Birds in the back yard of our hoste
We didn’t have any plans for the morning other than staying here at the hostel and doing some reading. However, there is a taxi driver who comes and visits every day and brings spoiled fruit to put on the bird feeder (we think he is probably one of the family that runs this hostel). He speaks no English, but saw that I was taking pictures of the birds. Using sign language, and gestures he indicated that there was an animal I should photograph at the supermarket to which he pointed in the general direction. He was getting frustrated that I didn’t seem to understand, but when he waved his arms very slowly in a crawling motion I exclaimed “a sloth!” One of the other men here who doesn’t speak any Engish either, recognized the word and said “Si” and came over to tell the driver that it was called “Sloth” en Ingles. It then started to pour rain so I went inside to our room, and when it quit in about five minutes Enid and I walked down to the store to see what was there.
Sloth
When we got to the supermarket the taxi driver was sitting outside eating his breakfast. He pointed excitedly behind him and showed us where we could see the sloth. It was sleeping all curled up in the tree hanging on to a branch with its very large claws.
After we’d taken the pictures and were going to walk away he called us over, and then drew us a map. He pointed to the trees in the distance, and made the indication of horns, and we thought he said “vacca”. We weren’t all that excited to see cows, but he seemed adamant that we should go where he’d drawn the map, so we walked that direction.
Deer at the nature reserve
On the way we did see some nice flowers, and a crane, and then did see some cows. However we kept walking and started to hear some very loud bird calls. We discovered a large fenced in cage containing three scarlet macaws and several green parrots. We took pictures of the beautiful macaws, and shortly a young woman came out to talk to us. She explained that this is a nature reserve being set up by the high school. She had been working for it for about a month and preparing trails and working on brochures. Since they weren’t done she told us we could look around for free, and described a bit of what was there. They had a pen of small deer, a pond with some geese and ducks (and the heron we’d seen earlier), and a fenced over pond that she said contained tilapia. We assume the netting over the tilapia pond was because of the heron. We were very surprised to find this site so close to where we are staying, and all because of a persistent taxi driver who wasn’t going to let language get in the way.
Scarlet Macaw
On the walk back we saw a veterinarian giving an IV to a mare (she had a young foal). We commented that you wouldn’t likely be standing outside doing that in Saskatchewan in January.
We also stopped at the bakery on the way back. It smelled delicious and I succumbed to buying a sweet cake.
At three this afternoon we took a taxi to Baldi Hot Springs. It’s probably the most commercialized of the several hot springs here, but the price was reasonable and included a buffet dinner. They have many hot pools which Enid and I enjoyed for the afternoon, before we ate our supper.
The taxi driver had told us he’d be back at 7, but he wasn’t. After waiting for a while we had the front desk of the hot springs hotel call a taxi for us.
Tonight we are once more being serenaded by the music across the street. Now we know what it is. Turns out the building is a roller skating rink, and since it’s school holidays it is open five nights a week. Once school is back in session we imagine it will turn back into the school gymnasium.