The Morning After

There is nothing more joyous than a walk in a tropical forest the morning after the first drenching rain - after more than 4 months of drought. Armando is half indigenous and very much a man of few words. In fact, more than once he's looked at me kind of startled when I've launched into trivial small talk with him. Women talk more than men in general but pair a gregarious North American with an indigenous Costa Rican, and you've got both extremes. We generally speak very much to the point - when to gather Lonchocarpus seeds or how to plant living fence rows... and then silence. Well that morning after the first rain, we were both silent with wonder.

We could both sense a dramatic change in the forest. Everything seemed more alive and the air around us felt charged with happy energy. The rain woke up the forest from a long slumber and we could feel the effects of this huge surge of energy all around us. Everything was cleaner and greener. It was truly a memorable walk at El Tigre.

Later, after climbing out much refreshed and invigorated, I went to the airport to pick up Gerry, who was returning back to Costa Rica for....you guessed it!

Gerry goes back to court! We cleaned his suit and had him looking quite respectable for his appearance at the Tribunales. He stayed in Costa Rica only for the court appearance and flew right back out again the next day. In fairness, he had commitments previously arranged but it sure looked like he was keen to get back to New Orleans. The good news is his final court date takes places next Monday. Will he manage to stay out of jail? Stay tuned... For those of you who would like more details about Gerry's trial, you can email him directly. BigEasyGrak@hotmail.com
Just remember to copy me because he only looks at his hotmail account when it suits him.

In any case, back on that day while waiting for Gerry at the airport, I greeted a young woman carrying one of those huge backpacks like the kind that kids haul around Europe doing their Europass tour. I pegged this kid as a volunteer and sure enough, Jenna was waiting for someone to pick her up. Her pickup was late but that's nothing unusual so when Gerry came out of arrivals, I bid her well and off I went with Gerry.

Well about 2 hours later, just as we were sitting down to lunch, Jenna shows up at the TexMex. She had waited at the airport for nearly 3 hours but nobody showed up for her. As you can imagine, she was rattled, especially since she couldn't speak any Spanish. So how did Jenna end up at the Tex Mex of all places rather than say, the Hampton Inn? Let's just call it 6 Degrees of Separation.

It was Sunday and we couldn't reach anyone and at that point, Jenna was of the mind to just get on the next flight back to New York. Forget volunteering! She just wanted to get out of Costa Rica. Luckily, thanks to Abby, who happened to arrive at TexMex for lunch just after Jenna, we managed to connect the dots. Turns out, the American Agency gave the wrong date and the Costa Ricans never expected Jenna until May. But the locals really came through for her at short notice and she left us all smiles to help with the Turtle program in Cahuita. Of course, we couldn't resist taking Jenna out to Tigre for a quick look. She will notice the huge difference between the two forests.

And yes, we are still living at the Tex Mex.