Sunday is Ruben’s day to spend time with family, so we thought we would head out to the property and do some more exploring. This time we brought out a couple of chairs and an ice chest so we could just sit and listen to all the different sounds. We also brought along some hot dogs, so we built a small fire, wittled  down some sticks with a machete  and roasted the best hot dogs we have ever had. Okay, they weren’t the best but they were our first meal on the property.

After the best meal ever (haha) we wandered around the property checking out all the plants and flowers. We have learned to identify some of the plants and flowers, but others we still have no idea what they are. It seems that just about every tropical house plant you see in the states grows wild on the property. We did also find a wild papaya, wild plum, passion fruit and a couple other fruits that I don’t know what they are but, they tasted pretty good.

When Ruben was cutting down one of the trees for us he found a huge orchid, the kind that attaches it self to the tree and just grows. There is a good size tree where the house is going that needs to be taken out, so Ruben is going to cut it about six feet from the ground and plant the orchid on top of the stump for us to enjoy.

There seems to be only one tree there that is poisonous, that is the poison wood tree, and I think there is only a couple of those and they are tucked far into the bush. If the sap from the tree gets on your skin it will burn, but the great thing about nature is usually next to the poison wood tree a gumbo limbo tree will grow, which is the antidote for the burn.

Lots of parrots flying around, they are noisy when they fly so you can hear them coming a mile away. Saw lots of frogs of all sizes and some small lizards and one wicked big spider, (which Ruben said is harmless) but it still looked scary.

As we were walking around we saw a toucan land in the trees. Sorry the pictures of the toucan are not that great but there was a little rain that day.

On the drive out to the property we did see a couple of monkeys in the trees, a gibnut, lots of iguanas and of course all your basic farm animals.

That evening was a little rainy so we decided to stay in instead of going out for dinner. Kelley made up some vegetable chicken soup from ingredients we got at the big open air market, and some sourdough bread with some or the best mozzarella cheese that we bought from some menonite women at the market. It was great way to spend a Sunday.