If Someone Gets Bit...

 ...it ain't gonna be my problem.

Today. This morning. Beach walk here in my beloved stretch of beach towards the estuary.

Do you see what I see? Oodles of people and dogs right in the estuary flowing into the ocean at low tide. Frolicking around ignoring all the "Warning" "Danger!" "No swimming because there are crocodiles here!" signs willy-nilly.

Seems to be something of a representative for life right now. 

Sadly before my walk was over I saw something happen that has happened before. Someone's toy poodle snatched up in two quick chomps and down the hatch. Yes, I witnessed another dog eaten by the crocodiles and the usual amounts of freaking out by the owners.

The local crocodiles have gotten a real taste for dog now. They rarely bite people, but I still would not swim at the mouth of the estuary because they do sometimes take someone's lower leg off. Every year or so. But the dog carnage is real.

This invasion of disrespect into the the park is just so upsetting. The estuary is part of the Las Baulas park, supposedly protecting the wildlife. It's the natural habitat of the crocodiles, giant turtles and so many other creatures. We visit their homes.

Walked out without a trash bag so I was juggling trash on my way out of the beach. I try to clean as I walk. Those of us who live here are the ones actually cleaning the beach, sometimes we have beach community cleaning days, and many of us get in the habit of picking up the beach. Someone's perfectly good flip flop floated up as I was cleaning today. Very odd. Usually it is an endless parade of cigarette butts and 20 ounce soda bottles with the occasional sea flotsam like a plastic piece off a boat. Very rare to see something that looks new and untouched.


 I've started working on a series of paintings of various estuaries. I've always been fascinated by the places where the river meets the sea.

When we got home I drove up just in time to see one of our stray cats in drivers seat of the other car, standing up, paws on the steering wheel like she was driving. I glad to see something comical after the gruesome beach walk.

I've been crankily in bed this afternoon. Took a tumble and wiped out walking the dunes. I have three left feet and one is on backwards. But I'm not sure what's going on. I am having the kinds of body aches you get before you come down with the flu. Didn't fall that hard or that far to mess anything up.

Now I'm trying to negotiate with the aduana at the same time over my Cambridge masks. I ordered a pile of N99 masks back in May with projected shipping date of August. Manufacturing issues pushed it back to September shipping from the UK. Two weeks ago they finally showed up in Costa Rica. Aduana wants me to pony up import taxes, and I'm waiting on the final bill for that.

Oh well, at least they got here quicker than the clothing I bought from India last year. The only issue being that Costa Rica has officially banned masks with filtered valves, or just valves. I realize that some of the valved masks are not nearly as effective as the plain ones, but the better masks, like this, like my old Vog masks, that have good filters you can change. are effective. I'm buying these because my poor old Vog masks are on their last legs. I masked sometimes before the pandemic when my asthma was hideous. I'm going to continue doing that, and the cloth masks are pretty useless as filtering out allergens.



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