I returned on Tuesday from a little over a week in Colombia. The main purpose of my trip was to take a girl I’ve known for a while to the Pacific coast on a long weekend junket in order to have a better chance to get to know each other. She works full time and goes to school every night of the week then does home work on weekends. Hence the getaway plan. I arrived a few days early so we could do some shopping for the beach during her dinner breaks. That left me with a lot of time on my hands so I went by Ricardo’s and decided to meet a girl who lives in Paalmira. Instead of asking her to come in I took the 45 minute bus ride out to see her. I left Cali mid-morning and we spent the day walking and seeing the sights. As it turned out there wasn’t really chemistry but she was pleasant company and I saw the town.
Number one lady and I left Cali airport Thursday around one and arrived 40 minutes later at the airstrip in Bahia Solano. There we were met by Jerry Strapel of Hotel El Refugio De Mr. Jerry. We bundled in to the taxi, a rusted out Landcruiser chiva for the ride into town where he had some errands such as collecting the food and beverages for our stay and a repaired. Ready at last we headed to the waterfront where a launch awaited us. To my companeras great surprise we were told to pull off our shoe and roll up are pantlegs because we’d have to wade out to the boat and after a lot of nervous laughter she clambered safely aboard. I must point out here that my companera had never before seen the sea or set foot in a boat and doesn’t swim. The journey by sea was 30 minutes and took us to the hamlet of Playa Huina and the guesthouse. The town consists of about 40 houses laid out along the beach and backing against spectacular tropical jungle. Jerry has a radio to communicate with his wife in Cali and he’s got a “planta” so we had light until he’d shut it down around nine. The companera was quite frustrated to discover that her cel phone was hopelessly out of range.
The next morning Jerry showed us the start of a “trocha” or footpath through the jungle that would lead after a 45 minute walk to an extraordinary isolated beach. Along the way I would do some birdwatching. The trail started off with a steep climb and after 15 minutes la nina was doubled over and feeling faint. Poor thing, I never meant to submit her to trial by fire. But after a rest she was game to continue and so we did but not for long. A little ways on a big, beautifully marked non-venomous snake wove lazily across the path and that was all she wrote! All the reasonable assurances in the world would not convince her to take another forward step. Well the idea was to get to know her and I was learning that she was pure city girl through and through. I swallowed my disappointment and we retreated. Later that evening she was more composed but stead fast never the less in her refusal to tolerate a “zorra”, a nocturnal possum with a bright red coat that came by to hang out on a sill near the ceiling of our bedroom. I shooed it along it’s way and ended the crisis. The next morning some welcome wildlife (comfortably distant) showed up in the form of a pod of humpback whales who breached and cavorted for an hour or so in the sea just beyond our beach giving us great views from our second story veranda.
I was surprised to see that Jerry had complete diving gear for up to six as well sport fishing equipment for swordfish and sail-boarding. Those weren’t in the budget this trip but maybe another time.
In the end I realized that although the the affection and physical attraction between us is there in spades, the issue of long term compatibility is more difficult. She was visibly relieved when we boarded the plane for the return flight to Cali with it’s paved city streets and cel phone towers. So…I guess we’ll see…
