Sarchí and beyond

This photo goes under typical tourist shots. DB's husband insisted on taking it. The cart in the background is the world's largest ox cart (Guinness Book of World Records). His wife's cousin owns the factory where it was produced and so, naturally we had to stop by and see the operation. Actually, it was pretty cool.
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The Alfaro factory is a pretty amazing place. They do beautiful woodwork, all with a combination of hand tools and machinery powered by a water wheel.




Unfortunately, I didn't get a good photo of the water wheel. It's pretty amazing. It drives the pulleys that run the saws, sanders, drills and lathes that make the carts, trunks and other carved wooden furnishings the artisans produce there.

Tools

Notice the elaborate tool cart.

Timeless

I love the blue house.

Outtakes 10.10.09

We went with Jim, our host here at the boarding house/B&B, to a farm he has in the hills outside of San Jose and here are a few photos from the afternoon.

Truck stop hooker?

School boys

Cornfield

Another in an ongoing series of out-of-focus photographs shot through the window of a moving vehicle. Fuzzy but something about this image really speaks to me.

El gato de la granja

The farm cat.

Bob - farm manager

About eight months ago Bob was walking along the Rio river when he noticed a burlap sack in the water. He noticed it was wiggling so he fished it out and untied it to see what was inside. Turns out it was...

Little Rio

Wednesday outtakes

Mellon man

Words are not my thing. It has never been more clear. They are unreliable, obtuse, demanding bastards and tonight I am really too tired to deal with them so, instead, here are a few outtakes from our day in downtown San Jose. The first one I took though the dirty window of a cab as we drove through the coke a cola district. Not a very safe place to walk, even during the day.

Time warp

What century is this? The sight of these two people smoking over their meal in a Peruvian restaurant gave me the feeling that we had somehow made an unexpected turn and ended up back the '40s. Crummy photograph but a strange scene, especially as there was a body guard type guy standing just outside the door. That's his coke bottle still on the table in front of us. He ate at a tiny table right at the entrance. When he finished he went outside and leaned by the door with his foot on the wall and waited for his boss, a huge man who came out about a half an hour later with a couple of equally oversize friends. The body guard/driver escorted his boss to the Mercedes parked directly in front and they drove off. It fit right into the intrigue of the afternoon's distorted sense of time and place.



Costa Rica is the cleanest country we have visited in Centroamerica but it is not without its heaps of trash. The difference between here and other places is that, generally, it will be picked up. I took this photo through the sweaty window of a bus.

Wooden horse

We have spent most of the last two days sitting in the dentist office waiting room. The appointment was 9 am but we didn't get out of there until after 7 pm. What can I say? Things are different in Centroamerica. We did enjoy our lunch at the Peruvian restaurant. The second day we ate at Vishnu's downtown. Much cheaper and vegetarian.

I especially like the photo of the giant chicken...

Between the raindrops

San Jose graveyard

We walked downtown today. It's about four miles away. We took the bus back. The afternoon rain had started by then plus we didn't want to go back down through hell's bottleneck, that's what I call it, the ravine below the graveyard. Talk about being between a rock and a hard place, we were about a foot away from traffic the whole way through.



M. Lee took this photo of me before we hit that stretch of the road. We didn't know what we were headed into but even so I was wondering about the wisdom of smiling before an open grave.

Wild bananas over the cemetery wall.

Street kid, probably strung out on glue.

Street dogs under a Harvest Moon

Tonight, night of the Harvest Moon, the muffled voices of three dogs playing in the street attract me to the balcony. They look up, wary for a moment, then quietly return to their play. They have the night and life to themselves. The street is a stage in amber light. A frustrated fourth dog shouts and whines from the wings as they trot out of sight.

Outtakes

Naturally, we must start the journey with the standard... photos from the plane.

LA night. Just so you know, capturing the red flashing light on the wing tip was really really hard but you're worth it.

Morning star, Guatemala

Guatemala sunrise

Strange fruit, Costa Rica

Man and bird, San Jose Saturday market day.

Arrival

We were met at the San Jose airport by Jim, our host. He was carrying a bouquet of red carnations for me but, luckily, managed to do it without being embarrassing or serious. And already he and his wife Bibi have made us feel completely at ease in their lovely B&B/home a feat because it is not at all in keeping with our usual, preferred funky style, but more about that later.

Besides us, there are also a couple of permanent residents living here, both named John, both American expats. One is a guy, turned poet in later years, who hung out in the North Beach clubs during the '50s so, almost undoubtedly, heard M. Lee's dad play back in the day. Yes, we had a mini poetry reading over breakfast coffee, sticking to a couple of poems each. We have very different styles but it was fun.

The dogs are barking at the wind tonight. It howls restlessly over the rooftops. It's the rainy season here but there has not been much rain. We're going to the Saturday market in the morning. I'm sure it won't be as interesting as the Mayan market in Antigua but we'll get some fresh vegetables and I'll get some photos.

Casa Lupita and Dog Helps Dog

First off, here's a bit of footage that will both break and gladden your heart. If you aren't a better and more humble person after the 52 seconds it takes to watch, then call your doctor. You may need heart and brain implants!

It's a dog helps dog world!
~via Animal Rights Blog via Metacafe

The long of it or, if dogs can do it, people can too.

Angel

Nicaragua update

In other goings on, I have been busy setting up a blog for Casa Lupita, a clinic in Granada, Nicaragua for street animals. The clinic is a project of an NGO called Building New Hope. I was inspired to get involved by the little dog in this photo. I call her Angel. She was stranded on the sidewalk with a broken hip right where you see her and completely unable to drag herself to a safe place, had there been one. People were walking around and over her as though she did not exist but she stopped me cold. I was stunned. I stepped to the wall and leaned back. A Japanese girl was standing there so, after a moment I said, "I can't go any farther. This is too much. I can't leave just this poor dog laying here on the street." She said it was the same for her, that she was a vet student and could not walk by and leave her suffering like that. Her friends, also students, were off looking for help. Eventually they returned with rumors of an animal shelter somewhere in the city (Granada) and coaxed the girl to leave with them to search it out.

I stayed a while longer with the little dog but finally decided to go back to our room to get her some food and water and tell Mr. Lee what was up. He remembered seeing a poster at the Bearded Monkey about an animal shelter so he went in search of information and I returned to Angel. Unfortunately, I didn't think to bring a bowl. That's why there's water on the sidewalk in front of her. It freaked her out. I instantly regretted pouring it, plus I felt like a total idiot. She was happy for the food though.


I wish I had gone to Casa Lupita that night. It's easy to care. Taking action is the hard part but I did go the next morning. Donna was there, along with a volunteer veterinarian from the US, a Dr. Terry Kane. He said no one had brought in a dog of that description but it quickly became clear that this would not be the end of it. This was Casa Lupita after all, where no one is too small or insignificant to be loved. Donna grabbed me. We jumped into her old black truck and headed off for Angel's last known place on earth.

She wasn't there, but as Angel had lain directly in front of an open door the day before, Donna asked the woman inside if she knew anything. Yes. She had witnessed the whole event and said the Japanese girls came back for her in the evening. Mystery not solved but, as we could do no more, Donna invited me to join her on her rounds. We fed a group of street dogs that live along the shore of Lago Cocibolca, (or Lake Nicaragua if you prefer). We distributed more food along the road back to town and stopped by her place for a minute where I met a couple of other street dogs recuperating from sever injuries and emotional trauma, then we returned to the clinic. When we told the vet how the girls had rescued Angel from the street, he realized she was the dog who'd been brought in the night before. He told us that in the states he could have saved her but, unfortunately, Casa Lupita isn't currently equipped for major surgeries. Her whole hip was crushed, not just her leg. Amputation would not be enough. He had to put her down.


Before we left on our trip to Central America last September, I prepared myself for the suffering animals I knew I'd encounter. Mexico drove me to distraction so this time I was determined to pace myself. Yes, I know there is so much human suffering that needs addressing but I feel a call to help animals. It's just the way it is. So I fed a dog here and there but kept reminding myself that that I couldn't drop everything every time my heart broke. Then I met Angel. So a week or two later, election night to be exact, while the US was choosing Barrack Obama to be President of the United States, and sweet hope hung heavy in the air, a bunch of us gathered at a local hotel lounge to cheer and celebrate and I promised Donna that, after we returned home, I'd set up a blog for Casa Lupita to help spread the word, a tiny contribution, but something I could do from afar.

That was nearly two months ago but last week, after coming across Angel's photo one more time, I got down to it and hammered a beginning. I scrounged up a little content but am not quite ready to tell Donna yet but here's the link, if you want to check it out. If you have any suggestions before I email her this coming week, I'd love to hear them.

So here's the short of it: Casa Lupita Nica


Last two photos of dogs and cats on the street by Finnegan Dowling, Nicaragua Redux: The Sarna Dog Chronicels. Thanks, Finnegan.

Evening in León

Sometimes the camera does catch the mood of the moment. Or enough to remember it by. In any case, this is one of my favorites. And just to be clear, I did not tweek any of these photos, in any way. The light and colors appear exactly as they were, which really amazes me because they were so theatrical and painterly.

Evening in León - Nicaragua

It was one of four.

Bob Wilkins died today. :(


Nicaragua Leon evening street scene

Quirky Christmas

Photos from the Petén region in Guatemala, gateway to the ruins of the great Mayan city of Tikal.

I was especially taken by the absurd beer tree perched on the highest point in Flores, the tiny island town where we stayed while visiting Tikal. This island was once the home of the Itza and the site one of the last independent Mayan kingdom, Tayasal. Naturally the Spanish eventually got around to destroying the place, along with the rest of the Mayan world, in the name of god and king. Then went broke.

Guatemalan snowman
where once the mighty Mayan Spaniard stood.