With the onset of the rainy season, I find myself noting the difference in climate between the new house in Buenos Aires and our apartment in Esquipulas. In fact, it's hard to believe that they are separated by a mere one mile, as the proverbial crow flies, and a valley with what we presume to be a small river at the bottom (as we've yet to set eyes upon it).
The apartment sits on ridge of somewhat rural land - pastures and small garden plots separated by clusters of homes.
We occupied a second story apartment that afforded us constant breezes and pleasant morning sun that helped to chase away the dampness from the previous night's rain or morning dew. The new house, sits on the opposite ridge of the same valley, but instead of open pastures, we are surrounded by dense, natural forest that holds the moisture and shields us from some of the air movement we enjoyed in Esquipulas.
It is also block construction, and therefore, lacks the natural ventilation we had in our log-cabin apartment.The bottom line, is that we notice that we sweat more, the laundry dries more slowly, we have had to change some of our habits to prevent mold, and -- this is the big one -- we have way more bugs!
In addition to some our bug-of-the-day photos I've included here, there was the two-inch spider I found in our bedroom that I refused to let Vic photograph before unceremoniously escorting back to nature, the bazillion May beetles that have put a temporary end to our evenings outside, the black ants that periodically launch a midnight expedition through the downstairs, and a plethora of miscellaneous creepy crawlies that I dispense with on the basis of my perception of the threat they present. Some of them are just downright cool. Others ... well, they simply have to go right now!
In my previous life, I would have been far more alarmed by them. But this is Costa Rica. They come with the territory - and lots of birds in our little forest to help keep the ick population under control.
Pura Vida
