Friday, May 4, 2012

Seaside Walk

Timon, my gardener, showed, having paddled in his dugout canoe from across the bay with his wife.  I gave him the days activities and a list of things to do for his wife.   Strange having to point out, "clean the counter, clean the table, clean the refrigerator inside and out, clean the couches, mop the floor, mop the deck.

After a lazy awakening I took Andrea over to Isla Bastimentos.  We returned to Roots, a restaurant over the water and inquired about Jerry's whereabouts.  Jerry was the teen we had met the previous day.  He had left for Almirante, so much for "I am always here".  The owner of the restaurant called a kid over who was paddling in a plastic kayak We walked to the end of town, down the beach and down a trail arriving at an enormous metal gate.  The kid yelled out for Bruce, whose house was not visible.  We met no response.  I had heard of this place from a gorgeous blonde ethnobotanist and masseuse who was going to live at my house and help me with planting a garden and fruit trees.  She found an opportunity more to her liking in Costa Rica and I was left to figure it out on my own.  Nothing left to do but return on another day.

We walked to the other end of town on the main sidewalk (there are but three or four) that runs along the bay.   Restaurants, bars and hostels are one to two deep on the water side, houses and a couple of stores are likewise a coupe of lots deep up the hill away from the water.  Near the end of town we took a sidewalk that led over the island, a very short walk and hiked along the seashore.   I regretted having left my machete; there is a trail but it is a bit overgrown and needs some maintenance.

Everything I had enumerated to clean in the house had been cleaned but nothing else.   I paid Timon, he asked for four days wages but nothing for his wife.   I gave her $9 in coins and she was very grateful, as she should have been as she had received a full day's wages for half a day's work.

The trail went from an easy walk to muddy up the hillside and ended with clambering over giant basalt rocks.  We finally arrived at Wizard Beach, filthy and dehydrated.   The long stretch of white sand was populated but by a couple.  Being Italian it seemed perfectly normal to Andrea to shed his clothes and go for a dip.   Not being Italian I didn't really feel like skinny dipping with a guy and kept my shorts on.    We walked back across the island, back to town and had lunch.   Our condition mandated a good shower and a change of clothes before we could be seen in public so we went back to my house and tended to those matters and returned to Bocas where a local woman had invited me and some friends over for dinner.   Huh, second cancellation in a row.

No comments:

Post a Comment