Costa Rica Sketch Journal ~ July 16-17, 2008

With just a little time left, we tried to be philosophical. Our plane was to leave mid-morning, so there was time for Gerardo-the-driver to take us in the lodge Land Rover to Puerto Jimenez a little bit early to see the town.

After eating breakfast, I went out to find my last "gift" from El Remanso, and discovered this lovely, lacy mushroom right at the edge of the restaurant entrance. Fair enough!

Then it was time to say goodby to all the good people there, and Gerardo and Dan talked at great length about seedlings and compost because Gerardo is preparing a photo/description listing of all the plants and trees found at El Remanso. He plans to collect seeds and raise seedlings to reforest surrounding areas and to plant where needed. It is an awesome project, and Dan wanted to make sure Gerardo's seedlings would have the best chance to survive. Since Dan started Plant Oregon native plant nursery many years ago (and still owns and runs it), he has a lot of expertise in that area. We also said goodbye to Maekal (in the photo), who waited on tables with grace, skill and humor during our stay.

Then we hugged Adri and Danni goodbye and it was time for Gerardo the driver to take us to our plane. It had rained quite a deluge the night before, and we had to ford several streams, one with water up to the runningboards on the Land Rover.

As always, I was much taken by the cattle, and Gerardo stopped at one place so I could jump out and take photographs. Gerardo the naturalist had said the Ticos call these cows "Jerseys," but I can't think of anything less Jersey-like (real Jerseys ~ the ones from the Isle of Jersey ~ are colored like deer, have dark soulful eyes, and are about 2/3 the size of these honkers! This is a former farm girl speekin, and I know whereof I speek!).

However, these cows thought I was the one who looked pretty funny ~ you can tell by the expression on their faces....

At length, we made it to Puerto Jimenez, and Gerardo took us out to the Parrot Bay sanctuary, an inlet in the mangroves, open to the ocean. I had no idea there were crocodiles there. Be sure to look at this image close-up if you wanna see a real corker of a crocodile "smile." By the way, in my book The Southern Swamp Explorer (it's being set up to print as we speak ~ I'll receive a copy to proof next week!) I have written a little ditty to help one distinguish between crocodiles and alligators. Here's how:

A 'gator's nose is short and wide,
and hides the lower teeth inside.
The skinny nose of a crocodile
lets teeth poke up outside its smile.

Dan and I snapped photos of the croc (that's Dan's photo above) and some smaller caimans ( a type of alligator) and the egrets in the cattle egret rookery, and I briefly saw a boat-billed heron (yes!). But by now, it was time for our plane to leave, so Gerardo toted us back to the airport to catch our plane.

I snapped a picture of Pto. Jimenez and the mangrove swamps just after we left the ground. I think Parrot Bay may be at the end of that little finger of water entering the mangroves at right.

The little Nature Air planes are great fun, and fly low (unlike Sansa flights, which fly WAY up high), and we had great views nearly the entire way.

The rest of our flight was the epitome of what you wish flights weren't ~ long, sleepless, cramped, blah, blah...although there were a few light moments ~ see the pilot washing his windshield at right and the cigar-maker plying his trade in the San Jose airport.

I was too tired (and blue) to sketch, and at 26 hours, the flight was a tad too long.....(read the journal page for more gory details). But Dan'l and I managed to not get too cranky, at least not with each other, and it went as well as could be expected, although it took me a full week to recover after we got home.

And in the end, this final photo which Dan took just before our waterfall visit encompasses my memories of this lovely trip, so the icky ending didn't have any permanent effect.

So there you have it. By the way, I'm going to visit the director at The Oregon Trail Interpretive Center next week to line out just how we want to run the workshop I'm doing for them in October. When I have a plan, I will blog about its construction. If you want to be notified when I start, be sure to click the box in the right column that sends you a notice when I blog. It's a lot easier than trying to remember (then to find the blog address) to come and check.

Later!

Promoting the Workshop & Drawing Irish Musicians

Stuffing Envelopes is kind of soothing. I am a great one for organizing movements (I was totally impressed by the efficiency scenes on how to take a bath in Cheaper By The Dozen, many decades ago) . The envelopes are placed with the flaps in THIS direction, the flyers are placed with the opening THIS way, the single-sheet 1/3 page inserts are placed here with THIS orientation, and the business cards face up and to the right HERE. Then I can pick up the envelope in my left hand and flip up the flap with one movement, then with my right hand I slide in the flyer, then the insert, then the business card. I let the flap flip down and push the filled envelope onto my lower legs as they extend directly past the end of the board toward the TV. Hey, it's smoooooth, fast, and I can watch Masterpiece Theater at the same time as I get all 90 envelopes stuffed, then stamped, then return-address-labeled, then licked. Talk about efficiency!

The insert is really pretty. I designed and printed them out on the color printer yesterday, 3 per sheet. Quite fetching, I think. Makes ME want to go to the workshop, anyway.

I was happy to have a soothing evening, because I had a raucus afternoon. My artist friend Cathy and I went to the Black Sheep in Ashland for a Sunday afternoon of sketching the Irish musicians. It was only a small group because that's all that showed up (it's totally off the cuff, and whoever comes, plays -- if enough people show up). So yesterday featured five musicians at its highest count (they came and went), plus a very talented clogger who only dances (he also carves quite marvelous walking sticks).

Cathy tried ink sketching for the first time. She's an excellent artist, but always sketches with a pencil and had never tried on-scene sketching with a pen. She decided today was the day. So we both drew with ballpoint pens, and she was unexpectedly pleased with the freedom it offered. She observed that with pencil drawing she is always fussing around with erasing and getting the lines just right. But with the ink drawing one has to just dive right in, and make the line, right or wrong. Knowing that some lines won't be right, you just have to shrug and think "okay, so now if I squiggle here, it'll look like a hand and be just fine!" A really nice epiphany.

Juiced up with a couple of "The One And Only" Newcastle Brown Ales (on draft) and using an ordinary black Bic ballpoint pen, I was experimenting with making quick original drawings, then fussing back in with a little more detail to give the drawings interest. Hair, seams on the jeans and shoes, details on a neck warmer, etc. As we sketched, the Irish music flowed and jigged around us. While The Black Sheep is a pub, there are generally little children running around, sometimes trying to dance to the music, and yesterday playing with balloons. I loved it when several times the pennywhistler's toddler climbed up into his lap and sat, rapt with pleasure, as the wild notes swirled above his head.

The baby's mother and grandmother had come for the afternoon, as well, and they loved the drawing of little Rowan on his daddy's lap. I told them to come to this blog, where they should be able to download the picture if they wanted a copy. [Hey pennywhistle folks, if you come for the picture, could you give the address of this blog to the other musicians so that they can come visit, too? I don't have their names, and if you'd pass this along they might be pleased.] I do know the baby's name is Rowan and the pennywhistler is Andrew, but that's the extent of my introduction.

It was, as always, a wonderful afternoon of music, companionship with Cathy, and pleasure in sharing the sketches with numerous passersby and the musicians. Rowan's mother tried to explain about the picture to Rowan, and he patted it appreciatively, but I don't think he quite got the concept of "this is a picture of daddy, and this lady drew it, and there you are on daddy's lap!"

My thanks to the musicians for a lovely afternoon. They are a wonderful sketching resource since they expect to be stared at, and don't mind being drawn.

And now, today, I have to get back to work on the editing of the Swamp book. I'm on page 41 now, and have begun to improve sub-par illustrations as I go along because I get bogged down in words after awhile. Stopping to correct or improve a drawing makes a nice break.

Later!