Random Esquire

1.  I sounded pretty awesomely brave in my earlier entry on Costa Rica.  Let me work toward dispelling that image.  While in Costa Rica, Besos killed all the bugs.  I am not ashamed.  Hey, I’m rarely anything other than rational.  Grant me this.

2.  On to the bridge jumping, also mentioned in that earlier entry.  After I had climbed up the rocks and out of the water, grinning at Besos, I said to her, “I clearly jumped in to impress you with my bravery.”  She grinned.  I said, “Yup.  That was all to impress you.”  She smiled.  She politely said that she would never have done it.

From the family that was with us, the daughter and son in law jumped in the water after I did.  It was later that evening that Besos told me that she suspected, from overhearing some of the conversation, that the daughter is pregnant.

*Blink*

Lemme get this straight.  I climbed and  jumped off a bridge in the Costa Rican jungle into a swirling mass of water and congratulated myself on my bravery …

only to have a pregnant woman do it after me?

Boo!

3.  While in San Jose, Besos convinced me to eat at a little food stand in one of the markets.  Oh, and by ‘market’, I mean an open air tin building held together with bubblegum and picture wire.  And by ‘food stand’, I mean an open flame.  (Okay, sort of exaggerating… )  Two bad things happened here.  First, Besos happened to glance down she said, “I haven’t seen one of those since Mexico!”  I looked down.

…at a cockroach about 2 inches long.  I am pleased to report that I had no reaction other than to lift my feet a foot off the ground.

The second bad thing that happened was that Besos noticed a small child shoveling beans and rice in his mouth faster than the asthma kid sucks on his inhaler.  His shirt was full of holes and he was skinny as hell.  She wondered aloud, “I wonder if he’s homeless.”  I got up to pay the bill and said, “I’m going to buy him a soda.  And a sweet bread.”  I then went to the counter and tried to motion with hand signals to the boy and did he want a soda? or a pastry?  I’m making drinking motions with my hand and pointing under the counter as a sweet.

He stared at me and hardly moved.  I looked at Besos and she spoke to him in Spanish.  He hardly looked at her, eyes locked on me and then he responded to her.  I asked, “What did he say?”  She said, “That he’s not allowed to speak to strangers.”  It was about that time the boy’s father showed up and they had a whispered conversation.  The father looked at me.  I sighed.

In about 60 seconds, I went from friendly diner to creepy stranger offering soda and sweets to children.  Awesome.