Small Things

It seems I’m always writing to keep up with each day’s adventures which, let me say, is only possible to the minutest degree.  In a way it is the same for all people.  The interactions with the world are so personal and so complex, and each persons make- up has what; some billions of connections in the brain and hormonal system different from others, depending on if this or that happened differently in the womb or in childhood.  Each situation has so much richness, so much depth, it seems when I write that I capture only a skeleton outline.

Yesterday was a suuupper long day.  We arose at 4am to meet the Israelis to buy some bread up at the main road on their way to the coastal farmers market. Then we continued to San Isidro to have a meeting.  The day included loseing our brakes, learning about  leaf cutting ants that can devour trees in a day, a first encounter with Palma mekenque trees which reminded me of Avatar the movie.

On to an early dinner at Madras, a little tropical restaurant run by a family.   We were waited on by the father who can’t have been much more than 30 or 35 yrs old.  He is one of the few who have been there or here in Costa Rica for a while; ten years.  He had a cute little cabina that he rented out for 35 dollars a night.  A restaurant, beautiful jungle around that he planted because, like most places  the land had been cut down so that McDonalds could have cheap hamburgers.  Every single feature, and I mean every single feature was made and artistically crafted by him.  Each chair in the restaurant was different and hand crafted.  Some had long sticks of bamboo tied together by wire as the back - others were made of wood, with interesting and different styles. He was really living the art of living.

  He and his wife were the only ones working there and there were two little ones running around demanding attention.  They had been here ten years but only got electricity a year ago.  I had a little conversation with the woman ( whose name I’m not sure I heard) about when the electricity goes out the laundry becomes very time consuming.  Personally I think the clothes washing machine is a gift from god.  And you can’t really know that until you live without one for a while. I may have written this in the blog before and it may not be the last.

On our way home we stopped at a nice beach which seems like only the locals know about, and had a coffee at sunset. On the rocks with our little power camp stove.  And please don’t picture us in shorts with a good tan in a lounge chair. It's always a little rougher than that.  For now, by the time we start giving tours we will have it all plushed out and organized.  Or maybe not. The sand flies come out right as the sun goes down for 10 minutes.  I was covered from head to toe as I have learned to save my ankles.  I felt like I really got one over those little pests this time, they couldn’t penetrate my armor.

Anyway I was going to skip the skeleton and go into something  more detailed to explain how I like to get lost in the nature here.  While Jim was at the café in Uvita doing some internet business, I walked across the road and found the path to the river.  Started walking up river.  There were locals playing in a couple of swimming holes, I kept walking till I settled my bag on some rocks and went to sit in the water where there was some good flow to get a leg massage.    First of all walking on rocks is kind of like a religion for me.  It changes my state of being immediately.  I just get lost in the moment with the rocks.  Of course it has to always include water because rocks are usually too hot without water.   I got to the middle and sat down, keeping a steady pressure to hold me. There is usually a way to arrange my body to get a nice massage.  For five or so minutes I stay there, then another rock catches my eye and I ponder until compelled to move and see what it is like over there, then arrange myself again.  This time I got a really good one like when I use to do hot tubs.  The water made my flesh itch like crazy and then I have to scratch.  I try to stay for as long as possible because it is so cleansing and good for me.

Many of the rocks were very slippery because algae was growing on them.  Being so close, I could notice different organisms living there.  The first one that caught my eye was a little tiny teardrop shaped seaweed-like nodule hanging on a short string about ¼ inches long.  Watching them there, I wondered how strong they must be to endure the massive and continuous pull from the flow of water pulling them down river.   As soon as I had that thought I wanted to pull on one to see how strong it really was. (For this moment I remained oblivous to the destruction of organisms I am causing by building a house and many other things.  I decided just to let them stay there and not to disturb them just because of some silly human curiosity.

That lasted about a minute.  Then, with a little guilt, I plucked one.  At first it didn’t come out, then I pulled a little harder and it popped out just like a hair on my head.  It had a little follicle on the other end of the string.  The little thing was very strong.   Even though I could pull it from the rock I could not break it. I tried one more. But then that was enough disturbance.
After that I noticed a lace-like seaweed…

Now I moved on to some sounding.  I like to harmonize myself with water environments by sounding.  I find the notes that blend into the sound of the river and usually after I do that my day goes very well.