1/12/2011 – My Spanish textbook from high school lies. The book says when I ask a person “Como esta usted?”, which is “How are you?” in Spanish, the standard reply is “Bien, Gracias”, which is “Good, Thank You”. The replies I got back from real life Spanish speakers are varied and they are usually machine-gun fast that I couldn’t understand them. Who knows if they’re complaining about their back aches or telling me to stop bothering them with trivial questions.

This is a beautiful female Black-headed Trogon (Trogon melanocephalus) that I saw in the Papaturro Reserve. They’re fruit and insect eaters, and are found in the lowland rainforests. They’re fairly big at 10 inches long.