Crocodiles and codgers

There is was again, the orange bulge-bellied boat with the magnificent aqua-green chipped painted insides. I was delighted to see the boat again, and when a small group of men was pulling it off the sand into the water, I told one VERY bucked-toothed fellow how much I loved it. He said with a puffed up but scrawny chest that he had painted it. He grinned his horrible but winning smile and then showed me his eyeball, which was bright red because he gotten a fish hook in it. A bundle of energy, the man had on a bathingsuit that balanced precariously at the bottom of his right hip as though it might slip down any moment. He beckoned me to follow.

Now, it probably isn't every woman who wolud follow a fellow like this, but his energy and his gait were so full of bounce and enthusiasm, I couldn't resist. He wove in and out of the small fishermen's houses, back to a swamp where he pointed, practically jumping up and down. There in the water was a large, complacent crocodile, skimming the water and occasionally pulling up his head to show off his teeth. He hovered along the shore for some time and then moved into the middle of the swamp; my friend, named Miquel - what else? - said there were four of them in there, but the fishermen keep them well fed with fish heads and such so that they didn't fear that they'd come ashore. He did suggest that sometimes they ate little dogs. Gulp. There was a woman standing near me who held a baby, and Miquel was jesting about throwing the baby in the water; the baby didn't think it was too funny.

The swamp was really quite magical in a spooky but awesome way with reflections and shadows contending for space. I told Miguel that I had to walk back to Bejuco, and he told me that I could come back for fresh fish tomorrow morning at 7:30; I still have fillets from the other night, so I bagged it and went running instead.

I walked the hour and a half back, watching the sun begin to dip down lower and more golden in the sky. Oh, my, what we take for granted! The long shadows and the dusting of gilt make me chuckle to remember a passage in Alan Holinghurst's The Line of Beauty where he writes, "Like his hero Henry James, Nick felt that he could "stand a great deal of gilt" (ever the academic, I shall give you the proper citation page number 5).

People were pouring onto the beach by the time I returned, compelled all by the glories and the gilt of the sunset, but my feet were sore from the sand, I was thirsty, and supper awaited - as did a beer! This is the vista across the little stream toward the beach. It doesn't look half bad either, as they say!-

THE Galloper...

This was the test for the almighty Galloper. A distant cousin and now friend, Laurie Higgins, was down in Jaco with her four BIG, athlete kids. I invited them for dinner and thought I might be able to find the waterfall on my own. I told her I might be 4 minutes late because I wanted to stop and get some glasses and a plate; my supplies are good for one but not so good for 6. The fresh fish man wasn't opened, so I bought 2 kilo of frozen fish, had some salad fixings and thought I'd be set. As Lolo can attest to, I am nothing if not disorganized, and I felt I could remember the name of the hotel and the street Laurie had given me, but instead, I spent one full hour going down every little street in Jaco, finally chugging up into the glamorously gated apartment building. They showed me their enormously spacious 3 bedroom apartment with a huge terrace and dining room overlooking the sea. I realized that not even thick stemmed champagne glasses from the super mercato could compensate for my wee digs...

When Laurie told me her kids were big, she wasn't kidding! All were surely over 6 feet tall; Hunter, the dearest football playing cowboy I'll ever meet, was the kindest helper and was hard pressed to fit comfortably in half the back seat with his brother Tayler, a trim LA film maker. The girls, both volleyball players, threw themselves into the way back seats, and Laurie sat up front with me; we drove like a house afire, all of us having the Spanish fluency that I have, which is to say little. It took loads of stumbling, turning, churning up and down rocky, dirt roads, to get to the trail to the waterfall, but we got there, piled out of the Galloper and began the trek through cow fields deep in dung to the river that leads to the waterfall. It was darkening down to dusk, so we went at a fast clip. I feared I'd done the wrong thing when after several bends in the river, we saw or heard no falls. Suddenly we were there, scrambling up the path, my camera dangling at my side, and at the top, I said, "Hurry, hurry, everybody jump so we can document it and get back before dark!" Hardly making for a leisurely event!

We did get photos - Taylor getting dozens with his Canon that did everything camera and video - drove back to my house where we all seemed to find seating, glasses, plates and plenty of fish, rice and salad. No wine opener? No problem! Just shove that cork back down into that bottle, and voila!

Today they are off on a tour to Arenal where they have a hotel as close to the volcano as you can get, and I'm sure they will have a splendid time in an environment where they can spread out and take their time! What wonderful new friends and relatives and what a lively crowd with whom to have one of my inimitable "adventures"!

Warmth and water

I walked for over three hours on the beach today and fell completely in love with the fishermen's boats as I usually do, but this one with the gently curved belly and the incredible colors made my heart go pit-a-pat. But then, the other boats were compelling as well. This one just had a mastery of shape and color that made me grin. Oh, and photograph.

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When I got back to our Bejuco beach, I saw some old friends, met some new folks, and saw again the Chester Springs family that I'd met this morning. Everyone had come down to see the sunset. Logs had been teepeed, ready for the fires of supper and festivities. I was thirsty and ready for a shower, but I was urged to stay, offered a beer and warned against drinking the tap water; it was just the moment to chug that beer to quench a thirst I'd built up over the past three hours of walking! I was convinced that seeing the sunset was in order, and indeed, it was!

Even if it does look fuzzy in the photo, you can get the idea, feel the sensation.

Now my neighbors have cranked up the volume of their rock n' roll in a very aggressive way; I'm not sorry that they are selling their house.