Day 14

When I woke up, it was still raining, or so I thought. We were told they get 9 m of rain here every year and given that it was the rain season, it seemed to make sense for it to rain all night, but when I walked out and looked at the sky, I realized that the rain must had stopped at least 1.5 or 2 hours ago, but that the last rain was still working its way down through all the foliage onto my roof.
After breakfast Dirk took us on a walk through the rainforest around the resort, completing our punch-card of different forest types (nevelwoud – droogwoud – mangrovewoud - regenwoud). For this we got to wear very fashionable rain boots (yes, sarcasm), but with all my modeling experience I could still make that work. Highlights here were very tiny red frogs (about 1 or 2 cm) and yes they are very cute and all, but once you have a picture of one of them, I don’t see the sense of capturing the other 150 as well. But that was apparently just MHO. We also found out why our human instinct to stick to the trail that others have taken makes sense (thank *insert who you want* for evolution), as Dirk stopped just in time right in front of a big spider web that was spun across the path and we realized that most of us would probably not have noticed it in time, despite the big spider right in the middle.
When I made it back to my room, I got to witness the practical approach the locals seem to have on life (granted; the situation did strongly encourage them to be practical). Even though I only packed 13 kg of luggage, I still possess some innate ability to, within 2 minutes, make any room look like at least 25 kg exploded out of that (still very cool) backpack. With large parts of the bed covered, the table covered, and some stuff on the floor, I think housekeeping gave up quickly. They did recover the bedsheet from under the pile of stuff and draped in some nice shape. And the towel was turned into a swan and after that I think they quickly left. And let’s face it, they still did more than I do on an average day.
After lunch we had one more boat tour looking for plants and animals. I have to say that I willingly listened to all information about birds that Dirk shared with us, but unfortunately there was not too much that stuck (I see another similarity between his job and mine – sorry Dirk), but one of the few birds that I can identify effortlessly is the tijgerreiger. You may wonder what it is that makes this bird so special. Well, it’s mostly the way our Belgian guide pronounces the name.
On top of our wish list for this final tour was the spider monkey (slingeraap), to get four out of four Costa Rican monkey species crossed off our cards. In the end we did not get to see them during the boat trip but right after we arrived back at the lodge. That still counts though. Before we got on the boat we could order our cocktails that were waiting for us when we got back. I initially blindly picked the orgasm, but when I discovered that that one is largely based on anise, I changed that back to a good-old piña colada. After that I also sampled some sex on the beach (if you cannot handle the sand, you’re just not worth it), a blue Monday (because it was Sunday), and possibly one or two more… or three… maybe. Really, who’s counting these things anyway?
As my ability to sleep exponentially decreases with every glass of alcohol, I already anticipated a few sleepless hours, but luckily I had Dirk to keep me entertained – such great job dedication! As the whole resort was booked the first night, he had to sleep with another guide in some broom closet, but this second night, he got the room next to mine. And since the wooden walls were not that thick, I was able to confirm previous accounts of Chavo about his snoring. He managed to hold my attention by applying a nice alternation of volume, frequency, and pauses. At one point he even seemed to have found a spot that made the bed squeak with every in- and exhalation. That must have been what made me doze off at some point.