Independence Day Festivities

September 15th is Costa Rica's Independence Day, which actually seems to be celebrated throughtout the week. Ticos adorn their houses, cars, and businesses with the national flag and it's corresponding colors. Flags of all sizes are sold on the streets by vendors. As the 15th actually approaches, a number of celebrations take place. Olivia attends a Costa Rican preschool which celebrated the day with a "parade" in a typical bus. All the kids dressed in their typical Costa Rican dresses and caballero clothes, climbed aboard a modified tour bus and waved to passersby as they drove around town. As you can see by the photos, Olivia thoroughly enjoyed greeting everyone as she yelled "Costa Rica" out the window!

The parades of the faroles (torches) start the day before on the 14th as children make their own laterns and torches and bring them to school. Below is a farol that Abby made for her school parade in the shape of a house. Students carry them to school and have parades in their schools as well as at night time. At 6 pm the Costa Ricans gather together in a central park, usually near the catholic church, and sing the national anthem. They light the faroles and have a parade of lights following the anthem, provided the rain doesn't put them out.

On the 15th, parades fill the streets as school percussion teams flood the air with rhythmic songs they have practiced all month long. Younger children dressed in typical costumes join in the celebration as they watch older brothers and sisters perform with their school bands. The bands are usually made up of percussion instruments only, like a drum corp, along with flag bearers and sometimes dancers as well.

We went to our local parade to see Kevin Salley, the son of our teammates Joanna and LaMar. After the kids waited patiently for 2 hours, we realized that as his school approached, the drummers were behind us and were joining up with the flag bearers farther down the road! With a bit of quick manuevering, I was able to get a couple of shots. At least one of us got to see him! Aidan, Abby, and Livy were ready to get back for lunch and didn't seem to mind the fact that they actually never got to see the one person they knew in the parade!

Abby, Matthew, Alexa, and Olivia waiting patiently for Kevin's school to pass by.
Kevin and his 10 lb. drum he lugged all the way down the parade route!

Backyard Nature

Although I am waiting til next week to post my next blog about Costa Rica's Independence Day, I took a walk in the backyard today and had to give you a taste of our "Biological Preserve." For you bug lovers, we offer a wide variety of insects, spiders and other creepy crawlies (see last year's blog on our tarantula infestation!). Perhaps one of our readers will write me a comment to tell me what kind of spider this is - I have two in our yard right now and have never seen anything quite like them!


In addition to the bugs, we have several types of beautiful tropical flowers and some fruit trees, including lemon (seen above), cas, and banana. Our lemon tree is small (only produced 5 so far) but the lemons, although green like a lime, are sweet rather than sour. Cas are small green citrus fruit that the Costa Ricans blend with water to make a sour juice similar to lemonade. Our banana tree produced a small bunch last year, quickly devoured by a grey squirrel that walked the tight rope, or should I say the clothes line, to reach them. The bananas are harder, smaller, and not as sweet as those grown on the plantations.

We have several butterflies and Colibri (humming birds) that visit our flowers as well. While I was out I managed to catch a photo of these two, while two other colorful varieties escaped my lens. Now I know you are all thinking about how wonderful life must be like to live near the rain forest and have such a variety of insects and plant life to keep you busy, but it is easy to forget that wildlife doesn't always remain out in the wild! Two weeks ago we found a crab in our office and our empleada, Marta, found a black scorpion in the utility room! Just a few more critters to add to the roaches, snake, tarantulas, millipedes, moths, beetles, and other creatures that have made our house their home too!