Saturday, May 3, 2014

Fish Heads. Fish Heads. Rolly Poly Fish Heads...

Ok, everyone sing along with me...

"Fish Heads. Fish Heads.  Rolly Poly Fish Heads.  Fish Heads. Fish Heads.  Eat them up... Yum."

If you don't remember this crazy song by Barnes and Barnes, then check it out on Youtube.
It's the inspiration for the tile of this post.

I personally have never seen someone eat a fish head... until recently that is.
Meet our friend, Milton!  He's a brother from one of the Spanish Congregations in the nearby town of Palmares.  He wanted to take Ron and I "fishing".  "OK!", we thought.  We're thinking he's taking us to maybe a river or some type of pond or little lake.  Nope!  He ended up taking us to this cool little place where they have all these tiny little fish ponds that they stock.  People get a stick with a fishing line tied to it, throw it in the water, and pull out the fish.  Whoo Hoo!  Supper! Then the cook at the restaurant that is onsite will cook up your fish for you.  Not exactly what we are use to in the States.  But it's a pretty cool place to hang out for an afternoon.

So we opted out of 'fishing' but decided to sit down and have a meal.  What's on the menu?  Fish!  Duh! Did you think it would be anything other?  LOL!  We all ordered the Tilapia.  Yummy!  I love Tilapia.  But our meal arrived in a little different fashion than we are use to...  The WHOLE fish!  Head, Tail, Eyeballs... Yep, it was all there.

Our friend Milton loves the head.  So we kindly offered him ours, which he gladly accepted.  Other than the head, it was very tasty.  Here's a few pics from our afternoon.














Milton eating the fish heads... LOL!




Cooking Class w/ Luisa

Luisa is one of the sweetest sisters that I've met here in Costa Rica.  She is our Coordinator's wife.
She's an amazing cook, which is good because we REALLY miss the wonderful food that the sisters in our congregation back in Illinois would cook.  (Miss you Jeanie, Lori and Betsy...and miss your cooking!)

Luisa was kind enough to teach us 'gringos' how to cook some traditional Costa Rican items.  Too bad for all of you that these pictures don't have "smell and taste" features.  The food was amazing!

As a side thought... Hey Kathy Watson, Lusia is the sister that reminds us of you.  It's like having you here with us.  HaHa!  Miss you and Gary lots!  As well as all of our other friends and family back in the States.


Our wonderful hostess and cook! 




Fried plantain empanadas with cheese in them.





Making 'Tres Leche' cake.  (3 Milk Cake - in English)  It's VERY yummy!!



Pineapple Pie



Mariel taking photos of the beautiful feast presented to us at the end of the class.

Isn't it beautiful?!  It was absolutely delicious too!





La Paz Waterfall Gardens

We journeyed quite a bit up the mountains (over 9,000 feet to be exact) to this beautiful place called 'La Paz Waterfall Gardens'.  It will definitely be on the 'Must See' places to go if anyone decides to finally come visit us.  Hint! Hint!

Here's a few of the pics from our day there...

The sinks in the bathrooms... absolutely beautiful! 













(Ok, now this is just beautiful!  This is a monach butterfly in its cocoon.  You can see its wings but did you notice the band of gold beads along the outside?  Isn't Jehovah's creation amazing?!  He even adds beauty in the smallest of details throughout creation.)  


There were "hundreds" of hummingbirds in this part of the park.  They ranged in size from about 2 inches up to 6 inches or so.  The large ones were feeding on some type of steroids, I think.  LOL!


This was a cool snake that looked like a stick with a head.  He was really cool to watch.


We loved how 'up close and personal' we were able to get to the animals, 
including this mommy and her babies.



It took me forever to get this shot, but my patience paid off.  Isn't she beautiful?!


Ron's 'softer' side coming out.


There's several poisonous frogs here in Costa Rica.  They're pretty but very dangerous.


And there's some pretty 'creepy' looking things too.  This guy was about 6 -7 inches long.
He was next to our path while walking to the waterfalls.


And here's a few pics of the beautiful waterfalls...









Just some of the hundreds of stairs we climbed along the way.


Missing everyone and can't wait to share some of these adventures with some of you when you come to visit.