breathing space

Wednesday, May 8

northern rapture

our northern birding adventure continues...

after having visited laoag local birder richard and a successful yellow bunting twitch, we proceeded further north for our "official" buisness: raptorwatching!

we were on alex and tere's pet project: to find out the exit point for migrating raptors leaving the philippines during spring migration. it was serendipitous that adri and i had vacationed with other mbb-ers at brgy pansian in pagudpud way back in april 2005 and it was there where we had our first views of thermaling raptors while waiting by the highway for our bus back home. to our newbie birder eyes it was a strange but wonderful sight. we had identified the birds as raptors, but why were they behaving so strangely? they were like a tornado of birds, and we hadn't yet heard of raptors gathering together like that, much less raptor migration. i remember telling wbcp prezi mike about it and it was only then that he explained the annual migration of raptors to us.

so eight years later, we were finally on our way to see if this spot would help clear up the black hole of information on raptor migration in the philippines. a month earlier, wbcp-ers jun, jude and adri had already done a recon of the area, choosing the best possible sites for spring raptorwatch. our base would be a house on a hill in claveria, cagayan. but on the way, we stopped by other sites also. as we approached the northern boundaries of pagudpud after lunch, past the more popular saud and maira-ira beaches, adri suddenly yelled "raptors!" we all jumped out of our cars in time to see a few grey-faced buzzards thermaling over the mountains.

stopping by the side of the highway by a beautiful/ugly tree to count raptors at pagudpud

this was repeated again after the scenic patapat viaduct, this time, a few of the buzzards were observed perching on the trees. alex explained that it was not yet the day for these birds, and they were still resting before the long journey over the north philippine sea to taiwan.

and then again entering cagayan province, at a scenic viewpoint over sta. praxedes town, chinese goshawks flew over us just as we had gotten out of the car.

claveria town: we could actually see those twin rocky islets
from our house on the hill (inset)

at our house (for the next three days) on the hill in claveria, jerry and nora, the caretakers , welcomed us with sad news! we were too late they said! just four days before the skies over the house were thick with migrating raptors! still, we were optimistic that there were many more raptors to be observed. we took over the second and third floors of the house, the latter for our living quarters and the former for our official raptor watching.

raptorwatching was a 10 hour/day affair, but definitely not a chore! we woke up at our own times (all before 6am!) and headed straight for the balcony which overlooked most of the quiet town of claveria, including the ocean, ricefield and hillside vistas. we kept close watch over the hills on the west side, the whole day, each of us claiming part of the balcony as our personal workstations (plus breakfast, lunch and merienda tables). by mid morning of the first day we had familiarised ourselves with the hilltops: we had definite landmarks, "beautiful tree", "anahaw grove", "the low V", the rectangular tree", "sa pababa" etc., etc. delicious breakfast and lunch were all brought up to the balcony by nora, who wanted to ensure the least interruption to our count! coffee, soda, water and beer were flowing continuously throughout the day. aaaah the trials of raptorwatching!

breakfast at raptorwatch: waiting while raptors rise from behind the hills

as early as 630am, individual raptors would fly out, and by 8am, kettles of raptors continuously rose from behind the beautiful tree. average kettle size was 50 - 80 birds, but at one point we counted 2,000 birds streaming overhead! it was like the whole sky was full of raptors.

don't clean your screen: those dots are raptors rising from behind adri's beautiful tree

kettles over the tree line

a kettle of raptors is an awesome sight

most of the raptors were the chinese goshawks, with a few hundred grey-faced buzzards. there were also a few japanese sparrowhawks, oriental honeybuzzards, ospreys and peregrine falcons.

a grey-faced buzzard with 3 chinese goshawks, can you tell which is which?

most of the raptors counted were chinese goshawks at the peak of their spring migration

some of the raptors like this grey faced buzzard clearly had damaged flight feathers.
will they make it?

2 grey-faced buzzards pass each other above the balcony
(the black fringe on the upper left corner is the roof of the house!)

sometimes, we would spot resident raptors as well: philippine serpent eagles, brahminy kites and even barred honey buzzards.

the silhouette of a resident barred honeybuzzard far, far away

i don't think i can ever tire watching the aerial show of the raptors riding on the thermals rising from the mountains, bringing them higher and higher in the sky, until they suddenly break free of the avian tornado and start streaming in a single direction creating a river of raptors.

kettling chinese goshawks

streaming off after gaining height by riding the hot air thermals

sometimes they gained enormous altitudes before streaming!

the challenge of counting a kettle of raptors:
this kettle was initially estimated to contain 80 raptors- severely undercounted!

on the first day we counted a record 7,085 raptors, and on the second day: 2,493. such satisfying numbers for balcony birding.

a peak of 3098 raptors on the hour just before noon on the first day!

of course we were also entertained by many other bird species. lowland white-eyes, colasisis, olive-backed and purple-throated sunbirds, striped headed rhabdornises, philippine bulbuls, blue-throated bee-eaters, scale-feathered malkohas, luzon tarictic hornbills and many other birds provided momentary distractions. never seen but always heard were philippine hawk-cuckoos, philippine tailorbirds, white-eared brown doves and even white-browed shamas. migrating cattle egrets heading out to sea in the hundreds was a spectacular sight. when bored we would scan the ricefields and find waterhens, crakes, sandpipers, stilts and even a pair of philippine ducks! while scanning the hilltops, purple needletails which looked like miniature fighter planes on show were a joy to watch.

a very friendly rhabdornis showed up everyday

as did a very shy scale feathered malkoha

cattle egrets flying out to sea at sunset: directly north!

and the best non-raptor is no doubt a very proud rufous hornbill which delighted us by perching and flying across the hill's face just as we were wrapping up the count on the first day. everyday, the loud raucous calls of the rufous hornbills could be heard from the forested hills.

after breakfast on the third day, we decided to split up. alex and tere would continue the count from claveria while mang boy, adri and myself would check out the viewpoint at sta. praxedes. it was a magnificent view of the valley and surrounding mountains and it did not disappoint us.

the view of sta. praxedes town and its environs from the highway

as the morning progressed we would see kettles of raptors rising into the sky. almost dots in the distance, the numbers over the expansive sky was impressive to say the least!

at sta. praxedes, some of the raptors would rise so high and disappear into the clouds!

sometimes, raptors would come over the hill on the other side of the highway, so low that we actually heard quite clearly for the first time the loud call "tikwi!" which gives the grey-faced buzzards their local name!

"tikwi!" my first time to hear the call of a grey-faced buzzard

as many as 15 philippine serpent eagles were soaring high in the skies with their own mournful call.

i had never seen so many serpent eagles take to the sky at the same time before!

although the heat was in the high 30's we could not bring ourselves to stay in the shade of the trees without a view of the skies for long. even here by the roadside, surrounded by forested hillsides we saw and heard many other birds: philippine hawk cuckoo, arctic warblers, plain-throated sunbirds, elegant tits, yellowish white-eye, philippine trogon, black-naped monarch, and rufous hornbills.

a pretty tree with pink shoots by the side of the highway. is this apitiong?

it was a challenge though to bird by the highway, with vehicles barelling through every now and then. here we counted 4,090 raptors in 3 and a half hours.

after lunch it was time to move on and we said goodbye to our house on a hill and to pretty claveria town and thanked nora and jerry for taking such good care of us. we drove back to ilocos norte and checked into pannzian beach and mountain resort where adri and i had seen the raptors thermaling so many years ago. we all took a break from raptor watching that afternoon, and enjoyed a swim in the strong waves of pasaleng bay.

but it was back to counting early the next morning. what could've beat our house on a hill balcony office? on the beach on lounge chairs under the shade of a talisay tree of course! complete with cold iced drinks delivered by the staff! we were even joined by kenneth, the son of the resort owner! it was joy to see the amazement on his face as we showed him the kettling raptors: first with the naked eye, then through binoculars and finally on the scope.

our "office" at panziann: we had to constantly move our chairs to stay
under the shade of the talisay tree

we even added a few highlights to our resident raptors' list: a pair of juvenile philippine hawk-eagles displayed proudly in the early morning sun, and a pair of white-bellied sea eagles impressed us (and some of the resort guests' kids!) with their regular success in picking up banded sea kraits from the sea and carrying them to some hidden perch (nest?). alex had even spotted the remains of a common kingfisher under some coconut trees: an unfortunate migrant who had made his last trip across the seas, perhaps the victim of a migrant falcon. (and yes, we still could hear the rufous hornbills honking regularly even on the beach!)

blurred in flight: a resident white-bellied sea eagle carrying off a huge banded sea krait!

the remains of a common kingfisher

the raptor count for our last morning: 1,991!

over 14,000 raptors counted in four days! an monumental number to match an extraordinary journey. thank you to alex and tere for inviting us to join them on their voyage of discovery: a week of birding, the outdoors, culture and food! we're looking forward to the autumn migration!

pictures are nice but a movie is better. here's adri's digiscoped video of a part of a kettle of raptors dancing in the skies.

Thursday, May 2

the northern twitch

around 480 km and a little over 8 hours drive. a pretty long way to go for a single bird.

but the thing was, we were on a search for the jump off point for the spring migration of raptors up north to taiwan, and laoag was conveniently on the way. the perfect would-be twitch.

we had decided to spend the night in this ilocos norte city, for an early start the next day even further north towards cagayan. we met up with wbcp-er and laoag local birder richard, who had all sorts of interesting birds to report all-year round up north. one of the interesting birds he had birders travelling the distance all the way from metro manila was the yellow bunting. the yellow bunting is a tiny bird, and would probably not call much attention to itself were it not a rare migrant to the philippines.

we arrived at laoag right in time for dinner with richard at saramsam restaurant. we enjoyed a delicious dinner of ilokano food, including pinakbet with a modern twist: pinakbet pizza! yum.

pinakbet pizza with fish bagoong and chili oil dip. yummy!

over dinner plans were made for a not-so early start the next day: 6am.

when we got to the birding site, the summer skies were bright already. it was actually a small road leading to some ricefields, lined with four bamboo clumps.

richard told us to keep an eye out for the bunting perching on the bamboo near 7am.

while waiting, we had a lot of birds (26 species to be exact!)to help pass the time. cattle egrets in full breeding plumage walked alongside cows and carabaos. white breasted waterhens walked along an irrigation canal quite near to us. striated grassbirds called quite loudly from the ricefields. a long-tailed shrike preened quietly in the bamboo thicket closest to us. bee-eaters sailed gracefully over the fields. zebra doves foraged on the dirt path. small flocks of java sparrows of all ages alighted on the bamboo near us.

adult and young java sparrows flew back and forth from the fields to the bamboo

as if these birds were not enough to keep us preoccupied, mang boy and adri spotted a handsome peregrine falcon perched on a tree not far away from us!

a peregrine falcon keeping watch over the ricefields

and flying off after allowing us to admire it for several minutes

near 7am, the peregrine falcon flew off from its perch and disappeared over the bamboo thickets apparently to remind us of our target. so we concentrated on the bamboo thickets. as if by appointment, richard suddenly cried out "bunting! bunting!"

sure enough, on the very top of the bamboo clump farthest away from us was a small yellow-green bird with distinctive markings on its wings and back! a lifer for all of us (except richard of course)!

yellow bunting: my lifer #13 for 2013!

a frame grab from adri's digiscoped video brought the bird much closer

unfortunately, a pair of yellow-vented bulbuls soon chased off the tiny bird. still, although it was quite a distance from us, it had thankfully stayed out in the open long enough for us to admire it through our binoculars.

thanks to richard for keeping tabs on the birds in the area and for being such a generous and accommodating guide! it was a great start to our northern birding adventures and we still had a long way to travel.

happy twitchers with local birder richard (thanks to tere for the picture!)

our northern birding adventure to be continued...

Tuesday, April 30

target qc birding

it was another target birding trip, but this time we were not working on our own targets, but stuart m.'s target birds. and we didn't have to travel far as these targets were found around quezon city.

fresh from giving a workshop at the recently concluded 6th international hornbill conference in makati, stuart was eye-ing to see philippine endemics found at the nearby la mesa reservoir area. he had heard about these endmic superstars from his student, wbcp-er lala e., who had just very recently finished her ph.d. (congratulations dr. lala!!!).

not surprisingly, number one on our target list for the day was the ever popular ashy ground thrush of the la mesa eco park. however, a recently reported philippine frogmouth on a nest at the la mesa nature reserve was our first agenda for the morning.

so stuart, adri and myself met up with wbcp-er and bird photographer neon at 630am at the la mesa nature reserve. it was our first time to visit the nature reserve, but i was happy to be met by kuya efren, who remembered me from a birdwatching workshop jops, maia, jon j, drew and myself had facilitated at the lmep last year! it was he who had found the frogmouth nest, on the day that his wife had just given birth to twins!

neon was already on site when we arrived and was busy documenting a nearby guaiabero nest. at a nearby tree, the two parents were busy with a young bird who had apparently just fledged. another young bird was still peeking out of the nest! instead of the black beak of the adult, it still sported a yellow orange beak, which was more hook-shaped, more like a colasisi's than a guaiabero's!

a juvenile guaiabero peeks out of its nest, ready to fledge soon

kuya efren approached us, in complete birding attire (he change his bright yellow uniform for a dull colored long sleeved shirt... according to him he was afraid that i would scold him for not remembering the lessons from our workshop!) and gear: a pair of binoculars and even a scope donated by wbcp-er propjerry!

we set out for our target, and of course birded along the way. guaiaberos, collared kingfishers, white-eared brown doves, yellow vented bulbuls, black naped orioles and white-breasted wood-swallows were a-plenty. a hooded pitta even called from one of the gullys we crossed.

as we neared the site for the frogmouth nest, kuya efren gave us a few very sensible reminders. they had cordoned off the nest area to prevent people from approaching the nest too closely. no going past the marked area, no noise, no sudden movements and no actions to disturb the nesting bird.

and so he led us off the trail and sure enough, there was target bird number 1: a philippine frogmouth sitting very quietly and perfectly camouflaged on its nest.

the strange looking philippine frogmouth incubating an egg on its nest

although not a lifer for me (i had added it to my lifelist in bohol 3 years ago), it was the first time i for me to see the luzon subspecies fo this bizarre looking bird. again, i had flashbacks of the australian picture books i had read when i was younger, about the tawny frogmouth, which would sit perfectly still, bill pointed to the sky, its feathers blending perfectly with the tree bark color and texture. and here it was, even better. the philippine version, posed exactly like it did in the picture books, huge mouth and all.

it was still sitting on a white egg... fingers crossed that it's a successful endeavor!

kuya efren had one more nest to show us, this time a nightjar nest. so we doubled back to head over to the second location. as we walked single file on the path, we passed a collared kingfisher nest, and another guaiabero nest. a loud melodious call filled the air: "ashy ground thrush singing!" adri exclaimed. as we caught glimpses of this handsome bird, kuya efren (who had gone ahead of the group) came back with sad news. the nightjar nest had been raided. he showed us bits of eggshell in his hand. the perils of ground nesting birds.

before we left, we thanked kuya efren for helping us out and for his responsible nest discoveries. it looks like there are many more discoveries awaiting birders at the lmnr.

our second target was already anti-climactic, since we had already seen an ashy ground-thrush at the nature reserve. still, the la mesa ecopark is hassle free birding and promised better views of this once super elusive endemic.

true enough, upon entering the gate to the park, we immediately heard another ashy ground thrush singing! we set up the scope across the road and as people flowed into the park, it was stuart who quickly found the bird. it was just behind the plants lining the main walkway, singing loudly from its perch.

as we entered the mini-forest trail, we bumped into birder/photographers bob, cynthia and peter, who had been staking out the red-bellied pitta all morning in vain. the good news they had for us that all the other expected birds were just around and we quickly found them: more ashy ground thrushes busy turning over leaves on the ground, very loud grey-backed tailorbirds, several vocal hooded pittas, busy lowland white-eyes still nesting.

the always handsome ashy ground thrush

close encounters with a grey-backed tailorbird

one of several hooded pittas calling loudly

busy as bees, the lowland white-eyes were still gathering nesting material

there were barred rails, mangrove blue flycatchers, colasisis, arctic warblers and even a pechora pipit among the usual oriental magpie robins, philippine pygmy woodpeckers, black-naped orioles, collared kingfishers and more. pretty good birds for a handful of forest. soon the heat was building up as noon approached and we decided to move on.

while having a quick snack, we called wbcp-er jops to ask if his neighborhood scops owl family was still at their day roost. this was target number four. (unfortunately, target number 3, the philippine nightjar at up diliman, was not to be found at its usual mango tree roost since the tree was fruiting and the fruit being harvested). a sudden summer downpour had us trapped at the restaurant. we spent a very pleasant hour exchanging birding stories and talking philippine pop culture and politics while waiting for the rain to let up.

it was mid afternoon when we arrived at the philippine scops owl site. we were quite nervous as the young scops owls were several weeks old now and we were not sure if they would still be in the same roost. jops said that he had last seen them a week before, when he and maia had checked on them after receiving the news that one of the three fledglings had been found dead. without jops or the neighborhood security guards with us, we weren't sure if we could find the owls.

fortunately, we spotted the two young owls huddled together in the same tree, a little wet from the afternoon rain. they had spotted us first from their high perch aand by the time we had them on the scope, they were glaring at us with their large orange eyes!

after a few minutes though they went back to sleep, catching up on a few more hours of rest before night fell. the adult owls were nowhere to be seen, but with the two juvenile scops olws, our final target was achieved!

the young philippine scops owls glare at us with huge orange eyes

we dropped off a very happy and fulfilled stuart in makati, with an hour to spare before the conference final dinner. target birding in quezon city was a success!

Monday, April 29

a ruby red lifer (plus a dusky one too)

after 8 years with the bird club, i finally have the siberian rubythroat on my lifelist.

when i had joined the bird club way back in 2005, one of the few promotional materials available back then was a green info card with a picture by singaporean resident and visiting birder ivor lee of a male siberian rubythroat. a photograph taken at the now long gone tambo grasslands... bulldozed over and developed into various sorts of commercial enterprises, another green space which vanished at the blink of an eye.

rubythroat is certainly an apt name, ruby red (yes, as red as the wicked witch of the east's shoes!) feathers line that anatomical region of the bird often found in grasslands near wetland areas. each migration season, we would be on the lookout for this skulker, in tambo (when it was still there), at the coastal lagoon protected area (which is still there... for now and hopefully forever) and at candaba. often we would hear it calling cheerfully, but i had never glimpsed it myself, relegating it to ho ("heard only") status. so when several birders reported the regularity of sighting it at candaba the past few weeks, adri and i were off at the first opportunity!

candaba is predictably scorching at this time of the year, so we arrived before the sun was high enough to burn off the cool of the early morning. even at half past five it was quite light already. we immediately positioned ourselves at the recommended stretch of dirt road.

wait, wait, wait.

a few clamorous reed warblers sang loudly around us. zebra doves and red turtle doves perched on the tree above us, coo-ing softly. rails ran back and forth across the dirt road. egrets and herons glided quietly above us while oriental pratincoles whooshed in every direction. a pair of noisy pied fantails chased each other, maneuvering smoothly through the grasses and shrubs.

a clamorous reed warbler in mid-hop

one of the many coo-ing red turtle doves around the ponds

barred rails on the road

adri trained his bins on the ground of a nearby camachile tree and the wait was over! a beautiful male siberia rubythroat was quietly moving about the lower bushes!

lifer! a male siberian rubythroat

it was very skittish, and flew back and forth in and out of the brambles. even in the shadows, its bright red throat glowed. the siberian rubythroat is certainly a beautiful grassland bird.

eventually, a tricycle passed between the bird and ourselves and it disappeared into the long grasses.

having shot so-so pictures (i think the technical term is "documentary shots") myself and with adri not being able to take any digiscoped photos, we decided to move on. after all, we had fabulous views of a bird we had been waiting 8 years to find!

we drove around the ponds, many of which had been or were currently being drained and converted to rice fields. several wandering whistling ducks flew above us, and we spotted a pair of philippine ducks resting at a shallow watering hole.

2 philippine ducks at the quickly drying-up ponds

there were several white-breasted waterhens walking along the road, some of them providing comical entertainment.

a pair displayed high flying kung-fu moves as they battled each other while a third bird waddled around them.

everybody goes kung-fu fighting! even the white-breasted waterhens

another adult pair had a couple of juveniles in tow. they peered at the road carefully from the grasses before crossing the dirt road, much like a human child and his nanny crossing a busy street. the juveniles looked very awkward, certainly a face only a mother could love!

isn't that a face only a mother could love?!?

the migratory grey herons were gone but it seems that the purple herons have multiplied in number, and several young birds and several adults could be seen with the black crowned night herons at the back ponds, totaling in the hundreds.

purple herons everywhere!

toward the end of the circuitous road, we decided to check the area where a dusky warbler had been reported regularly since december. we had put off adding this warbler to our lifelists, it falling into the category of "it looks like a warbler." so there was no better time than then to check it out, in case it was still hanging around.

we racked our brains recalling which side of the road it should be at, and adri tried taping it in with the call he had downloaded from the internet the night before. and finally- movement! a little hop and jump behind the tall grasses near the ground, and out comes a...nother male siberian rubythroat!

this one was much more cooperative than the one we had seen earlier that morning, and after several minutes of close encounters in the tall grass, adri decided to give digiscoping another try. as he ran back to the car to get his scope and camera, i tried my best to keep up with the bird which was actively running around in the grass. at one point i lost it and i kept my eyes open for any movement. finally, something caught my eye, and it was the original target: the very plain looking dusky warbler! a 2nd lifer for both adri and myself!

finally, the rubythroat showed itself again. it was busy eating some of the camachile fruit which had fallen to the ground!

another siberial rubythroat wresting with the fallen camichile fruit

just as our photo session was getting intense, one of the local men suddenly stood right beside adri and myself and began gathering fruit from the camachile tree with a sungkit! he kept shaking the tree and most of the fruit did not actually fall into the bag of the sungkit but to the ground where the rubythroat was! i gave adri a "what the...?" look. this man was certainly oblivious to what we were doing! not surprisingly, the rubythroat was flushed and crossed the road to perch on a thorny bramble.

and that turned out to be a good thing actually! adri and i got our photos, 2 lifers and were on our way back in time for lunch at home.

a very cheerful siberian rubythroat singing softly on a hot candaba morning!

Thursday, April 4

a garden by the stream and a green-eyed butterfly

it turned out to be another bird turned butte trip. maybe because it was butterfly lady/guru lydia who arranged the outing!

it was supposed to be a casual affair, we had been invited by teacher emma to visit her home & garden at a residential area just on the outskirts of metro manila. adri & i had heard of the place before, although we had never been, as there was a school there which actively exposed their students to nature through various activities including birdwatching. a small stream ran thru the subdivision, and it became the school-wide base for lessons in natural history.

as we entered the gate, we were greeted by a beautiful garden which complemented the natural rolling landscape. a little green chirping frog sitting on a lily pad on the pond welcomed us.

that same stream championed by the school flowed beside the property of teacher emma, providing the soothing sound of gurgling water coupled with the creaking of bamboo stems swaying in the wind. bird calls filled the air as we sat down to exchange stories with teacher emma and teacher henry (who heads the school projects centered around the conservation of the river ecosystem) over breakfast. teacher emma's dining area was surrounded by huge open bay windows which made the inside feel like the outside.

later, we took a walk around the property and went down to the stream. on our walk, we spotted several birds including yellow-vented and philippine bulbuls, red-keeled flowerpeckers, elegant tits, grey-backed tailorbirds, pied fantails, oriental magpie robins, brown shrikes, black-naped orioles and a white-throated kingfisher.

a barred rail quickly ran up stream's bank upon sighting us. as we sat down on the dry rocks on the stream bed, a grey wagtail moved in the vegetation several meters downstream and an indigo-banded kingfisher zipped between us.

despite the abundance of birds, opportunities to photograph birds were very limited for that morning, but the more delicate winged creatures made up for that. in fact, lycaenids were very common, flitting about like lights opening and closing as their undersides peeked through. we were able to document at least four species, and this thrilled both lydia and myself as we were bid fans of this family of lepidopterans.

one butterfly decided lydia's skin was a salty treat.

little lycaenids tinier than my small fingers' nail flew around the grass at our feet.

another species was busy drinking up salts and minerals from dried leaves and the wet ground by the stream...

... and was even caught in the act of starting a new generation.

the most interesting one was a pale grey lycaenid with beautiful celadon green eyes! at least 2 individuals posed quite politely, and we were able to get excellent documentation.

there were other butterflies as well, although most of the larger ones flew about actively in the heat of the day, refusing to perch.

a common leopard (Phalantha phalantha phalantha -love its scientific name!) finally perched on a bougainvillea leaf, although quite a distance from me.

as we were leaving, a mapwing suddenly appeared and we quickly retrieved our cameras for a shot,

and an Ypthima sp. satyrid perched nearby to show us its owl eyes on both the upper- and under-side.

as the morning progressed, we moved back indoors and drank super refreshing iced tamarind juice as more stories were exchanged. when it was finally time to go, we said our long goodbyes, hesitant to leave such a lovely place. much thanks for the hospitality shown to us by our (just as lovely) host.