You can see US Hwy 1 below. We are somewhere between Duck Key and Big Pine Key.

… you can see the shadow of the clouds in the seabed! This is just south of mainland Cuba.

Reminds of the old post “Through the Language Glass” – remember how we see only one color – different shades of “blue”. But the Russians see two colors in this.

The islands are the “Keys” of Cuba – that big one is Cayo Ciprey.

10 years since I have been at this airport.
Immigration was a mess. Took us 2 hours!!

Was not sure what that road sign might mean. My first reaction was that you might get a blown tire.
Asked my friend Jorge. Turns out this is warning against falling rocks…

This is on Rio Tarcoles. We saw more crocodiles this time – about 20 of them – than we saw in 2012. See how many you can spot. There are 5 on the land you can clearly see and a few under water… This is one bridge that you hope against hopes that wont give in!!

Nikita and Natasha had a great time in this property. They were barely 8 and 14 then!

… missing dear old Anand.

If not for Sunjay, I am not sure what would happen to the tree! Jokes apart, note how erosion has completely taken away the foundation under the tree. It looks like it is clinging on to the rocks on the side for dear life. Further, note the tree behind that looks like it is shooting out horizontally from the rocks!

How that tree is surviving on a rock, I will never understand. It is a very dry chunk of rock stone. And yet, the tree is not only thriving (notice the green leaves), it is blooming flowers too!!

In 2012, Nikita and Sharmila sat at the same underwater bar stools in the swim up bar that I was at today!

is that they are mostly herbivore. Not that it made feel any more comfortable around them. The other things is that apparently they talk thru their eye movements. Hence, tried to avoid all direct eye contacts!!

(These were about 3-4 feet long).

In Costa Rica, they have rice for breakfast, rice for lunch and rice for dinner! For breakfast add “desi murgir dim” (eggs), mangoes and papayas. If only they could add some potatoes to the routine, this could be totally exported to Bengal!

It was hot and humid. Had to jump into the pool to cool down moment I was done…

Katherine Ramos and her husband Juan Carlos! Katherine made our team’s stay extremely comfortable. Went out of her way to arrange for Covid tests when our original option failed. If you ever get to this side of the world, do look her up – she will take good care of you.

Hope to see you two next time again!

From Villa Caletas. The resort is at a height of 1320 feet. To put this in perspective, Atlanta is at about 1050 feet. That was a sheer drop. We could see the macaws gliding by in pairs. Unfortunately, I did not have my DSLR with me this time. Could not catch any of them from such a distance with my iPhone. Saw a couple of hummingbirds flit by very near to us.

That is a spectacular view

First time seeing a porcupine in the wild! We were busy having dinner when this stranger showed up. None of us could recognize it till the server told us that it was an African porcupine. It was about two feet long without the tail. It got on to the scaffoldings under the roof and just nestled itself there for the rest of the evening.

It was 2013 November. The two Roy families from Dallas and Atlanta had landed in Liberia airport for the first time. As we stepped out, one of the first things that caught our eyes were the humongous fans in the ceiling. Upon closer inspection, we found out that they were called Big Ass fans! I did not know then, but later realized that it is an American company based in Lexington, KY. The original CEO used to carry a business card that said Chief Big Ass! The name created some controversy too in its barely twenty years of existence. As an example, postmasters in my state Georgia refused to deliver their letters citing obscenity!!

Adreesh, Aneesh, Natasha, Nikita, do you remember those fans? Today I collected a few more pictures of them!

The hotel property had a lot of flowers. Many of them I recognized as flowers that I grew up with in India. In fact, they were there all in our house itself. I guess these thrive in tropical climates. My Bengali friends will recognize “rongon”, “korobi”, “kaathgolap”, “purish” in the picture.

Flying back home from Costa Rica. Right now, we are over Nicaraguan territory. Directly below us – if you see the picture below – is an island. If you carefully notice, it is actually a volcano – Volcan Maderas is the local name. The waterbody around it that you can see is Lake Nicaragua (Lago Cocibolca is the local name). If you carefully follow the volcano contours, you can see the crater – unfortunately, from my angle, it is somewhat covered by a cloud. In any case, the crater is filled with water and is a lake itself. If you zoom that area, you will see a dark shaded area around the light shaded cloud shadow. I do not know the name of that lake. But that lake is a “recursive” lake.

It is a lake in an island which is in a lake!!

For the math geeks – the longest recursion is in the Philippines. Imagine what you are seeing here… just that there is a small island within the crater. And remember, the Philippines is an archipelago. So, you have an island in a lake in an island in a lake in an island!!

For the non-math geeks, understanding recursion is easy. First you understand recursion, then the rest is easy!!