Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Wake up in the mornin’,
from your 'larm clock's warning,
take the 8:15 into the city - Randy Bachmann


It takes a while to establish a routine in a new setting. Mine is falling into place slowly. I wake up with the sun and the howler monkeys a bit before 5:00. Now that I’ve figured out a method to make coffee, brewing and drinking black gold is step number 2. I eat pineapple, blog a little since I’m often at my most introspective early in the morning, shower (cold water unfortunately), and head off to the computer center.

Here I repair a few machines, check email, publish the blog, and generally try to make myself useful. Dianne comes by and grabs me for lunch at one of the local places, then I either return to the center, or we go play for the afternoon.

Since lunch is a large meal, we have snacks for supper, and spend the evening reading or reviewing our day. We are generally in bed, lights out, by about 8:00 PM. I know it sounds early, but since the sun is up from 5:00 AM to 5:00 PM, we’ve adapted our schedule to fit.

After the last couple days of rain, the sun is shining brightly this morning, baking the smell of damp out of everything. There is a nest with noisy baby birds demanding breakfast outside our front window, and enough brightly colored birds I don’t recognize flying about, that I think we need an air traffic controller.

There’s a tree that releases the most amazing perfume as the sun goes down, and apparently it does so sometimes in the morning too, because I can smell it today. It’s certainly a calming influence – I wonder if I can bottle some to take home.

Well, off to start my day. I’ll leave you today with some thoughts:

Things I learned on this trip:

1. Rainy season is not nearly as much fun as it sounds




2. If you must stay in a “well weathered” hotel AND a Hilton on the same trip, do the “well weathered” one first




3. It actually has to stop raining to make cutting the grass or raking the beach possible. But a couple hours sun, and a couple hours work can have spectacular results.




4. A machete can cut grass, open coconuts, open cans, or open bottles. The swing is a little different for each.




5. Creature comforts like hot water are important if you are here for a week or several months

Things I knew, but was reminded of:

1. Different cultures have different rules. There are few absolute rights or wrongs. There used to be ten, but now I think there are fewer. Maybe only one. (Do unto others…)
2. It is not reasonable to try to impose your values on others, no matter how right you think you are.
3. A gift with strings is not a gift, it’s a business transaction.

Here endeth my lessons.

Oh, almost forgot: Dianne’s salsa, corn chips, and beer is still my favorite supper.

Yesterday's overcast at Playa Negra:


Dianne writes:

Beautiful sounds of the rain and the birds and the ocean bla bla bla! Enough with the rain aready! My feet are going to be permanently red from my wet sandals.

Today I MSN’d with a few people and it was nice to hear voices from home. Kaitlyn and Dan are home safe and sound, but the mean lady at the airport took all of Kaitlyn’s sea shells. Poor Kaitlyn. She was very sad, so I’m gonna try to sneak some home for her. So my darlin’ Kaity if that fails, here are some pictures of the shells that I have collected for you.

Things I’m wrasslin’ with,

The ocean is warmer than our shower.
The shower is less salty than the ocean
If you go in the warm ocean you have to have a cold shower