Random things….

As I filled the jug this morning to wash the dishes I realized I had not mentioned we do not have hot water, only cold comes out of the taps. Anytime we need hot or warm water we boil the jug.

Our shower is what’s casually known as a “suicide shower”. Those of you who have traveled in Latin America or Asia, will be familiar. Here is ours:

The water is “heated” as it goes through the shower head via those wires. Yep! Heated is a relative term though, as it very random, there is no real temp control, you have the choice between blasting and cold, or “dribbly” and somewhat warm, down too far and the water stops altogether. The temp selector means nothing, I read one guy say on his blog, “don’t touch it. It doesn’t really work anyway and most likely the last tourist left it set at its optimum setting. Or else he died trying”. 🙂

Our shower is one of the best of these type that I have used, you are not shocked every time you adjust the temp, the wires are covered and have wire nuts, (a lot have neither!), shower head high enough for you not to bump your head on to avoid contact with the essentially “live head”, and I have learned the dance now of getting us all through a reasonably warm shower. Take heart I have heard of plenty of people being shocked, including me, but none actually dying using these :), but for those planning on coming take note, this is the norm down here!

Luca got off the bus last night asking if he could go back next week. He has fallen in love! With a dog of course, the local school stray! Aptly named Cinco (because of the 5 black spots)!

Luca wants to bring him home, “just for a feed and bath Mama, then I will take him back”, apparently he spends a lot of time in the compost so a bit smelly, lovely! Luca shares his snack and lunch with him and worries about him – hmmmm, it is going to be an ongoing problem Luca bringing strays home. Rich putting his foot down apparently , of course that worked really well when Pica arrived 🙂

For lunch today I made a guacamole, all made with local food found at the farmers market or in our back yard, so so yummy! We have discovered the local avocados are the way to go, cheap and HUGE as compared to the ones we are used to in Canada. You can get those ones here but they are imported from Mexico and cost the same as what we were paying in Canada, so ridiculously pricey! We thought we would not be eating avocado here until some one told us about the others, so grateful as we LOVE avocado!

After lunch , the boys were busy so Pica and I went for a hike, such a beautiful day. I met an elderly neighbor we see often, I am sure he thinks I am crazy walking the steep hills and in the jungle when I don’t have to. He does not speak a word of English but I get the general gist of what he is saying, he is so welcoming and he has taken to give me a kiss and a hug as we part, I am going to work very hard on communication as would love to know his story….

As usual as I went along I saw the industrious leaf cutter ants on their various highways, they go on for miles and miles and never cease to amaze me..

A few random photos from the hike…

It has been a good day 🙂