I would like living in Bismarck better if there were tiny lizards running around everywhere. Last night I watched the ocean in the dark. I watched cop cars over by those bars where I almost went for dinner before I realized the door to the beach had been padlocked shut and I'd have to walk on the streets. I went up on the roof and listened to a goofy little musical group playing in a tiny white church across the street. It sounded like a guitar, an accordion, a tambourine, and a woman singing. I didn't dislike it as much as I'd wanted to.
I decided on the best of Donna Summer and Juanes - La Vida es un ratico en VIVO baby. Both sort of new to me but not brand new. Right now I am sitting in the car in either Yabucoa or Maunabo. For the sake of this story it doesn't really matter.I've been driving mostly on the 3 so far, which has been a pretty civilized, standard 4-lane highway. Then I got lost and got found and the next thing I knew my friendly orderly 3 turned into a crazy tropical mountain-climbing nightmare.
It turned into a one-lane road (for traffic going both directions to share, of course, cause that's what you do in the mountains, right?), steep windy switchbacks, chickens, dogs, cars parked and crazy houses stuck to the side of these steep cliffs, and then there were maybe 5 or 6 places where the ROAD was FALLING off the mountain. And there were men standing at the curves to wave you along if there were no cars coming from the other direction. There wasn't even room to get through! You had to drive up on the hill to get around - it was insane~
By the time I go to the other side, I felt like I was gonna barf and I had to pull over. And me listening to Donna Summer remixes the whole way - I can't believe I didn't die. I've done some crazy driving in my life, but that mountain was fucking crazy. Luckily, I had bought a pack of strawberry Bubblicious earlier, because that was definitely a gum-chewing drive. I chewed the shit out of that gum.
So then I was driving along muttering to myself when I suddenly saw a beach! And then I saw a pterodactyl! It was enormous and flying in circles over the water, fishing I suppose. I was surprised.
I decided to look for a place to stay and ended up here, at a marina in Salinas. This is the place where I ate breakfast and saw a manatee. Look at those amazing mangroves. It's not the beachy cabana thing I was imagining - it's like a thousand times cooler. There are boats: sailboats, giant yachts, I think maybe a couple of small pirate ships, anchored all over the harbor, and they have little flags on them and some of them have wind turbines on top of their masts. That's a really good idea.There is a beach just down the road called Politos, but I'm not interested in that now. I am so interested in these boat people. I bet some of them live on their boats, or at least take extra long vacations on them. These are the people that sail around the caribbean. What a mysterious bunch. They are representated more that their fair share in movies. I bet at least a couple of them are spies. I'm going to go into their fancy restaurant and get a better look at them, at least the hungry ones.
Boat people. Another lifestyle fantasy of mine. I can't believe I've never been a boat person. Tying knots and drinking bubbly. Should I try the cream of plantain soup? I don't want to, but it seems like the thing to do.
I couldn't do it. I couldn't order the plantain soup. Instead I got clam chowder and a baked potato. This is so rad. The marina restaurant had giant rope-encircled round windows. It's turning out that there is a party over at the snack shack. I can hear if from where I sit in my room. Will I be brave enough to join it, or will I go to bed early again tonight? What a cliffhanger.I did end up going over and having a drink while the bartender watched an Antonio Banderas movie. It was kind of uncomfortable and I didn't know what to do with myself, so I smoked a cigarette.
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