A River Runs Through It

The rain began last night around 6pm. I was getting ready to walk to Casa Tucan for my Sunday night gig with Bill. Casa Tucan is an open air restaurant and bar that features homemade pizza and delicious drinks concocted by the beautiful Lucy behind the bar. It´s a 10 minute walk from the Enchanted Forest where I´m staying and I started out wearing my rain gear, carrying my umbrella, my backpack with my music and other necessary belongings on my back. There were a few people at the bar and two tables of diners enjoying pizza. About an hour into our first set of music it became apparent that the rain was intensifying and no one else would be coming out to hear us play on this night. We cut our losses and agreed to be paid in pizza and a few drinks for the hour we played. I sat down and visited with a couple from Boulder, Colorado who had walked there with no umbrella or raincoat and were waiting for a break in the rain to make their move. There was no break. The rain came down so hard and so fast the sound was deafening and I noticed the water rising on the ground all around the restaurant. I packed my pizza and backpack into a giant garbage bag, zipped up my jacket, opened my umbrella and set out into the night. The road was barely visible even with my flashlight and the water was lapping over my cowboy boots. ¨I´m just going to get wet, nothing I can do about it¨, I told myself as I waded through the rising water. When I approached the path inside the Enchanted Forest that leads to my cabina I was alarmed to find the babbling brook that runs through the property had become a raging river moving swiftly west and brimming over the top of the cement wall that retains it. Getting closer to my cabina things did not look any better. The earth surrounding my little world was completely covered in water and a rougue river was coursing through the kitchen and filling all my space with rapidly rising muddy brown water. Mud and water everywhere. I quickly dragged my suitcases out from under the bed and put everything I could up and out of the waters reach. As quickly as it rose, it receded and the water was replaced with a half an inch of slimy brown mud. I wiped my feet and legs as clean as I could, got into bed and slept. I surveyed the damage by the light of the morning, determined I could no longer stay there and started packing. I figured it was a pretty strong sign telling me to do just that. Brenda came to see how I was doing, ¨Ive been better¨ I said. She told me she had a friend who was willing to take me in and that she would take care of paying her for the rest of my months stay when she had the money. I had paid through July, but Brenda had spent it. I said I´d like to talk to her friend, check out the place and make sure everything was okay. We walked the short distance to what was soon to be my new Nosara home. Brenda´s friend is from Thailand, but came here from California. She sat us down and we talked about my situation, she showed me around the property and offered me a place to stay and a reasonable rate if I should choose to stay there in August. I am now high off of the ground in the top of a huge rancho with smooth wooden floors and windows opening to the tree tops. It´s clean and dry and I also have a small kitchen and bathroom on the lower floor, a wrap around porch and small pool await me. The property is called Dharma Garden and the owner and my new friend is named Wantana, she tells me it´s Sanskrit and means Namaste. Through more tears I told her that she was an angel. ¨There are angels here¨ she said. ¨Sometimes I can smell them¨.