Red and yellow...

A couple days ago Alex and I spotted a Coral Snake. Anyone remember the mnemonic trick? “Red and yellow, kill a fellow. Red and black, put it back/friend of Jack.” This refers to which two colors are touching. This happened to be a red touching yellow patterned snake. There is another snake that looks very similar to Corals, but is not poisonous and has red touching black. It most definitely made my day. I've only seen one other type of snake since I've been at this sanctuary. The Sabanero. Not dangerous, but I've seen 3 or 4. One was no less than 2 meters long. Quite impressive. At the first sanctuary I saw a number of Fare-de-Lance snakes. Very poisonous and quite common. As with most snakes, people are very rarely bitten. I read in a book that one is more like to with the lottery in Costa Rica than get bitten by a snake. I'm sure that got a little grin out of me while reading it.

The bonfire last night was loads of fun. A few people flaked out at the last minute, favoring a party in Mal Pais over the bonfire. In the end there were 5 of us at the fire. Fine by me. The s'mores were delicious. Damn hot fire. It took no time to prepare the perfect, bronze-colored, luscious marshmallow over the fire. I'm not too good with my actors and actresses, but we played a fun game in which we competed in seeing who could connect two movies through actors in the shortest number of movies possible.

I leave here in 11 days. I'll be very happy to head on out for a number of reasons. As I learned at the first sanctuary, one month is just about the perfect amount of time at a particular sanctuary. Ben and Alison are also arriving on the day I leave as well. I'm incredibly excited for their arrival. I will miss my fellow volunteers here though. Fortunately a good number are leaving a shortly before I do. It sounds like there is going to be a large influx of new volunteers in the beginning of March. A new volunteer did arrive today. His name is Luke and he is from Salt Lake City. Seems like a nice guy, but I'm still getting to know him.

36 days left in Costa Rica. 109 days past since I arrived in Costa Rica. Almost 4 months. I promise I'm not keeping a tally of each day. I just did the calculations. It is a beautiful night and I'm not terribly tired.

I don't think I mentioned it in an earlier blog, but my plans have changed a bit. First off, the week with Ben and Alison is an itinerary change. After they leave on the 13 of March, I am going to head back to Orosi. Orosi is the little valley town where I spent my first two weeks in Costa Rica. I will be there for about 2.5 weeks this time. During the first week I am going to be doing a homestay. I will be living with a Tico family. It ought to do wonders for my Spanish and the cultural experience is definitely worth it as well. After that first week I will be back to the dorm-style room at the Montana Linda Hostel. I will be taking Spanish classes at the language school as well for those two full weeks. I'm looking forward to that very much. Orosi is absolutely beautiful and a very cozy town.

Pura Vida.