Conducting photo tours in Costa Rica can be quite an experience because I never know what my group and I will encounter. Here is an entertaining event that occurred while we were traveling to one of our locations.
One of the pleasures of living in Costa Rica is that I can conduct Costa Rica Photo Tours for folks who want to visit and photograph exotic locations. Indeed, one of the destinations on the tour is the beautiful Osa Peninsula, the “most biologically intense place” on earth according to the National Geographic Society. We drive to this location through the little village of Ojochal, which is very close to my home.
Some Costa Ricans in rural communities have an unusual method of moving. As one of my groups was passing through the village some folks started pointing to something ahead of us. It was a fellow moving. But, before telling you this story, let me give you a little background on this gentleman.
When we first moved to Costa Rica our only neighbours were Ticos (as Costa Ricans call themselves) and Senor Wilson (isn’t that Spanish or what?) brought us a house-warming gift of some flowering plants. It was quite humorous to see him standing at the top of our driveway holding some plants because, you see, he was too polite to come to our door without an invitation even though he was bearing a gift to welcome us.
After a sort of “conversation”, he in Spanish and my wife and I mostly in English, I realized that he wanted to give us the plants. We were new in the community and this was a welcoming from the neighbours who live at least a hour walk up the mountain. Yep, walk. No car. Senor Wilson walked an hour just to deliver a gift. Now, that is neighborly!
With the passage of time, Senor Wilson has given me flowering plants many times. Often he stands there waiting to see where I will plant it. I would probably do the same thing if I lugged it down a mountain for an hour. However, there are so many things to do that planting this gift is never one of my priorities. Certainly, I never thought that I would be tested on my ability to choose a location and plant something when I moved to Costa Rica from Canada.
A couple of days after Senor Wilson gave me plants one time, he came to the house with still another plant and visited while his two boys swam in the river by the house. Of course, he asked me where I planted the others that he had brought the last time he came.
Oops! They were still in the pots on the terrace (these pots are certainly not decorative in any way as they are old aluminum kettles with drainage holes stabbed in the bottom of the pot with a machete). When Senor Wilson saw that his previous gifts were still in the pots, he decided he needed to plant the gifts he had given me since I apparently did not know how to do it. I hope you are getting an idea about what kind of fellow my neighbor is.
Now, back to my photography tour group and the day they met Wilson. As we were driving along, we saw a man walking a horse. It was neighbor Wilson. What a sight! The poor horse was carrying two huge, not big–huge, white bags filled with clothes and household items. To add insult to injury, Wilson had propped a broom between the bags so that its blue bristle appeared between the horse’s ears. It looked just like the critter was wearing a bristle blue tiara! Not a very macho horse, I must say.
Wilson, standing by the horse, was holding a bridle in one hand and a birdcage in the other. A man, his birdcage, a horse, his crown. Quite a sight! It was moving day in Costa Rica.
I started the conversation as usual with “Hola, que tal?” “How are you?” And then I asked if he was moving (only kidding). But, sure enough, the horse was neighbor Wilson’s version of a moving van. I believe it is called a grass-eating 4 X 4.
He explained that he and his wife (who is a tiny little thing that looks about 14) were going to house-sit one of the B&Bs whose owner went back to Germany for the rainy season. He also said that it would be easier for his wife and 3 kids to live there because it was closer to the pueblo as the B&B is almost in the pueblo where the children would go to school.
I thought it rather strange that he was carrying the birdcage. One of the children could have carried the cage down on one of their previous journeys.
I guess carrying flowering plants and birdcages come under the same heading. Wilson explained that the bird was young (parrot or parakeet, can’t really tell) and that it was very talkative. As if to show off, the feathered pet suddenly started chattering. Unfortunately, I had not yet mastered Spanish well enough to understand bird Spanish so I could not figure out what he was saying. But, it did not matter to the bird.
You can imagine that my group was very excited about taking pictures of a crowned horse, chattering bird, and Costa Rica family walking down a mountain, worldly possessions carried by their trusty steed. Moving day in Costa Rica. One never knows what one will see or experience on my photo tour of Costa Rica.
Frank Scott writes from sunny Costa Rica where he is a professional Costa Rica Photographer offering unique photography tours. Some of his work can be seen in Costa Rica Vacations, a very popular travel guide to this unique country.
Tags: adventure travel, Costa Rica, costa rica photography, ecotourism, environment, family travel, living in costa rica, nature, photography, photography tour, tourism, travel
