travel blog - ah livingston!

upon arrival in livingston
we were assaulted by a shrieking band of braid ladies
i have got to say
they were almost scary
mostly because
i couldn´t figure out what they were saying
after i did,
i asked them if they could braid my hair too
which they couldn´t see
as i was wearing a hat
but when i took my hat off
they ignored me like i wasn´t even there
and returned to badgering all the long-haired peops i was travelling with again

now the cool thing about travelling
with people like sarah
who have been to the places we were going
is that they´ve tried all the bad stuff and good stuff
so we got stuck with only the good stuff
life could be worse...
a short walk over to la casa rosada
found us in these beautiful quaint little cabin like rooms
lots of thatch weaving and wood
which looks really cool
and right on the sea
a nice lil courtyard
and tiled verandas
completed this place
la casa rosada is run by a lovely couple
sandra from belgium
and javier from livingston
oh yeah,
and the food was amazing!
we had some snacks,
walked around town a little
after booking supper for ourselves at the casa
and i learned
that checkers has a heck of a lot more strategy
than i ever thought possible
and damn, but it´s fun
i played a few rounds with erin
and really got into it!
the next couple of days there
we spent walking around town
getting hounded by braid ladies and tour guides
walking through the latin part of town
as well as the black-garifuna parts
eating some of the local food
where we could finally eat the veggies!
yay!
and having an amazing lunch
in a maria´s backyard off the beach
that sarah had found while walking around with natti
of the international garifuna band
(who was trying to sell her a cd)
but the lunch!
we played maybe a dozen hands of link the dragon
and an hour and a half later
the food came out
we thought maybe they had to catch the chickens
that were running around
before they cooked it
i had a bowl of soup with tons of stuff
including a freshly fried whole fish in it
that was tasty beyond belief
the wait was worth it
and the coolest thing was
we really weren´t in a rush to go any where
so playing cards there
with dancing children
(the 3 year olds are already better than i´ll ever be)
and chickens and dogs and cats and pigs
scurrying and running and slinking and snorting about
and then sun slowly sinking into the mid after noon
it was a really cool experience

i also had a chance
to do some listening hands

after i found out from javier
that his wife had an intermittent taichi teacher
who would come visit from guatemala city
i asked her if she was interested in trying a taichi like exercise
and she said yes

i´d just come back from a walk
and was feeling a bit under the weather
from the 2 rainy days before
(unfortunately the nights in livingston were wet and cool too)
so the exercise was invigorating
by the end of the two days we were there
anita was teaching javier and sandra the ba gua form
and we´d talked about a bunch of taichi things
good fun!
i also had my fastest bank experience
and my first ceviche as well

we also had an insight
into local culture and the medical health care of the town
we´d walked past a man who looked drunk or drugged
on a bridge
upon backtracking and returning
the man was crumpled on the ground
with a pool of blood oozing out around his head
at least it looked like blood
it also kind of looked like thick alcohol
he wasn´t moving
i slowed in my walking
but when i noticed nobody else paying attention to him
i kept on walking
looking back a few times
we walked up to a group of locals
who were standing in front of a restaurant
and seemed to be aware of the situation
and sarah found out
that they had called the ¨hospital¨ or something like that
(i hadn´t seen any hospital in town so far
and we´d walked a fair bit in the town by then)
we kept walking
when mikayla who was following a ways behind
came up to the situation
and declared that he was seriously bleeding
we approached the restaurant people again
but i had no clue what anyone was saying
only that ¨someone¨ was coming
a crowd of people started to gather
a large number of them foreigners
the locals didn´t seem to care at all
and none of us really knew what else to do
one of the foreigners shook him on the arm
to which he twitched and started moaning and grumbling
which caused the girl to jump back
and everyone just settled into an uncomfortable silence
then this garifuna man came up to us
smiling and talking
and said that such things are a result
of people who have no control of alcohol consumption
drunks...
this was natti
a man with a big smile
and lots of words
that we weren´t quite sure if we should believe
and whom i really didn´t want to talk to
even if his english was good
oh well,
first impressions and whatnot i guess
anyways
finally
the police showed up
a large truck
with 2 police in the front
and 3 in the bed
along with some cans of stuff
a big tire
and old newspapers
they jumped out of the truck
shifted the tire and cans around
spread out some of the old newspaper
and hoisted the dead weight into the truck
the man was struggling feebly
and when they lifted him
one person on each arm and leg
the wound on his head and face became evident
it looked like he had fallen struck his head on the bridge post
which was made out of stone or concrete
there was a lot of blood
no gloves
and a lot of greasy dirty newspaper
they managed to sort of get half of him into bed of the truck
but he slithered off on the tailgate
and they had to get under him and hoist him in
then they hopped back in
and drove off in a cloud of dust

so that was livingston for me
interesting little town
tho the part i enjoyed the most
was the taichi and checkers
=)