Hi,

Several corrections and enhancements.  What I referred to yesterday as a Prodteus, Number 1, the plant is called Protea.  Number 2, the plant I posted pictures of is actually a ginger.  Those trees lining the driveway with the camouflage peeling bark in Leigh’s driveway are a Eucalyptus.

After all our hiking around Thursday, we sort of hung around Leigh’s house Friday.  We went out for a late breakfast/early lunch at Leigh’s friend Monika’s Restaurant Caballo Negro and Lucky Bug Gallery and Bed & Breakfast right down the street.  Monika and Willy are German nationals that lived in the US before settling in Costa Rica in 2006.  Having a background in culinary, they initially opened the restaurant and then added the gift shop next to sell their three daughters’ artwork.  Later came the bed and breakfast.  The girls have gone on their way, but Monika still supplies the gift shop with items like these lamps, she makes the shades from fiberglass (I apologize, several of the pictures I couldn’t rotate them):

 

And they make these kind of mobile things from metal they cut into the shape of leaves and then cut the slits in them to capture the wind:

We had breakfast/lunch on the porch overlooking the bed and breakfast compound and a lake that divides the property:

And as so many people in Costa Rica, Monika puts fresh fruit scraps out to feed the local fauna:

I didn’t like the earlier angle I posted of the crater created from a volcanic rock yesterday, here’s a better angle:

We walked down to Lake Arenal and saw these club moss (looks like a fern, more of a moss) all over the place:

There was this tree with these white cords hanging down from the branches (which are actually flowers), much like you expect to see from James Cameroon in Avatar:

Here’s a wild orchid we found down by the lake:

And a passion flower growing in the forest:

Not sure what this thing is, I wasn’t willing to get too close to it in case it was a wasp next, it would hold a LOT of wasps (it quite possibly is a bird’s nest, possibly termites):

Here’s a local hibiscus with one hell of a stamen:  🙂

Have a great day and keep warm,

ed