No Honest John Goes Unpunished

 8-27-00 Su 6:55 PM

The Caribbean! "Have you ever had a mind eraser?" We're in Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, few clicks from the Panamanian border en el Mar Caribe. Where did I leave off? I wrote in the big book about the horse ride [rainforest adorned ticket to el museo nacional de Costa Rica] to the ocean falls. When I got back to town, I was running all over like Honest John, trying to pay for my horse when I could have easily run off, since no one but me seemed interested in my payment. Meanwhile, Rochelle had packed up the car, and we were ready to head up the Nicosia Peninsula and find a town we liked to spend a day or two. We bumped along under leaden skies that dulled the jungles. The highway soon paved the way through clearcut cattle land up into Nicoya. Bouncing over the pocked main street, we came to a fork in the road: Samara or Nicosa? We turned back to a roadside soda to have a beer and consult Frommer. Problem was, we'd left Frommer at the Sano Banano while I paid for the horse. I silently blamed la esposa. I was devastated. I felt blind and naked without the book. How were we to make informed decisions? I tried to play it off like it was no big deal. We asked an extremely friendly cab drive for directions to the road to Tamarindo. I thought he might blow me and buy us a meal, but he just gave us twenty minutes of directions that amounted to "Go that way and turn right at the sign." Friendly guy. The road was good up to the turnoff to Tamarindo. I agonized over whether to turn toward Flamingo instead, which I did, then changed my mind and made a u-turn, then stopped and did an eenie meanie that told me to go on to Tamarindo. We had a sunset dinner along the wide bay where the boats are moored in the open water. I had fish, rice, beans, and beer. When we were done, we drove up and down the dusty street checking room rates. We decided to splurge on the $69-a-night Hotel Tamarindo, with its marble-floored lobby and pool on the beach, A/C, hot water, and ESPN! Too bad our room was in the servant's quarters across the street. I caught the A's losing to Cleveland and Iowa advancing to the Little League World Series.