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Blog for a rainy day
What seems like a gentle, all day rain has settled over Cahuita. It seems like a good time to get caught up on our bog. All of Costa Rica shuts down for Easter week, so Charles has the week off. We’ve been using the time to explore. No time for blogging.


Easter Week
Easter in Cahuita! The whole place swells up with zillions of people and they party. There are booths being set up and fields being mowed for extra parking. By mowed I mean a guy with a machete cleaned up the whole thing. The fella who sells jewelry at the bridge has added 2 more tables of stuff. Bus loads of people arrive everyday. I don’t know if they come for the day or stay over but man there are a lot of people. No liquor is sold from midnight Wednesday to midnight Good Friday. (now they tell us) The local police actually visit bars and restaurants and put yellow tape on the alcohol fridges. Me thinks that there might be a party on Saturday, Woo! Hoo! I mean, Charles and I do not cotton to such frivolous activities.


Office Matters
The ocean has been very angry these past few days. The waves are huge and loud, and they slam you around with such power and disregard for human life.
So I’m coming home from the office and there were about 50 turistas standing, pointing at the trees and yelling hoo,hoo,hoo. The howler monkeys were just sitting there eyeing them suspiciously. Now I’m not sure if the howler monkeys yell is to scare you off, or if it’s the war cry before they kill you. I decided to move on.
Then as I was nearing the beach exit there were another bunch staring and pointing at a tree. They were laughing, more cackling than laughing. As I got closer I could see a big green parrot in the tree, mimicking everything some girls were saying and laughing along with them as if he understood the joke. Very cool!


On the Home Front
I bought a Spanish cookbook. It’s in Spanish. I was getting pretty cocky about all of the Spanish I’m learning until I got this book. I picked a recipe at random and decided to try it, not knowing what the heck it might be. I figured out the first half of the recipe and instructions (incorrectly), but then I got stuck. Near as I could figure I had to distress the tomatoes, abuse the plantain, and put a dressing gown on the eggs. My friend Ernesto helped me translate it properly, but he said this looks terrible. Do not make this. Hahaha Well you know me, I’m going to make it anyway, and I told Ernesto that I’d make some extra for him, too.


Bus Trip
Charles has to take the bus to Limon on Monday so we thought we’d give it a test run and do some shopping in the big city. We asked for 2 tickets to Limon and the guy told us to hurry and get on that bus there. So we did and it was going in the opposite direction. I hear Panama is nice this time of year. Uno jerk! Anyway we got off a few hundred feet later. Security guy wouldn’t let us in the back door, so we had to walk around the block to the bus terminal. He let others in but not us. Dos jerk! Charles was getting a little annoyed. Anyway we hoofed it around the block, went back to the ticket seller and with squinted eye, (You know the look, eh boys?) Charles asked for 2 tickets to Limon.
Riding on the bus was kinda cool. People started to get on with towels and I gotta tell you this now makes me nervous. Not a problem, though, we stayed on paved roads all the way. No giant dust clouds. After a dozen or so km, the bus was stopped at a police checkpoint. Everyone had to get off and we had to present our passports. They actually checked to see if they were stamped properly. Apparently if drugs are moving from Columbia to North America by land, this is the only road. Anybody not an obvious local commuter is checked very closely. Although everything was fine, it was still a little disconcerting.
We had a great day in the city. We got some sandals, a button for Charles shorts, some amazing coconut cookies sold by a lady at the side of the street, a candle, and a praise CD with songs sung in Spanish. Days of Ellijah, in Spanish, too much fun. We had lunch in a place that might have been Spanish Kentucky fried chicken, mostly because it cracked us up. After lunch we got on the bus to Cahuita and all was fine. On the trip home, however, we weren’t stopped at the checkpoint. Apparently no one smuggles drugs into Columbia.
We just found out that the internet place is closed until next week. Still I’d like to wish you all a safe and Happy Easter, knowing that my darling Charlie will probably fine a way to post this. Everyone should be married to a geek!!!


PS. Does anyone know what this is?

The "Touch evberything finger" in action