The Subjunctive Holiday

23 February 2013.  We are making progress.  I’m just sure of it.  We have to keep reminding ourselves – we’re making progress.

This afternoon I am sitting on the porch of our cabin for the weekend.  We are in El Jaguar Private Reserve, where they both grow shade-grown coffee and cater to birds and birders.  There is no internet here, so it will be days before this gets posted.  I am looking out over a narrow valley.  On the down slope in front of me are coffee plants, banana trees and flowers.  On the opposite slope is a beautiful forest.  It’s quiet now, all the birds are taking siestas, too. 

We are taking a holiday from our studies.  For the last five weeks we have been hitting the Spanish hard.  Trying to learn, understand, and remember the subjunctive tense has been making us tense.  It has not been an easy time lately, but we are our own worst problem.  We talk to each other in English instead of Spanish.  But I have to say, after 4 hours of class each day I need a nap, and then when I’ve finally finished my homework, I really feel ready for bed.  It seems the only relaxation time we have is when we speak English.

But I know we are making progress.  When we arrived at El Jaguar, we spoke several minutes with the young man who greeted us before we learned he speaks a little English.  He will be guiding is in our birding the next few days, and I think it may actually be easier for us all to communicate in Spanish.  At least as long as I’m not required to express my thoughts and desires in the subjunctive. 

We already have one life bird for the day, Plain-capped Starthroat—a hummingbird.  The bird list for the preserve includes as “common” 37 more species that would be lifers, plus another 22 that are merely uncommon.  Let’s see, if we see only 40% of the common and uncommon life bird candidates, we would have seen (this is in some kind of subjunctive, by the way) about 24 species.  And we are also going to visit some other spots that feature other interesting new birds.  So I think an ambitious target of 25 sounds good.  Only 24 more to go.  Time to hit the trail.