More nature

Our last morning class. And it starts off with, yup, you guessed it, a tarantula. Perfectly at home on the rug we'd rolled up at the front of the studio. The same girl who'd taken out the spider the night before flung this one into the garden. She then realized that tarantulas are poisonous. This one was a little smaller, about 3" long, but it's those furry legs that give it away. No one wanted to take class with it in the studio.

After class and breakfast, we loaded into the van to go into town and visit the artisan market. As it turns out, the market is really a food market, and that was packing up as we got there. The artisans were independent stalls along the streets, and those were open.

 Reminder that it is the holidays!

 This was along the main plaza in town. 

As soon as the rain stopped, we managed to all make the van. Because of the rain, we ate lunch in the van. We then visited the chocolate place of the same name as the lodge. Then, back to the lodge. We had a little time before our final class of the trip.

I've noted before that evening classes are pitch black by the time we were done. For some reason, with this one, I kept thinking, 'Please don't turn the lights out all the way during shavasana.' The instructor did. When they came back on, my friend said that something had crawled across her arm. I put my mat and things away, and when I came back, right where my mat had been, was another big spider -- long and narrow, about 4-5" in length. I left before I saw what happened to this one. 

Another night of games and laughter, and then people started disappearing to pack--half of the group was leaving the next morning.

However, some of us had an extra day! We hung around and said our goodbyes to the others. Then, four of us went kayaking.

 Not as sunny, but still a great day to kayak.

 I love that they looked so synchronized, even looking in the same direction.

 More selfies! And she had a plan. This one took a couple of tries, but it worked.

 Then, former film production person that she is, she had another idea. A few more attempts, and we have another winner.

 Vultures. One section of the river was just teeming with them. I spied both turkey vultures and a king vulture with the bright red head. They were interested to hear about that one, as it's not usually in the area. Another section was filled with racing mangrove (tree) swallows. They were really pretty to watch zoom along the water.

 I also saw neotropical cormorants and yellow-crowned night herons. This little blue heron let me get pretty close before he took off.

That evening, we were playing Bananagrams. My friend got tired of the "routine" game and made up new rules. Suddenly, I wasn't allowed to use English. It took a while to get my brain thinking in that mode and it was hard, but so much fun. She technically won, but was generous in sharing the win--even after she let me use the last remaining tiles to make a final word, and in English. Nineteen words in seven languages -- pretty good, I think.

No yoga this day, but that was OK. While the studio was beautiful, I was tired of the staircase to it and very tired of the big spiders. I rather enjoyed that our last full day was full of birds.