Early August News

Getting Ready to Move into New House

We are excited to be moving into the new house in the next couple days.  I will post pictures as soon as I can get some nice ones after the house is cleaned, it is very messy right now.  Just waiting on the final cleaning and some minor installations. The granite guy held us up waiting for him all last week, he finally showed up on Friday!  Urghhh!  We have had beautiful weather up till now, hoping we have a nice day for moving; this is the rainy season after all.  Praying for no rain Wednesday. 

The house is beautiful and many touches beyond our expectations. Christian Arce (New Age Construction) and his great guys are truly professionals and pretty easy to work with. Christian speaks English well and although most of his guys don't speak much English, John has a very good working relationship with them and communicates with pointing, hand signals and Spanish words here and there.

Our Spanish is improving, not in conversational style but with simple phrases and words. We have found the best way for us to learn the Spanish WE NEED is to look up words and phrases common in our journeys, put them on my Ipad in a translation program and practice over and over, often while in the car. For example, what Spanish program is going to teach us to say, “No knot in the bag please” ?? We found with other methods we were learning stuff we don't use and soon forgot. We try to add more to our personal Spanish program each week.

Permaculture Project at Serenity Gardens Eco Village

View from above of the permaculture project. Here you see the “bones” of the project. Many plantings, ponds, trees, etc., will be completed over the coming weeks.

Created by Eco Oasis, Brendon McKeon 

PS: that is our rental house in the background.

Outdoor Kitchen of Brendon and Sarah McKeon

We visited a lovely family a couple Sunday's ago and have a pic to share of their outdoor kitchen.   They also have an indoor kitchen but this outside kitchen was my favorite, I loved it!! (Sole McKeon shown in pic.) They have a huge L-shaped veranda for outdoor living with gorgeous views of mountains and valleys. One of my favorite pastimes in Costa Rica is visiting with new people and the day visiting Brendon, Sarah and their 3 adorable kids was a highlight. They also have a cool organic permaculture farm.

Bridge to McKeon's Farm, An Amusement Ride for Your Car!

When Brendon drove his truck over the bridge before we crossed, all I could think was, “Ah! An amusement ride for your car!” It flexed and bounced so much that it reminded me of videos you see of bridges in earthquakes.  Pictured is the bridge, our car and what I admiringly call a "cement tree".  Cement tree isn't its real name but these trees are so straight, huge and solid that they look like cement to me.  We pass several "cement trees" on our way to San Isidro and I always admire them.  Wonder how old this one is? 

Back Up!  Beans in the Road!

 

On our way to San Isidro the other day John stopped the car and backed up to look to see if what he thought he saw really was correct. People are so trusting up in the rural mountain areas of Costa Rica that you will see things you likely wouldn’t see in the cities. Someone laid a heavy cloth on the road at an intersection of another road to dry their red beans.  Just right out in the road, trusting that no one would drive over them. Sure enough, when we returned many hours later the beans were just as we saw them in the morning with no tire tracks and every bean in place.

A common phrase in Costa Rica is Pura Vida; which I have heard many translations of: Pure Life, Good Life, Enjoy Life, Take It Easy, All Good, Hello, Good-bye, and more. When you can see others respecting beans drying out in the road and driving around them, life is indeed good!!

One Very Lucky Lizard

John found this little guy trapped in a chicken coop. Lucky for him the chickens were out free-ranging or he would have been dinner for the gallinas (hens). When John set him down the lizard posed very nicely for this pic.

Anteater Crossing

And finally we saw this little anteater crossing the road. At least we think it was an anteater because of his face, it looked like an anteater. Of course John stopped, (he never wants to have another “sloth in the road and can't stop story” told against him.) This anteater is smaller than those we typically see in pictures.  The fur and markings are just beautiful; John said it looked like someone threw a teddy bear along the side of the road. Too bad this cutie didn't pose like the lizard.  He didn't move real fast, but really didn't want us to see him, so we couldn't get his face in the shot.  Honestly, this isn't a stuffed animal, it really was crossing the road.

July 2014

July has been rather dry so far. This is to be expected before the onslaught that comes in August, September and October. I read that the Caribbean side of Costa Rica, especially the northern parts is having a hard week of too much rain and high seas but not us. I even had to water my pots of herbs this week due to little rain.

Cable Trolley recently put in by Aldemar and other Serenity Workers to get supplies and

 guys across the river.  That's John getting a thrill ride across the river.

Our house is almost ready, waiting on the cabinets. Unfortunately I just 'had to have' light colored wood with little grain pattern not knowing this would be a problem and hold us up for occupancy. Our builder specially handpicked Costa Rican logs for my request, had them milled and dried. (Could kick myself, hope it is worth it!)  But unfortunately the company he used for the drying kept having their kiln break down so drying took longer than expected. Now we are waiting for the cabinets to be stained, sealed and installed.

Mamon Chino are in season now.  Somewhat grape like taste, very nice flavor.

  Peel off the hairy outer skin, pop the white part into your mouth and chew.  There is a large seed in the middle that you discard after working the white part off with your teeth. 

Buying Kitchen Appliances

We got our kitchen appliances the other day so that was exciting. We did check out Golfito but were too apprehensive to pay in cash for 3 large purchases and hope that “guy over there with a delivery truck” would bring our apliances 2 hours north and another 45 minute drive up the mountain; (as long as he had 4 wheel drive.) Some of you other brave souls can buy in Golfito and tell us how it went. Can you say “chicken”, yep, that was us.

Golfito is a town south of here, almost to Panama, that was a thriving city when Chiquita Banana was present for employment. But when Chiquita pulled out of the area it became so depressed that the Costa Rican government allowed Golfito to become a “duty free” town, no sales tax. It is a hopping place now known for selling appliances, both big and small along with some other things but mostly appliances at really low prices. When we visited it was like a carnival! Very crazy place.

Our nearest town of Pejibaye has an appliance store along with oh so many in San Isidro. In SI, they are so plentiful it is hard to remember which appliance store you visited. With us wanting to boost the local economy, we talked to Adan in Pejibaye, thank heavens he could speak English. In Pejibaye, being a little mountain valley town, they mostly do business with Ticos, very few Norte Americanos probably have ever bought appliances there. But we Serenity residents are coming!!! We told the guy to expect more of us and he was pretty excited. Since they don't cater to Gringos all their appliances were very small, not what we were looking for. Adan (with 'n', not 'm') told us if we found what we wanted in San Isidro he would order it and give us great prices. And he did! Along with delivery!

Our local Pejibaye Appliance/Furniture/Bikes/TV Store.  Very nice English speaking Adan works here, ask for best price for cash.  Look at the character in the upper left corner of sign.

  Very strange, really instills trust, a hooded evil guy!  What was the Ad Designer thinking?!?!

So there we are paying in cash for three kitchen appliances and when the paperwork is done he says, “I will call taxi now to deliver.” The “taxi” is a small pickup truck and shows up in minutes! He must have been sitting at the corner waiting for Adan's call! Now, we know the condition of the dirt part of the road to get to Serenity, we normally take it at 10 miles per hour or less. So we are rather worried about our appliances riding in the back of a little pick up “taxi”. But Adan promised us they would protect our goods with ropes and mattresses; they sell mattresses too.

They did indeed get everything protected well. That truck was loaded down with many mattresses along with anything else they could grab to keep everything in place. It was a funny sight. Since our builders live on-site Mon thru Fri. all the guys came to see what was going on when the delivery “taxi” arrived in the dark and helped too. Adan (yes, Adan came along for the delivery, it isn't everyday he gets to sell big appliances to Gringos!) went around shaking hands talking a mile a minute in Spanish; John said it was like reunion night. Adan knew some of the guys and was pretty proud of his big sale and excited to see the Gringo house. 

 

Delivery "Taxi" like the one that came in the dark loaded with appliances and mattresses.

So those of you coming Serenity and needing to buy appliances, go see Adan in Pejibaye. You can't miss his store, it is BRIGHT yellow!! He will take good care of you and give you the same price you can negotiate in San Isidro. And you get it delivered in a “taxi”!

Panama Border Crossing Adventure (Congratulations Costa Rica!!)

Congratulations to Costa Rica and their soccer team for their win today in the World Cup soccer games.  Few thought it was possible for them to win over the teams they have beat.  History has been made, never before has Costa Rica moved so far into the World Cup.  Ticos are jubilant beyond measure, it is wonderful to see their joy and you can just feel their pride bursting forth.  Even up on this mountain we can hear horns blasting in joyous thunder.  Bravo Costa Rica!!!

Our Second Panama Border Crossing

Until we get our cedulas (CR residency cards) we must leave the country every 90 days to keep our driver's license and car insurance valid. Immigration says we are good and don't need to leave since they have approved our applications but Dept of Motor Vehicles has their own rules. We are closest to Panama so until we are done building and finances are in order so we can travel (one of the big reasons we moved here) we go to Panama, it is easier than anything else. Easier is a relative term, easier than Nicaragua, easier than flying to Florida for a few days, easier than a longer trip back to Michigan. But easy it is not.
 

Under recommendation of several expats on a facebook group for Southern Zone Costa Rica, we got directions to go to an quiet border town, Sereno, to cross. When we went to Paso Canoas 90 days ago, the lines were extremely long, the noise and diesel fuel overwhelming and it took 3 hours just to get across to Panama.
 

Another person on facebook gave very detailed directions to Sereno but some of her landmarks were no longer easy to spot. Her café with several “statutes” was closed and statues gone, the woodworking shop has shrubs all around it and hard to see any wood furniture but the “big lawn” house was still there. We did eventually find the road to turn unto for the last leg of the 4 hour journey. Costa Rica does not have road signs; addresses have descriptions such as 100 meters north of restaurant Cusinga, west of the set of 3 palm trees, etc... Really, I am not kidding.

When we got to Sereno that was the end of the directions from our facebook pals. We are pretty new to border crossings and when we went across before, everything was in one place albeit a crowded one place. We had many stations, rooms and windows to go to but all in one place. So we start looking for something similar in Sereno. As we are driving around looking for an official looking border crossing I spot what I think might be an official building on another road. We are on a steep incline and have to turn around. John pulls into a drive and while backing out slices the side of our front tire on an iron grate. Spisssssss...

Now to find a place where he can change the tire that is relatively flat. He finds a drive in front of a business and backs up very carefully so as not to damage our wheel rim. Two young Tico guys help and make some quick cash. Ticos are very helpful and would have helped John without payment but we felt they were deserving of something.

OK back on the road again looking for the elusive border crossing. We turn down the road where I spotted a blue building (they like using blue in CR for official buildings) but it turns out to be a store. We keep slowly driving while I peer into each building, but they are all stores. I look ahead for a second, YIKS!! Two guys in military uniforms escorting children across the street and directing traffic. “STOP JOHN, STOP!! Pull over! We are in Panama! Oh no, we are in Panama! Oh no!!” It never dawned on my very intelligent (he really is a near genius on most things) that Costa Rica has no military so who are these guys in fatigues?

Panama School Kids working in garden outback. Notice the machetes?  EVERYONE has a machete in CR/Panama.  They sell them in the grocery stores next to the peanut butter!  It was so cute, the boys wanted their pictures taken so much that they kept coming up to us and posing for us.  If they only knew they are now on the internet they would be thrilled!

We have been warned not to casually go over the border without your passport stamped and paperwork filed. Casually? How does one go over a border casually? I never thought we could screw that up! Well, in Sereno there are no signs to tell you where Costa Rica ends and Panama starts. No STOP HERE signs, (Alto) and since we don't read Spanish well, we didn't know we had passed the Costa Rica immigration office and Panama's office about a ½ block after that. A half block apart!! Who would have guessed you walk to one immigration office and for a ½ block you are in
'no man's land' of who knows where to get to the other country's immigration office? Go figure!

So John pulls over, gets his passport and tries to talk to a Spanish speaking military guy. Luckily he was a nice guy who didn't confiscate our car and send it to the large city of David with us following on a bus and it costing us hundreds or more to get it back, probably no sooner than the next day. This was explained to me as a possible scenario where we had lunch, which I THINK was on Costa Rican side; don’t really know for sure, no signs to tell us where we are. Just military guys in uniform escorting little children across a street and Panama license plates on vehicles to give us warning we have done something terribly wrong. We didn't have permission to drive our car out of Costa Rica, we would have needed official papers, inspections, insurance for Panama and finally a fumigating spray on our car. Taking a car from CR to Panama is a BIG deal.

We turn around and drive to where we THINK we should go. Now before you say, “dummies” remember we are all new to this and this border crossing is so different than the other CR/Panama crossing that we are doing the best we can. We end up in the Panamanian office with a guy who can't speak English any better than we can speak Spanish. We finally figure out we need to go back to the CR side, and end up at the police station. The policeman directs us 2 more buildings further away from the Panama office so off we go.

Panama Street Stores.  You can't really see but there are some descent things inside these little stores.  We purchased an electric tea kettle for 10 dollars!
  Panama uses U.S. dollars as their currency.

We get our passports stamped and proudly bring back to the Panama guy only to be told we need 2 copies of each of our passports. Where do we get copies; all the while I see stacks of copy paper and a printer within arms reach? (Copy machines and paper in Central America are considered gold. It is very strange how you can hire a professional to do a job only to have them tell you where to go down the street to make copies of the work you just hired them to perform; which has happened to us twice before.) So off down the street we go to get our copies, maybe it is his brother at the store that charges for copies! Back to Panama guy who finally stamps our passports to officially give us permission to enter Panama, just our bodies, not our car. Whew!

These ladies are dressed in traditional dresses.  The lady in red found us while having lunch to ask if I would buy one of her dresses like the one she had on.  Sorry, too MuuMuu-ish.  Plus they look hot to me.  I felt bad telling her no but did tell her that her dress was muy bonito, very pretty.

We do some shopping in the stores along the road we were just at illegally. We look for a tire but can't find one the right size, too bad, real cheap prices in Panama! Now we are going to have to drive on a small spare tire back along a seriously rocky road for a half hour. Then we have another 3.5 hours of mountain driving on the spare; not something I look forward to.

Now it is time to leave Panama and return to our home. After driving through a couple towns looking for tires, we stop at a service station so John can check the lug nuts. I go in looking for el bano (restroom) and am greeted by a big stack of tires. “John!!! Come here, they have tires!!” Within 15 minutes we have the right size tire on our car and the little spare back in the wheel well. History has been made!! 15 minutes to have something major done in Costa Rica! “Major” meaning, I wasn't buying a loaf of bread, we bought and had a tire installed in 15 minutes!! I could have hugged the tire guy!

During our full day of driving through southern Costa Rica we saw amazing beauty. We drove through adorable little towns, drove up a mountain where the scenery below showed towns with the Pacific beyond. We took a different route back that was along a mountain ridge with miles and miles valleys on each side. It was a lovely and eventful day that we can look fondly back on. And also give tips to newbies going across the Sereno border!

It's Getting Close! Yea!

Our house is nearing completion and we are anxious to get in.  My smarty daughter exclaimed, "This will be the fastest house built for John and Diane Franklin!" "Well" I tell her, "It helps when I don't accidently burn it down when it is halfway completed!"  If you don't know the story and want to hear it, just drop me an email, I will get back to you personally on that mishap!

I always wanted to have a yellow home some day.  Only in Latin American would I have the guts for

 such a bright yellow along with rusty red.  ChaChaCha!

The bamboo railings and balusters are supposed to be installed this week. Can't wait to see how that looks inside along the loft area looking down into the kitchen/living area. 

A new favorite food, Yucca Fritters!  YUM!
Typically yucca in Costa Rica is boiled and served mashed on your plate and you can add butter, salt
and pepper.  John was not a fan.  So I tried fried sticks of yucca, John said they were much better.  But the big hit was yucca fritters!  Absolutely fantastic!  If you can get some yucca, give this a try.  I guarantee, they are great!

Yucca Fritters

Peel off outer layer by slicing through tough outer skin down the length of the yucca.  Peel off skin.
Either grate yucca or put chunks of peeled yucca into food processor to make about 3 to 4 cups of semi-finely processed yucca.
Finely chop an onion and a sweet pepper or put into food processor
Put all in bowl
Add 2 eggs, salt and pepper
Mix well
Heat a good amount of coconut oil in heavy pan
Drop by small handfuls into pan, gently making them flat, gentle now, don't smooch!
Once browned on bottom, turn with spatula and brown other side
add some more coconut oil for the next batch.  Be happy you are getting your daily dose of coconut oil!
Serve with sour cream or ketchup.  I like sour cream and of course John likes the ketchup!

This waterfall is so far off in the distance, I don't even know how many miles away to guess it is.
 At every turn Southern Costa Rica delights.  It is a gorgeous area! 

Mr. Lizard keeps showing up around our rental house.  He is so well camouflaged that we often miss him.  When he runs he runs on his back legs, very exciting to watch. 

This Friday we take another "border run" to Panama.  We are going to a very remote border crossing recommend by a Facebook Southern Zone of CR group.  Hope to come back with interesting things to share. 

Adios!

May 30, 2014

Our house is about 6 weeks from completion. Plastering should be completed next week and painting started. Our builder prefers to plaster the inside drywall and put a special paint on to combat the mold and humidity from living in the tropics. He uses a greenboard where ever moisture is present, like in bathrooms and outside where water will splash up on the house, he uses cement board. Everything gets plastered over. Even our basement block has plaster, much more than we expected.

This is a sloth near our house, it was in a tree between the rental house and our new house. A worker told us that he has seen sloths here in Serenity about 6 times so far. But spotting sloths is very hard since they don't move very fast and blend in with nature. John would have missed it had it not been pointed out to him. He rushed home to get me and we got pictures. (Still no sloth crossing the road though.)

At a party someone brought Ceviche de Banano (green banana ceviche). Most common is ceviche made with fish. But this was a vegan ceviche and it was very tasty. So I asked Aldemar to find out who made it and could I get the recipe. He brought his sister Cecelia over and she taught me how to make Ceviche de Banano. This is a picture of us working in the kitchen. Aldemar stayed to translate and then I helped his niece with her English homework. It turned out to be a very interesting Sunday afternoon.

 

 

We mostly eat outside and have found it helpful to cook some things outside on the porch.  Here I am making pancakes on a Sunday morning.  At our new house we will have a kitchenette on our veranda so cooking out there will be easy.

Two weeks ago when we went to San Isidro many of the roads were closed in preparation for a parade celebrating Saint Isidore, patron saint of farmers. While at the bank sirens were blaring with a fire truck leading the procession right by the bank. Painted ox carts being pulled by decorated Brahma bulls were common along with horses, carriages, children with carts filled with produce, floats of agriculture displays, everyone dressed in traditional colorful clothing and more. This is a picture of one of ox carts and bulls. Costa Ricans love their parades, celebrations and holidays.

And finally but not least, as we were driving through a mountain neighborhood a pair of Scarlet Macaws came swooping down to our car and circling it. It was an amazing site. Normally we only see them high in the sky flying in pairs like 2 stunt planes, swooping, spiraling and making quite a spectacle; and sometimes in trees. The colors right in front of our windshield were vivid and the birds huge!! We got out of the car and a lady from nearby house came out to try to talk to us about the birds. Unfortunately she only spoke Spanish and our Spanish is very limited. It seems that she feeds them because one landed on a frame crossing her sidewalk to her front door. It allowed us to get near and take many pictures. As this one hammed it up for the camera the other stayed nearby calling from a tree along with many toucans flying back and forth. I've got to get back to this lady and find out how she attracts both macaws and toucans; somehow finding a way to converse with her. Oh how I wish we knew more Spanish! We are trying but our old brains keep forgetting all that they try to teach us!

 

May Changes

Afternoon of Heavy Rain

Now that the rainy season has started; which brings afternoon rains, we have stood amazed at the deluge of water a few hours of rain can bring down a mountain. We have never lived on a mountain before so this is all new to us.

The easiest way out of Serenity is crossing what has been a little river. But the deluge has seriously washed away the land bridge (tubes underneath to drain water) we normally drive over. Two afternoons of rain last week brought so much water down of what was a quiet stream, that the strong current washed away the road bed and left us with a difficult drive over it. And forget about driving over the stream during the deluge, the current is strong enough to wash a car down the river or at least cause serious damage. There is another way out going further up the mountain in Serenity and across the mountain top by the Community Center. But that road is VERY steep and washed out. It is supposed to be worked on this week to improve the drive up. Hopefully we won't have any emergencies and need to leave Serenity when it is raining hard because neither way out is safe right now in a heavy rain. We obviously need a bridge but not sure when that will happen. But no doubt, we need a new bridge before August when even heavier rains will come for 3 to 4 months.

 Before Picture--We can easily walk across the bridge, unto the rock and climb down to a little pool of water below the falls for swimming.

After Picture--This is what happens to the river after a few hours of hard rain.

  Look for the little bridge in lower left corner!  No swimming today!

This is the "lazy" stream crossing after a hard rain.

  You can't really get the feel for the torrent of water it has produced by looking at the picture. 
We couldn't drive across until the next morning.

House Update

The stairways are constructed in our new house so I got to go upstairs for the first time this past weekend. It is going to be a great area for guests. It is exciting to think about many of our family and friends visiting Costa Rica and us. Don’t make plans to come until after the holidays though unless you really like rain. The rainiest months are September, October and November. That leaves December as a month of transition into the dry season but really...do you want to travel at a time of heavy holiday traffic and high air-fares? Best to wait for January through April. I am liking this May weather also, it is cooler but you do have rainy afternoons.

 That whole upstairs area is for guests!  I had told John for me to be able to move to Costa Rica,

 I had to have a guest area.

All the "green" should be plastered or this week. The house will be stucco. 

Mangoes, Mangoes Everywhere!

This is the high season for mangoes in southern Costa Rica. They grow up and down our mountain road, really an exciting sight to see. The market has them pretty cheap too. I didn't know there are different types of mangoes. The smaller mangoes are the sweetest and less fibrous. What to do with all these mangoes...? Fruit smoothies, tomato salsa (a chopped mango adds a nice dimension), mango salsa for fish (delicious!), jam, salads and more. Never has my kitchen been so filled with tropical fruit. I also chopped and freeze all types of fruit for frozen fruit smoothies, makes it very much like sherbet.

Diane with a new friend, Jaden, one of our builder's daughters.

Water Apples

We have water apples galore on our property. There are so many falling to the ground that it smells like vinegar standing on the veranda! Water apples are very popular here, I will have to ask what they do with them. We really aren't fond of them eating them like an apple as they are soft in texture. They would be good in smoothies and would like to try making water apple preserves.

We had a green banana ceviche at a party. It was amazing. I really need to get the recipe for that! It reminded me of potato salad! I put Aldemar on the hunt for the recipe.

Relearning Nature

Trees down here behave very oddly to someone that hails from Michigan. The fruit trees often have 2 or more crops and some trees, like the mandarin lemons, bear year round. Leaves on some trees fall off only to be replaced the next week! We have seen orange trees with new blossoms that are also producing fruit of all stages, some of the fruit near maturity. There is so much to learn about nature in Costa Rica. Since we love nature, it is exciting for us to discover new things about it.

Rainy Season Approaching

The rainy season has started slowly and will build so that by September, October and November we will experience lots of rain. Right now the vegetation, rivers and ground are being replenished from hardly any rain for the past four months. Some Costa Ricans, (mostly just those who have been to the States) sometimes call the rainy season “winter” but that just seems odd to me. Days that still reach into the 70s to 80s can't be “winter”. I'll stick with “rainy season”. Currently we have mixed cloudy/sunny days with periods of rain but haven't had a full day of rain yet. The further you get away from the mountain the more likely to have sun. Sometimes we can we look out into the valley from our new house and see sunshine way out there in the valley and other mountains.

House Construction

Our house is about 2 months from completion. We have picked out most of the lighting, tiles and fixtures. Still working on kitchen appliances. This is the third house John and I have built together and we both find it intriguing; it is an exciting process. I like the designing part and John is into the construction so we fit well together building a new building because it exercises our creative sides.

The upstairs level is for guests.  Bedroom, full bath and loft area. 

As I have mentioned before, many Costa Rican guys that work outside often bring their dogs to work with them. Pictured here is tired little Oszo. His owner, Victor, was walking back and forth taking gravel down the hill to a building site. Pictured with Victor is Odilio. Oszo the dog, finally got tired and needed a ride. Oszo follows Victor everywhere but has little legs. One Sunday, when Victor took his family to the ocean, Oszo got anxious for Victors return. So Oszo trotted up to our building site (Victor sometimes works for our builder) looking for Victor. After about 2 hours I said to John, “Lets go up to the house to see if Oszo is still up there because I haven't seen him back down.” Sure enough, Oszo was in our house waiting Victor. Awhhh!

Victor, Oszo and Odilio

Pacific Ocean Picnic

While driving home from San Jose a couple weeks ago, we had food in the car along with a blanket. We stopped at a popular roadside cliff overlooking the ocean for a picnic. The waves were very large that day, the picture doesn't really show how big they were. And we saw 4 Scarlet Macaws while there. It made for an lovely picnic.

Surfs Up!

Scarlet Macaws