Life in Talamanca, Costa Rica:

Where should I start? How about those Red Sox! (I know you all know how the story turned out in the end, but I'll tell you about it from my perspective.) I kept up with the Red Sox lack of success against the Yankees, and it was sad times. I assumed it would be over. One day when I was eating lunch in the communal house on the reservation, I read the Costa Rican daily newspaper and found out that the Sox were making a comeback, winning games in extra innings. Dona Maura, the head of the household up on the reservation, found out I was a Red Sox fan and as a result she listened to the radio and kept me updated on scores and times for future games. After the Red Sox forced game seven, I couldn't help but watch the game. This involved me taking the bus to Puerto Viejo after work. Puerto Viejo was dead on that Wednesday night; I found a small bar that let me change the channel on the TV. It was a great Red Sox experience: the volume on the TV was barely on, and as a result I couldn't make out any of the (Spanish) commentary over the pulsing of reggae, which is the heartbeat of this Caribbean town. The only exception was when the Sox hit home runs- equivalent to soccer's infamous "goooooooaaaaaal!", the announcers belted out a 20-second long "joooooooooooooooooonnnnnnnn-rrrrrrrrooooooooooooooooooonnnnnnnnnn!", to which I would raise my jugo de guanabana in salute of our beloved Medios Rojos.

I let games 1 and 2 of the World Series slide by; Dona Maura kept me updated on the Red Sox success. Games 3 and 4 I needed to see, so two nights in a row I took the bus to Puerto Viejo and repeated the routine: reggae, guanabana, and jonrones.

Wednesday night, THE NIGHT for Sox fans, was a night of good luck. After watching the Red Sox win the World Series, I returned home via taxi, unlike the previous nights when I walked home the 3 miles from Puerto to our new house:

Living in the house are myself, Alice from Portugal, and two Canadians who are taking data in the tower as part of their efforts to study flapping rates of migrating hawks. When I returned home from Puerto after the Red Sox victory, power was out at our house, but this is not unusual. The next morning I went to the tower and worked the usual 7 to 5. When I returned to the house just before 6, I found all my housemates around the living room table, having a serious discussion. It turned out that the night before, no one else was home when I was out watching the sox. Apparently, burglars broke into the house during this time and stole a computer (an old laptop) and a few other things from the Canadians. Luck was with the Red Sox and me, too, that night because the thieves didn't steal anything from my room; if they had taken my little backpack they would have stolen my digital camera, passport, credit cards, BINOCULAR, and more: basically everything of value that I have. Our theory is that the thieves might have been in the house when I got back from Puerto, and they heard me arrive (or had a lookout) and fled the house before I entered. The problem is, the thieves entered by removing the boards that constitute the walls! Needless to say the house was not very well constructed. Anyways, we decided to stay in the house that night, and then move out the next day. The Canadians decided to find a place in Puerto Viejo, and Alice would stay with a friend. For me, the only option was to return to El Cruce, the original building I stayed in. This was a sad move for me! Anyways, we stayed one final night in our "Casa Rapaces"; I was not worried about the thieves breaking in again, since they are just kids, and I happened to have a machete next to my bed. 22 inches of steel usually dissuades juvenile criminals.

Anyways, now I am back living in El Cruce. I still leave here on my work days at 5 or 6 to arrive at the tower at 6 or 7. I work until 5 and then hike back down through the reservation to the "town" of Hone Creek. I work two days and have the third free; stupid things usually occupy my free days, like going to the store, doing laundry, using the computer to play with the data we are collecting, or going to the bank. Yes, going to the bank is a serious trip here. There is no bank in Hone Creek, there is no bank in Puerto Viejo. The one other town that is close only has one bank, the Banco Nacional, and this bank's ATM doesn't accept the majority of foreign ATM cards. As a result, I need to take the bus to Limon to go to the bank there. The bus to Limon is usually an hour and a half, but last time I went there the trip was closer to an hour. This bus driver went like stink; I think that in his mind, the parada del bus in Limon was Daley Plaza in Chicago, and nothing would have pleased him more than to watch his 55-seat version of the Bluesmobile dis-integrate upon arrival. This mae didn't even try to avoid the uberpotholes that are the defining characteristic of the road. Even with an Elwood wanna-be behind the wheel, the bank run took almost 5 hours of my day.

What else? Well, I should put a few views from the tower:
Cerro Kamuk. At 3,549 meters the second-highest mountain in Costa Rica:

A vortex of Broad-winged Hawks (Scientific: Buteo platypterus; Spanish: Gavilan Aludo):

Click here for a panoramic video from the tower.

I've seen lots of birds at the tower.
click here for some bird pics and birding stories.
Highlights include counting 256,000 birds in one day, including 112,000 birds in one hour; counting 352 peregrines, including 76 in one hour. Have you ever seen a kettle of 12 PEREGRINES?

Sometimes counting this many birds can be a bit overwhelming:


The latest news from Talamanca is that there is going to be a workshop for some Panamanian farmers here at El Cruce from November 8th until the 20th. Most likely there will be no space for me to stay because when they planned this workshop the people here assumed I would still be living in the other house. You might say that this sounds like bad news, but on the contrary this is great news, because when I told this to Dona Maura and her family up on the reservation, they told me I could live with them on the reservation for as long as I wanted! I would love to stay on the reservation, but we'll see what happens.

Here are some other pics:

I did go to the beach once,

but that doesn't mean I wasn't birding:


Here is Ernesto and Rudy at the tower, about to indulge in biriba:



On one of my free days Rudy led myself, the Canadians, and a few other people to one of the waterfalls in Kekoldi:

But again, we did bird while we were there:


Alice, warming up from the rain in the casa communal:


Sometimes we see other things besides birds from the tower:



Thanks to all of you who have emailed me. Even though it's tough for me to check email, when I do it's really great to hear about how all my friends are doing! Please keep me posted!

  -ken