Vahid's arrival in Costa Rica

David's singing partner, Vahid Ndobe (who's from Cameroon), arrived yesterday for a long-awaited visit. He arrived late and awakened to a glorious CR morning. Later we all took off for our favorite tourist spot, La Paz, and had a great day there. Here they're standing in front of one of the five waterfalls (there are water spots on the lense from the light drizzle):David and Vahid went all the way down the last stairs to the lowermost falls (near the bridge which fell into the river some years ago--see the remains below the new one):
Vahid was delighted with the typical hand-painted Costa Rican oxcart and the two spotted oxen nearby (in the far left corner). He has his hand on the yoke:All of us at the large wooden table in the hand-hewn "campesino" house which is designed for the tourists to get the feel of the way life was lived in years past in Costa Rica:On the porch, just outside the house is a rice-husking pestle which was the principal way that rice was treated in the early campesino life here. Vahid got a kick out of the aparatus:Here's a view of a couple of mating tree "frongs" (my spelling for em--if you ever see one on the move it's frong, frong, frong). In the usual order the male's on top, and she's one big mama! The guide mentioned that they stay that way for a week! One nevah knows, do one?And this lil' dude is a poison dart frong. Super cute (but one of the larger types):In another area are the snake exhibits. Here's what, I think, is called a Lora (green tree snake). The fellow is about 6 ft long, but so skinny, and super fast:The gang in front of the lighted artificial tree which holds up the roof of the lower dining building:Vahid in front of a work-in-progress piece of art on a concrete wall. The owner of the La Paz Waterfalls (Lee Banks, a young entrepreneur from Miami who founded this place five or so years ago) comes up with so many such creative ideas and has local artists develop them. Isn't this a great idea to improve on an otherwise plain old blank wall? This is the upper dining area where one can really pig out on the best of Costa Rica's typical food:The following video clip was taken from the same deck where we had lunch. The view of the cloud forest across the valley (where the waterfalls are) is pretty spectacular.