Manzanillo, Costa Rica -- evening

So I ended up staying here in Manzanillo with a guy who writes under the pen name of j. guevara, and his wife, Michelle, who runs a hamburger/lemonade shack at the bottom of the hill on the roadside of the shore-line dirt road.

Up here at the top of the hill they live in an open-air rancho with a thatch roof. There are also two thatch-roofed ranchos for guests; they cabinas are all-inclusive, meaning that they're feeding me too (and damn good food at that).

J has travelled all around the world, claiming to have travelled the length of the Himalayas, and hence also claiming to speak three dialects of Nepalese. He does some interesting reading, and so he has some interesting, nearly outlandish in some cases, viewpoints on a whole range of topics. He is fervently anti-Christian fundamentalist. He believes the bible is just another book, some of which may be fact or based in fact, and much of which is just a plagiarism of other previous religions or mythologies. He is a stated feminist, claiming that women have been "getting the shaft" for many years, ever since the bible was written and there was a division of labor between the two genders.

Politically speaking, (and in the realm of current events), his views are a bit radical to the point of being nearly foolish. However, he does raise some striking points on occasion. He believes the apparently impending war against Iraq is part of a geopolitical chess manuever, a "pincer movement" to trap Iran between the recently conquered Afghanistan to the east, Turkey to the north, and soon-to-be Iraq to the west. Only time will tell if his suspicions are well-founded.

He also believes the Columbia shuttle tragedy appears to be too much of a coincidence: an Israeli man and a Hindu woman aboard, both enemies of Muslim extremists; and the explosion took place over "Bush's backyard," Texas. He believes it was a message of sorts.

As far-fetched as some of his viewpoints may be, I did write down a recommended reading list. At the very least, it will open my mind to different points-of-view, and likely stimulate my thinking to new, wider horizons.

Now, as to what I did today, I did just a little work here to earn a free lunch. I used a machete to cut up a fallen banana tree into smaller pieces to toss down the hill. Then, I dug a small hole to serve as a compost ditch.

To cool myself off, I headed down to the ocean, where I went snorkeling for the first time ever. I was there for over an hour, and it was absolutely great. I saw several different types of fish: a tiny, bright blue one; a larger yellow-and-black, vertically striped one; a small, thin camouflage (with green and brown spots) one; and a large, flat gray one, among others. It was fascinating. By the time I reached shore again, I realized I had done a large loop and had covered a surprisingly good deal of ground (or sea, to be more appropriate).

I came back to eat a delicious hamburger and cantaloupe cubes, along with lemonade, cooked and served by Michelle at the shack down below. After paging through an issue of The Economist (I would like to subscribe when I return to Philly), I came up to the deck looking out over the Pacific to read a chapter of Lord Jim. Afterwards, I went back into the ocean to swim, float, and relax, until just before the sunset, when I came back up the hill to take a couple of photos.

And now here I am writing in the journal in the meantime before dinner is served. Before I put it off any longer (and while I have the time), I should go over a few quick stories from Puntarenas.

One of my afternoons there, I decided to hop into the ocean to cool off. While there I soon noticed three guys near me in the waves, but one looked peculiarly out of sorts. At first I thought he was mentally challenged, but then realized quickly that he was simply piss-drunk. His two friends had brought him into the ocean to shock him back to a greater degree of sobriety. The purpose seemed to be failing, though, since waves were smacking the drunk-ass right in his face. Furthermore, he couldn't remain standing still without the support of one or both of his friends.

A few minutes later, when he was on the beach, his friends let him walk on his own. He was carrying one sandal in each hand. Suddenly he dropped one sandal, and I saw what was coming. He bent over to try to pick it up, but instead went reeling out-of-control in a totally reckless manner; he landed face-first in the sand. During and after this whole scene, I was laughing hysterically amongst the waves.

Another episode which was pretty amusing was right after I had boarded the ferry in Puntarenas to go to Paquera. I, along with a sizeable crowd, was standing at the back of the ferry while it was being disconnected from the mooring on the dock. As the ferry slowly began drifting away from the dock, a young woman came running with her bag up the dock. Her two friends had just boarded and were yelling at her, urging her to run faster. At the last moment, she leaped from the dock and just barely landed on the lower deck of the ferry. At that instant, the whole crowd burst out in a combinations of applause and laughter. The whole scene was absolutely riotous; again, I laughed pretty good from that one.

Anyway, the stars are out now. And I'm really hoping that dinner will be ready and served soon. I hope to sleep well tonight because tomorrow I plan on resuming my pedestrian journey to the north at an early hour. I feel that urge to be on the road again.