Real Estate Search and a trip to Zoo Ave

We looked at a farm for sale this week. It is located about 30 minutes from Ciudad Colon towards Puriscal. Access to the property was through about 200 meters of right of way between two other farms. The right of way access gave the farm a sense of privacy. From the street, strung up in the trees of the right away, were the electrical wires. No poles, simply strung up and wrapped around various trees. We passed a series of plastic pipes that supply water to the property. One pipe was broken, water squirting in the air. Someone tried to fix it by tying a rag around the pipe.

The farm itself was about 6 acres of gently rolling hills. Lemon, avocado, noni, orange and banana were some of the many fruit trees on the property. There were a number of large mature shade trees, which I liked. In the distance was a view of the forest reserve El Rodeo. The nearest neighbor we could see was across the valley. A sugarcane farm bordered one side of the property.

On top of the tallest hill was a small house used by the worker that tends the cattle. The lady showing the property gave us no indication that she was going to show the inside of the house. I had to ask and was granted a tour. The concrete block and wood construction was not finished in the inside. It was extremely rough and the bathroom was probably the worst I have ever seen. All in all the I though the property had potential but the asking price of $250,000 was too high.

Yesterday the neighbors took us on an outing to Zoo Ave (Bird Zoo in English) on the other side of the Central Valley. Zoo Ave is a private zoo that has a breeding program for macaws. They are one of only a few organizations that breed macaws for release into the wild. On display were parrots, owls, hawks and many other tropical birds. They also had the endangered Spider monkey, puma, margay, tapir, turtles and water birds. I have to admit that I usually do not enjoy going to the zoo and seeing animals in cages, but this place was different. The entire zoo is outdoors and was built around existing large trees. It was very beautiful. I appreciated being able to see these creatures up close in nice surroundings.

As far as real wildlife goes, this week we saw a large snake in front of our old house. John saw it first and we both stopped to look at the four foot long green and yellow Speckled Racer snake. The snake was frozen in place as we both stared at each other. We watched for a few moments and continued the walk home.