Day nine started out slow, but, has since lunch turned into our most exciting day ever!  Well, not all in a good way.

For one, I have developed an infection in my ankle.  I am not sure if it was from a bite I had gotten at the pool, or if it was some ant bite from the wildlife sanctuary.  There were a lot of those leaf cutter ants, and after I left there I had a lot of bites on the back of my ankles.  But, this bite is on the top side of my foot.  It started feeling a little stiff yesterday, and by last night I noticed a rash and a lot of puss type fluid...today it was pretty swollen, but, I only have ONE more day, so I am going to power through it and if I need to I will go to the dr. on Thursday or Friday.

The second exciting thing to happen was during our second visit to the waterfall today.  Walking on the path I came upon a terciopelos, which is apparently the most deadly snake in Costa Rica.  I was walking, and Spencer was behind me.  As I came up on a tree the snake was coiled in the roots of the tree with no where to go.  Luckily, even though he was in strike position, but he let out a great hissss and that caused me to look, and consequentially jump back pushing Spencer out of the way.  He was a big boy, about 4 feet I guess, and surely would have attacked if I had challenged him.  However, like most wild animals, he was no more happy to see me, as I was to see him.  I was very lucky not to be bitten, as we have heard stories of people being in the hospital for two or three months!  Funny thing was, Audrey told me about this snake in VA, and I told her—”We’ll NEVER see that snake…” Well, apparently, I was wrong!!  It gave us all a very new respect for the rainforest.  Many people before had told us about the snakes, but in our travels we have not seen them.  Trust me, seeing one coiled up and its mouth open in a strike position, will surely give you respect for the rainforest. 

When I jumped back he stayed coiled, but as I backed up, he quickly straightened out and slithered down to the stream below (there was about a 4 ft drop).  I took several pictures of him, and when we returned it was confirmed he was a terciopelos.  That was enough excitement for today. 

We did enjoy a great time at the waterfall, and the kids swam again.  Every one was a little leery after seeing the snake, but we were careful and the kids had a really fun time.  We were all a little sad to leave such a magical place.  Matt said it was his favorite spot.  As we walked off into the jungle the howler monkeys began to sing their song. 

We now call that their ‘digestion’ song, as Andy said a lot of animals make those types of guttural noises to help digest food...including elephants and elderly humans!  LOL!  They are such awesome monkeys.  Then, on the way home we saw a troop of squirrel monkeys which had been following us down the road on our trek out there.  It was fun to see some tourists too—they looked sort of ‘new’ here and we could point out the squirrel monkeys and other creatures to them. 

In the afternoon we made a snack, and the kids and Matt headed to the beach while I cooked dinner.  I am in the make up stage of cooking, as our pickins’ are getting low.  So, Matt and I had coconut rice, chicken, corn and beans with cilantro.  It was actually quite tasty.  The kids had a sort of chicken nugget type of deal with some of the leftover corn meal, and butter noodles.  Dinner tomorrow night will most likely be a lot of leftovers, or a lot of nothing...should be interesting.

We are all feeling a little melancholy that tomorrow is our last day.  In spite of poisonous snakes and infected legs, it is still going to be sad to leave. 

Tonight we are headed to the beach for a look at Halloween crabs and maybe some red eyed tree frogs.  Meanwhile, Cade is asleep on a hard chair beside me...half on, half off...the time, 7pm. 

I love the jungle.