Reading, relaxing, some hiking during our last day in Monteverde

Today was like a lazy New Hampshire day when we decide that we will mainly read and relax.  We went to town to check our email at the Orchid Coffee Shop where we have gone previously. They make great coffee, great fruit drinks (I am hooked on the pineapple), and other things such as cookies, quiches etc.

Then, we went home and made a small lunch as we try to eat up the food in the house. We read the day away except for a good hike down the hill in front of our casa. We looked at birds that we couldn't identify well and couldn't get good photos of because we were looking into the sun and the birds were far up. One was definitely quite orange and the size of a finch or slightly larger. We will keep looking through the book and make some educated guesses.

While coming up the hill, we stopped by Giselle and Didier's farm and they gave us a bit of a tour. Cows, bulls, sheep, possibly goats we didn't see, ducks and chickens. They work hard. And, a source of pride are their two tilapia ponds - one for the small ones and one for the full-grown ones. They should all be thin as rails as they have so many hills to walk up and down.

On our last evening at Casa Cielo we had another of Giselle's excellent filling meals. I asked for no rice or beans, so had a heaping pile of vegetables: cauliflower, broccoli, onions, carrots. Excellent. And, I had tilapia and Giselle's amazing salsa. Mark had chicken with the vegetables and also some white beans. The plantain was terrific - we have never really liked it before, but it was so delicious that we have to revisit it.

Then, we did another load of wash and packed. The washing machine has 15 steps to operate! There is a separate washing part and then a centrifugal force spinner part. The spinning is so effective that in less than 5 minutes the clothes are dryer than they come out of the washing machine at home. So, it is pretty impressive, but you have to do so many steps that you can't just turn it on and leave the wash be.