Romeo and Juliette – Not the Play!
Howdy Travellers,
Today we were up early to fully enjoy our last whole day here in Cerro Azul. We started the day with a visit to our next door neighbor, Jim, to investigate his Big Green Egg. Now I have never seen anything like this but apparently, they are the latest craze in outdoor cookers. We sampled the results of this thing yesterday at the expat party because Jim brought a 25 lb turkey cooked in this thing. It runs on charcoal and I mean wooden charcoal, not briquettes. He showed us that this cooker runs so tight that there was still a good supply of charcoal left in the cooker after cooking the turkey. He said he ran this thing for 6 hours at about 325 degrees to do the most juicy, sumptuous, perfect turkey you have ever eaten. The juicy white meat melted in your mouth. Now for those that know me they know that turkey is the only thing that rates above bacon and this one rated very highly against bacon! The thing is called a Komato Cooker and it is a ceramic egg that does an amazing job on cooking meat. Apparently it has a cult following so if you want the latest and greatest, just Google Komato Cooker and dig out your wallet! If you want consistent perfect results from your grill, you have to get one of these suckers!
After investigating the best thing in outdoor grills, we headed down the road to pick up our friends Connie and Dave, who are from Vancouver Island. Our goal was a hike in the jungle to the Romeo and Juliette falls, a pair of waterfalls in the area. We drove a short distance to the trail head and started out for the falls. Now I have told you that we are in pretty hilly terrain but this was a 1.5K hike all down hill. After 45 minutes or so, we reached the falls which are spectacular and very restful to sit and watch and refreshing to stick your feet in. Don’t do it the way I did by missing the rock on my journey across the river. It’s better to take your shoes and socks off first. My experiences with rivers that look like this is that they are fed by mountain streams and the water will numb any limb that is placed in it for even a few minutes. Here the water is not cold but warm enough to be very pleasant. We sat on a huge boulder in the center of the river for a while simply enjoying the sounds of the water rushing past and the birds in the forest around us. There are some bugs here that rub their back legs together, like a cricket, to attract a mate. It makes quite a noise and the forest was alive with the sounds of these guys all looking for dates. There were some spectacular gigantic fluorescent blue butterflies in the area that moved too quickly for me to get you a picture, so you will just have to take my word for it that they were something extra special to see. After a rest and visit with our friends, we started back up the hill to where we had left the car. Now this hill is steep! There are no flat parts! It took around two hours of steady climbing to get back to the car.
Because birds are in such abundance here, I thought a few more shots from around Connie and Dave’s feeder might be of interest. These birds are spectacular and a constant reminder of the beauty of the nature that surrounds us. Sadly, tomorrow, we leave Cerro Azul. We are headed for an eight-day visit to El Valle de Anton (pronounced L Val-yay). This is a place 175 Km west of where we are and it is also in the hills although a bit less elevation at only around 800M above sea level.
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