Thoughts

I have heard people say that when you're in seclusion, you are left with your thoughts, as if it's a contemplative time, a reflective opportunity. I haven't been thinking much, to be honest. I have been taking care of 11 chickens, six dogs, keeping the plants in the yard healthy and enjoying the view while listening to the TV in the background to improve my Spanish.

I am all alone in a place that is a two hour climb over rocky hills to get to town to buy food and sundries. I know four people here; my cab driver, the gardener, the maid and the woman who watches the house while I go to town with the driver. I've been invited by the gardener to have dinner with his family. He's 18 but I'm looking forward to his mother's Costa Rican cooking. The following week, I will make a Brazilian dish for her.

I have been taking some fun video footage along the way. It will be a part of the low-budget narrative film about traveling solo on a shoestring budget. I wonder where the term "shoestring budget" comes from. I could google it, but it's more fun to imagine someone carrying a wad of cash by a shoestring, or having their cash in their shoes so they have to untie them to get to it. Or what if people used to be so poor that they couldn't buy shoestrings, or they sold them on the street for extra cash, or traded them for food? Wow. That was a waste of time. And I told you I wasn't thinking. What can I say? It's 4:35 in the morning and I was awaken by the dogs barking. I went to look outside and almost stepped on a poisonous frog the size of my fist. That woke me up.

The thing with all the animals and critters here is that I always feel like something is crawling on me. I hear insects buzzing, see wasps and beetles and moths stuck inside the house, trying to get out through the window (they're so stupid) and sadly, I just let them die. I don't like to interfere with nature. If you're going to come into my house, unless you can kill me, I'm just going to let you die. Then I sweep their bodies off the floor once a week. With that comes piles of dog hair.

Speaking of dogs, bathing them is fun. They hate it so I have to tie them up outside so they'll stay still. They are pretty subservient to me because I give them rewards. Besides, what is better than getting a massage on a beautiful cliff in Costa Rica in the sun? Being doused with cold water. The dogs love me. They really do. They protect the house and I. I'm sure they won't remember me when I leave. I wish I could live so "in the moment". Like a dog.

The beetles are flapping around me, my internet connection is gone, the hens are screaming for the sunrise, and I have nothing left to say for today.