I feel like I'm in the jungle

I saw six of the big, colorful toucan birds outside my house in Costa Rica.

You know you're in the jungle when you see black panthers and toucans near your house.

I had been hearing toucans almost every morning but hadn't seen any. And then this morning, I saw six of them. Two of them were up close. I also saw a lot of big green parrots.

A toucan is the bird with the extra large beak that's on the Fruit Loop ceral boxs. I love their beautiful colors. Here is a picture of a toucan.

I heard this morning that several neighbors have been seeing a black panther in the area at night.

I haven't seen it yet, but I'm not out much at night, and now I don't think I will be going out much for sure. They are beautiful animals, but I don't want to meet one up close and personal.

The two pictures on this site are free images from Pixabay.com. I may get some good pictures of tucans later, but I don't expect to get any pictures of black panthers.

The Panthers are not usually at this elevation. They stay mostly at the lower elevations.

I've been getting a lot of exercise while I'm here. I've been hiking through the coffee, sugar cane, and bananas. It's a different world from what I'm used to in the North Carolina mountains.

I'm in the mountains here at about 4,500 feet. The temperature is almost always in the mid-70s. The houses here don't have heat or air conditioning. They don't need either one. Since I'm close to the equator, it's hot when I go down to the beaches, but it's cool up here in the mountains.

Bottom line: Sometimes it's hard to concentrate on getting work done with all the exciting and beautiful things around me, but I'm making good progress. I'm 2/3 of the way finished writing the first draft of my next book.