John and I live in Barrio La Talanguera, San Juan del Sur, and we love to walk. Our typical morning hike is up the hill to the Christ statue and back down again. We like to climb up the back side and practically every day we see something new.
Harold, though, is a common face on our morning hike and he typically greets us with a huge smile and a wave as he lifts up the gate. He’s one of the guards at the back entrance into the Pacific Marlin neighborhood, which we pass on our way up the hill. He’s worked there for the past three years. The guards work 24-hour shifts. He commutes from a town north of San Jorge, maybe 45 minutes away. Before this, he was a security guard at Pali, a WalMart-owned small grocery store towards the outskirts of town.
Yesterday, Harold was in a visiting mood so we stopped and chatted.
We talked about family and namesakes. Harold has a 13 yo daughter named after her grandmother and great-grandmother, and an 8 yo son named after his grandfather and great-grandfather. Our son is named after his two grandfathers: Clifford (John’s Dad), Antonio (My Dad), Field.
Harold has a 94 yo great grandmother who lives with his uncle. She is going blind and lost four fingers in an accident, but is otherwise going strong. I have a 90 yo father who has had bypass surgery and is doing well.
While we chatted we were interrupted by Evinor who was looking for his neighbor’s stray horses. They’ve been missing from near Marsella and apparently, he said, they sometimes head this way.
“Nope, we haven’t seen any stray horses. Not today anyway.”
And off he and his horse and his two dogs went, continuing their search after offering that if we ever want to horseback ride we should contact him. But it looks like he needs to find some more horses first…
