Wednesday, January 27, 2010 -- SAN SIMIAN HIGH

Woke at 6:30 after a good night’s sleep. Dressed and went up to the dining area for breakfast of scrambled, toast, and coffee. Lola is eating watermelon for her breakfast. There are also two larger crimson-fronted parakeets in a cage up here, They are still semi-wild. I really hate to see caged birds, particularly those that were grabbed from the wild.

Victor and Amanda introduced us to Danielle (a very common name here we surmise as we’ve met two other Nicaraguan Danielles). Danielle has been called in because she speaks English, and Victor and Amanda are going to Leon today to visit Amanda’s parents.

It was our plan to take a morning bird walk and that is just what we did after breakfast. We walked out the gate onto the dirt road and immediately saw a pair of Collared Arakari. We also saw a Turquoise-browed Motmot, a Hoffman’s Woodpecker, lots of Scissor-tailed Flycatchers, and the usual gang of White-throated Magpie Jays. There were so many birds that it made for frenetic viewing. I’d say “Wow, look at that Blue Pigeon,” and Jess would say, “I can’t I’m looking at that Yellow-crowned Euphonia,” or “a flock of Orange-chinned Parakeets, or “a large wood creeper,” or “a White-fronted Parrot,” etc.  There were many Osprey over the laguna and also Magnificent Frigatebirds. The Turquoise-Browed Motmot, sat in various poses for good viewing. One hears the parrots and parakeets before seeing them. They travel in flocks, preferring the treetops.

Magpie Jay and Crimson-fronted Parakeet (All bird pix from Internet)

White-throated Magpie Jays, White-fronted Parrots, Blue Ground Dove,
Collared Aracari; Turquoise-browed Motmot; Orange-chinned Parakeets; Yellow-crowned Euphonia 

After our birding, I returned to our room, took a cooling shower  in our rock bath, applied sunscreen and my bathing suit, and took my journal to the hammock until noon. It seems like I say that I took a shower every other line. I’ll have to admit that a shower was my heat remedy. Actually I hung out some stuff to dry, cleaned up my water shoes, and took my camp towel up to the main house to be washed as I had spilled the tail end of my pina colada on it. Jess went up to the main house to fill her water bottles, and found Lola wandering around on the grass in front of the dining deck. Lola gladly hopped onto Jess’s finger, and Jess returned her to the top of her cage.

Guess it's only proper to wear earrings when showering outdoors

At noon we took the tubes into the water in the high wind. It was blowing up some pretty good waves, some that even curled and broke like ocean waves. It was fun to roll and dip on them, but we always had to keep an eye out that we wouldn’t be swept back into the dock. We got out and were sitting on the dock when lo, a couple who had been on yesterday’s Volcón Mombacho tour arrived. I talked briefly to them. He (and I cannot remember his name) told me all about his hip replacement, only it wasn’t a hip replacement but hip resurfacing that he was extolling. He gave me his card, but I have no idea where it is now. Eventually I lost track of them, and when I looked up again they had left.

I'm sunburned enough that I wore a jersey when in the water; this was truly a magic spot and we both wished we'd stayed up here the whole time rather than in Granada

Jess and I lunched alone on the upper patio—a quesadia for me and a grilled chicken sandwich for Jess. Then more hammock time, more tubing, a fabulous gran mojito, more rum on the rocks, birding, more hammock time, reading, seed pod collecting, journaling, more tubing, etc.

At 6:45 pm, we showered and dressed and walked up for dinner. Lola was already in her cage with the cover tied snugly around the pole; so were the crimson-fronted parakeet pair. We were the only overnight guests, though a few people had stopped in earlier at the bar and there were eight day-trippers at dinner on the other side of the dining area. One man loudly dominated the conversation, telling animated tales.

I spotted my towel on the back line and asked about it. Danielle said that it was not yet dry and I could get it the next day. I had fish and Jess had Nicaraguan beef (tough though tasty), rice, and veggies. Victor had worked on a cocoa farm on an island off Africa for several years and run a B & B there, so had a good supply of Nicaraguan unsweetened chocolate bars. Jess bought two the night before—50% and 75% chocolate. This chocolate was dry but very good, particularly the 75% bar. I bought a 75% bar for dessert and ate half of it on the spot. Back to the hut by 8 to read and write in our journals. We slept without a mosquito net.