has Trish been?
I guess I can answer that one.
We’ve had a great summer, so far. I know it’s almost over, but we have high hopes that we will be back to Costa Rica by sometime after Christmas and will be enjoying the warm sunny weather again.
We’ve been:
- Attending my sister’s wedding
- Still trying to sell this darn house
- Going on a wonderful camping trip to the old campgrounds that I visited annually as a child. Here’s some pictures…
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Today we took a hike up our mountain to eat some wild blueberries we found last week and ran into an awesome surprise - a timber rattler! We’ve known about them ever since we moved here but never saw one until now. Trish caught some movement out of the corner of her eye, right along a log. She thought it was a chipmunk and had trouble seeing it until it moved again 5 seconds later.
It was absolutely brilliant and looked exactly like the one in this picture. Mustardy and striped for about 3/4 of its body before becoming dark for the last quarter. Perhaps that’s the adolescent coloring? The one in the Bronx Zoo is darker overall, though the one at the Bear Mountain Zoo is more similarly colored.
The rattle was easily visible too. We stayed about 6 feet away from it and watched its magnificence as it crossed the trail. J was freaked out a bit, probably from Trish’s initial shock (warranted - she was about 3 feet away from it at the time). M was fascinated and had to watch it as it slithered away.
I suppose we should get used to it, considering we’re moving to land of venomous snakes 
This is #2 for me - about 7-8 years ago I saw a diamondback in Kakiat State Park. I’m prepared to give much respect to the tercipelo and American bushmaster now.
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Don’t forget that there’s a full lunar eclipse tonight, which should be visible all throughout the Americas. Hopefully, the weather will cooperate for you - it’s iffy for us with ‘Mostly cloudy during the early evening, then gradual clearing.’ Here are the relevant times with US time zones:
Partial eclipse begins: 1:43 Universal Time (UT) Feb. 21.
For continental U.S. time zones, the partial ecilpse begins the evening of Feb. 20.
8:43 p.m. EST
7:43 p.m. CST
6:43 p.m. MST
5:43 p.m. PST
Total eclipse (totality) begins: 3:01 UT on Feb. 21.
For continental U.S. time zones, totality begins on the evening of Feb. 20.
10:01 p.m. EST
9:01 p.m. CST
8:01 p.m. MST
7:01 p.m. PST
Greatest eclipse: 3:26 UT on Feb. 21.
For continental U.S. time zones, greatest eclipse occurs the evening of Feb. 20.
10:26 p.m. EST
9:26 p.m. CST
8:26 MST
7:26 PST
Total eclipse ends: 3:51 UT on Feb. 21.
For continental U.S. time zones, the total eclipse ends the evening of Feb. 20.
10:51 p.m. EST
9:51 p.m. CST
8:51 p.m. MST
7:51 p.m. PST
from EarthySky.org/kids
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I get the feeling we’ll never document our whole Costa Rican trip here, but I’m pretty happy with the memories and feelings that are still so vivid in my mind. We do have a lot of pictures I’d like to share, so here are a selection of all the neat creatures we saw on the Caribbean coast.
Missing are the two fishes I saw in the ocean (a needlefish and some sort of a light blue grouper), lots of humingbirds and two awesome brown pelicans that we saw at Punta Uva, quite possibly the most stunning beach I’ve ever been to. It totally sucked that I forgot the camera that day. Just imagine a perfect crescent beach with mild waves that were perfect for the kiddies. It was beyond perfect. We found some nice seashells too and the coup de grace - nude women on the beach. WOOT.
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Since sunrise and sunset don’t vary in time like the US, we got used to going to bed around 8-9pm and waking up around 5-6am. One night I was woken by the sound of rustling branches, and being utterly paranoid, I thought perhaps there were some opportunistic stoners looking for some free clothes or something. I was proven wrong at 4.30am when the howling started, and man - howler monkeys are LOUD. It’s more of a roar than a howl, and travels for up to 3 miles.
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