As a Costa Rica professional photographer, encountering new experiences is the norm, not the exception. My tour group never knows what is around the next corner.
During one of our Costa Rica Photo Tours, my group drove to a photography location in the beautiful and pristine Osa Peninsula which National Geographic has called "the most biologically diverse place" on earth. To get there we drove through the tiny village of Ojochal near where I live.
Let me tell you about a unique way to move that some rural Costa Ricans still use. One day, when my photography group was passing through the village, we noticed a most unusual way of moving. But, to help you better appreciate what we saw, let me provide you with some background on the man who was moving.
Our only neighbours when we moved to Costa Rica were Ticos (that is what the Costa Ricans call themselves) and one of them by the very Spanish name of Wilson came calling with a house warming gift of some flowering plants. It was very comical to see him standing at our driveway waiting to be invited in onto the property so that he could give us this gift. He was too polite to come to our door without an invitation.
We finally realized after speaking (he in Spanish and we mostly in English that ) that he wanted to give us the flowering plants he was carrying. Very neighborly. Particularly when you understand that Senor Wilson did not own a car and walked, plants in hand, down a mountain on a dirt road--an hour to our house and an hour back!
Over time, neighbor Wilson has walked to my house many times with plants. Now, it often happens that when he gives me his gifts he stands there waiting for me to plant them. Of course, sometimes I may already be on another project and cannot very well stop what I am doing so the plants get put into the ground later but my good neighbor sometimes drops by to find out where and when I had planted them. I never imagined that when I moved from Canada to Costa Rica.
One day Wilson arrived at the house with another plant, accompanied by his two sons who were going swimming in the river beside our house. He gave me the new plant and then asked where I had planted the others that he had brought.
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 was holding the horse's bridle in one hand and a birdcage in the other. A sight to behold. A man, a horse, a crown, and a birdcage. Moving day!
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.
Wilson explained that his family would be babysitting one of the Bed and Breakfasts while the owner was going back to Germany during the rainy season. This was ideal for him because it was much easier for his wife and 3 children to live in the pueblo close to the school rather than walk down about 2 miles from their mountain home every day.
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.
Carting flowering plants and birdcages is all in Wilson's job description. He told me and the group that the little bird was very young (parrot or parakeet, I don't know), that it just loved to talk and knew many words. As though he understood, the bird started showing off, chattering away while we are talking about it. I would tell you what it said but my command of bird Spanish remains very poor to this day. Sorry.
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.
About the Author:
Canadian Frank Scott lives in 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.
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