Seen in Bagaces

As I've mentioned before, the town where I'm living is called Bagaces. It has a population of a few thousand people. It's pretty small, but I like it. I wouldn't want to live in a touristy city.

Some fun facts about Bagaces:
1) It's located in the province of Guanacaste which is in the far northwest corner of the country.
2) Bagaces was named after an Indian Chief called Bagatzi who lived around here when the Spanish arrived. The name comes from the language Nahuatl and means 'field of reed'.
3) The main commerce around here is cattle ranching, vegetable and grain farming, and dairy farming. Tio Pelon, one of the biggest rice producers for the country is located very close to several of our monkey groups. Somedays we run into a lot of cows and pastures while following the monkeys around.

Seen in Bagaces
(Here are some things I've seen or experienced lately in Bagaces)
1) A guy riding into town on a horse (cowtown anyone?)
2) A guy riding out of town on a bicycle while leading a horse behind him (and you thought talking on a cell phone while biking was hard)
3) Music emitting from the backyard of the church in town that is so loud that I can't hear the music on my laptop even when I am sitting right in front of it inside a house (and the church is 4 blocks away)
4) A cannon shot off several times from the middle of town Sunday at midday that could be heard all through town and we weren't even sure about exactly what they were celebrating.
5) Howler monkeys living in my backyard. They didn't like the cannon shot either and would erupt into roaring vocalizations every time they heard it and for several hours afterwards.
6) High 80s in January (since I'm returning to the U.S. in June this means an endless summer for me).
7) Our dog bringing back cow bones (whole legs!) that she had found somewhere nearby...maybe in the river.
8) A tarantula living in my bathroom (hopefully he will help keep the termite population down).
9) Cold water showers (not that we really need hot showers here usually).
10) The man working at the bakery commenting on the insane amount of chigger bites that I had all over my arms, shoulders, and armpits (ah field work is fun).
11) Cars driving around town with speakers attached to their roofs blasting advertisements for concerts and other events.
12) People ride their bikes to work (just like Davis), but down the biggest highway in the country (which has no shoulders) with no lights on their bikes and no helmets while being passed by semis and buses (not like Davis).


Hope you all are well!
Whitney