Musings of the Day

I visited La Puerta Libertad and the beaches there. Wow! The black sand is a wonder, and the waves are unbelievably strong! It´s an amazing feeling standing in that particular part of the ocean and hanging onto the arms of a new friend, Josue, as the waves washed over us. It´s even a more incredible sensation to be swept away by them ... and to know that they are almost as strong going out as they are coming in. The sun was strong, too, but there was a strong breeze. You know how when you´re in a swimming pool or a lake and there are spots of cold and spots of hot right next to each other? That´s what the air was like today.

I think my favorite part was as we were walking out of the ocean, and Josue asked me how I was, and when I said I was fantastic, he asked, ¨Sin miedo?" It means "Without fear?" He, like Carlos yesterday, took very seriously their tasks of showing me the sights, doing what they could for me to enjoy the day, and being sure, all the time, that I was safe. They held my arm as we crossed the street. They kept their eye on me on the bus. When I stopped to take a picture, they stopped, too. I had bristled at being told that places were too dangerous to visit on my own. It was an amazing gift, then, to have these young men spend the days with me so I could enjoy their country "sin miedo."

I wrote my name in the sand. I´d never done that in black sand. I had to write it twice in order to take a picture of it. I mused on the joy and futility of writing one´s name in the sand and believe that everyone should do it every chance they get!

More musings ...
A smile exchanged can mean "I see you."
We never know what beauty or ugliness is behind beautiful and ugly doors.
What will be mine to confess when I return home?
If you´re going to spend $5 on a margarita, you ought to really, really, really enjoy it.
A bus driver really should not have a sticker of Guadelupe and a sticker of a swastika on the same bus.
"Perrito caliente" doesn´t sound as edible as "hotdog."
The effort to speak English with me, given embarrassment at one´s pronunciation, means much more than someone being fluent.
People here have hearing like bats!
Every place I´ve visited so far has had hints of it´s glory days, and I wonder at the era and what it takes to restore it.

It really has been a wonderful day. It will end with the family and I going out for pizza in a frightfully inadequate attempt for me to say "Muchas Gracias!"