise mixed together. As soon as I mixed the two for them, the Ket-yo was met with laughs and smiles. Crazy germans. Then we decided to have daquiris each. I actually had Club soda as I was already extremely tired, and still had to bike home. The fresh fruit truly makes a difference in making a proper daquiri. As any good travelers do, we started swapping travel stories, and Franzeska started to talk about her favorite cheesecake experience, at... The Cheesecake Factory. I had to break her dream and let her know it is brand, and nothing beats a home made cheesecake. I explained that my room mate used to make cheesecakes whenever he wanted, and I had the chance to eat them. 4 German girls might come over to the USA in a short bit to come visit Colton.

Talking about the refuge reminds me that the last time I posted I talked about a little monkey and a baby three toed sloth. I am happy to announce that the baby sloth is still kicking, but sad to say that the baby monkey died that night in the arms of Encar. The baby sloth is carried around in a scarf tied around our waists. It grips on pretty tightly to our shirts and allows us to do our activities, as long as he is warm and fed. He has already gained a bit of weight as do all of our animals. We see his little tummy getting fuller everyday. It is only a matter of time until he has the typical round little stomach that our babies get.

I talk about the animals as if they are my babies but we have constant reminders that they are wild animals, and could very much hurt us. Chipito (remember, our teenage male who freaked out when James was in the cage with Jessa?) came back from his trip to the forest with his toe bitten off and a gash on his head. Another Alpha howler monkey had been roaming around nearby and saw our young flirty females. When he got to close to one of our babies, Chipito went to go and protect her. It only took a minute for the two to start fighting. Chipito didn't win this battle without injuries, but the other monkey left promptly. Our vet stitched him up quickly, but his middle toe was already ripped off. There was nothing we could do about it. He will have to learn to live without it. It isn't like wild monkeys don't have injuries. After we watched Rise of The Planet of the Apes, we know that monkeys are aggressive by nature and very unpredictable (no matter how much they resemble humans in their attitude), yet very smart. Nothing to fear, Chipito is now being cuddled by every female volunteers. I guaranteed him that any human male would be jealous of him, as we are not nearly as helpful and caring when our male equivalents break their legs. He is expected to make a nice recovery physically, we aren't sure about his ego yet though.

Anyway, tomorrow is my day off, therefore, I might go to the beach or on a chocolate tour. I haven't planned anything yet, as I am not sure how I will feel tomorrow.
One thing is sure, I am eating Argentinian tomorrow for lunch.
This is the life of a foodie. Nothing is planned but where/ what we eat.
Eat and sleep, the life of a sloth.

Ciao amigos!