Tuesday, January 25, 2005

travel blog - tres medicos con uno tigrillo

at finca ixobel
on the last night there
decided to go to the bar by the pond
now,
normally i don´t do bars
but after a couple nights of supper
and playing with the candles and flames
trading the odd witticism with the staff
one of the workers-bartenders
an american by the name of sam
mentioned something about having a fire stick
so i thought i´d head down to see that
the bar was open and had spanish music playing
juan-carlos,
another worker-bartender tho local, not american
was there with sam mixing drinks
and hitting on the girls
had a brief talk about whistles and blowing
and how everything was like scuba
with mikayla and erin
watched j.c.´s attempt to get sarah to drink
after he realized he was hitting on her daughter
and then went to join sarah by the bonfire outside
there were 3 people in the shadows of the flame-lit darkness
speaking in spanish
and having a merry old time
they looked pretty rough in the dark and the gloom
2 men and a woman
they started to talk to sarah after a while
and once more
sarah´s powers of communion
brought us in with a bunch of locals
this time guatemalan rather than honduran
i moved closer
and found out
that these 3 people
lupe, diego and andrea
turned out to be med students
medicos estudiantes
who were taking a vacation
before their final year
(the most difficult year)
of med school
talk wandered between spanish and english
about the places they´d been
and some of the things we should go and see
and...
about a tigrillo
- their tigrillo
so first of all,
what the heck is a tigrillo?
(pronounced ¨tee-GREE-yo¨)
well,
it´s a small tiger
or a small tiger-like cat
or a wild cat
or something like that
and so here is the story of conchita the baby tigrillo
our three medicos estudiantes
were exploring the countryside
when they stopped at a farmhouse
out in the wild
that was equipped with solar panels and satellite dishes
they stopped to take photos and stare in awe
at all the technology
when a woman stuck her head out and yelled,
¨HEY! You wanna buy a tiger?¨
now apparently,
this isn´t an every day occurance in their lives either
(it´s never happened to me or anyone i know)
and so they looked at each other and shrugged
they ended up buying this tigrillo for $12USD
they were some where near the town of los conches
so this tigrillo came to be named ¨conchita¨
now,
the question that was burning in my mind was
¨what exactly does one do with a baby tiger?¨
i mean,
why the heck would you buy a baby tiger?
when i asked this,
they promptly replied that they knew a vet
and were going to donate conchita to a zoo in guatemala city
where they were from
the reason for this, rather than letting the tigrillo go
was because it was a baby
and they didn´t want it ending up as a caged animal in some freak show
sarah asked if they knew how to care for a baby tiger
(which was my next question too)
and they all said no
they´d tried to feed the tigrillo but she wouldn´t drink milk or anything
so sarah suggested they use a syringe or a piece of cloth dabbed in milk
(she´s smart eh?)
now the interesting part of their journey to finca ixobel
was that they had to cross the same agricultural crossing that we did
now,
picture this
lupe stands about 5 feet tall
with sandy dark brown hair
has a full beard and moustache
and he has conchita the tigrillo in his jacket
because exotic animals are also part of the agricultural ban
(i personally think a tiger is very different from a fruit or vegetable
but that´s just me)
he´s just a little nervous
about the men with AK-47s standing about
with their fingers by the triggers
(there were a lot of them too)
the fruit smugglers must be something fierce in guatemala

diego at 6 feet
wavy black hair
and a gentle smile on his face
when questioned by the guards if he has any forbidden fruit
whips out 3 apples
(we ALL know that apples are forbidden fruit)
and says gleefully,
¨Yah, i´ve got these three apples here!¨
and proceeds to chomp down on them
now you´re not allowed to bring fruit across the border
but you can eat it if you want before you cross
so diego goes on
to eat all three apples
and shoots the breeze with the guards
talking about tasty apples, the weather
and all those other meaningful things in life
while lupe is literally sweating bulletings
hoping he won´t get shot
as he recalled,
he was praying in his mind to conchita
¨Please little tiger, don´t make a noise!
Please don´t move, please don´t make a noise!!¨
i guess it seemed like an eternity
to try to look natural with a baby tigrillo hidden in his jacket
while diego chomped down on those apples
andrea´s part in all this?
i think she was trying not to laugh at lupe´s expressions
one thing is for sure
we all sure laughed a lot around that campfire that night!
one thing to clarify,
no one knew if conchita is female
so why call the tigrillo ¨her¨ and ¨conchita¨?
well obviously because conchita was
a nicer sounding name than conchito
mystery solved...

i´ll go on to say
that we were invited to visit them in their treehouse the next day
and see the baby tigrillo
which we did
i´ll post the photos when i get back to canada
so you can all appreciate
how menacing wild animals can be

one other magical moment that night
that really has nothing to do with the tigrillo
but has everything to do with our tres amigos
involved andrea and juan-carlos
andrea kept wanting to dance
but lupe and diego wouldn´t go
the told me after she went off to find j.c.
(i call juan-carlos j.c. for short)
that they were really bad dancers
and that they only way they would ever dance
was if they had too much to drink
anyways,
sitting by the bonfire
looking back at the bar
andrea and j.c. both in white
ended up being silhouetted by the lights coming from the bar
as they salsa´d
and good lord in heaven
i have never seen anything as beautiful as that
it was like something out of a movie
the movements were amazing and alive
and so beautiful
i found myself staring and holding my breath
the silhouetting effect made it all seem even more artistic and magical
later on,
the guys joined her up there
and danced as well
i guess they´d finally drank enough =P
lupe was a fireball on the floor
and i thought he was quite good
tho at 5 feet tall,
he was quite a bit shorter than andrea
and made up for the difference
with some really snazzy moves and antics
that you had to see to believe
diego managed to convince me to let andrea teach me some salsa
and you know,
kirby who does not dance
had a heck of a good time
and i must say,
i was totally inspired to learn to salsa
something about the movement and the music
and seeing two people move like beings from the stars
or something
andrea looked like a goddess moving across that floor
flashes of white cloth flickering in and out of dark shadow
moving so in tune in with the music
that she WAS the music
oh well,
one day when fate wills it...
maybe i´ll return
all i know is
that when she tried to teach me
i couldn´t even hear the music...
i was concentrating too hard
on not stepping on her feet
=P

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