Costa Rica Moving Day
I am a professional photographer in Costa Rica. The experiences on my tours are many since I never know what my group and I will happen upon. Let me tell you about one of these surprising events.
One of the destinations for my group in Costa Rica Photo Tours is the beautiful, pristine Osa Peninsula along the southern Pacific Coast of Costa Rica, a place that National Geographic says is “the most biologically diverse place” on the planet. In order to reach this location by vehicle we drive through the tiny village of Ojochal, which is very near 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.
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.
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!
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.
Unfortunately, the flowering plants were still on my terrace in aluminium kettles with drainage holes stabbed in the bottom of the pot with a machete. When good neighbor Wilson saw that his previous gift had not been planted, he politely asked in his quiet way if I would mind if he planted all of them for me. Quite a fellow, my neighbor and friend, Wilson.
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.
And there was Wilson standing by the horse with a bridle in one hand and a birdcage in the other. A horse, a crown, a man, and a birdcage. What a sight! 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.
He explained that he, his wife (a tiny lady who looks 14), and the 3 kids would be taking care of a B&B while the owner returned to Germany during Costa Rica’s rainy season. They were very pleased about this arrangement because living in the pueblo brought the kids closer to the school, saving them from walking two miles down and back from their mountain home.
The birdcage was quite interesting. It seemed to me that on one of the previous trips someone could have brought the cage down to the new digs.
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.
There was a great deal of excitement and clicking of cameras as the group was taking pictures of the family, the chattering bird, and the embarrassed regal horse since the chance of seeing something like this again, ever, was quite remote. Welcome to moving day in the mountains of southern Costa Rica! Local colour is always the surprise on my photo tours.
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.
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