Samara Again

 We came here about 17 years ago. A small somewhat remote coast town reported by guide books (before real internet) to have great seas and a calm beach. It had one small surf school and a newly minted ATM way down from our treehouse lodge guarded by soldatos. Walking there felt like an indescribible trek in the heat.

Today it has expanded to 8 times its size though in small patches. Gringos here gringos there, gringos, gringos, gringos everywhere. The properties are being bought up fast for a piece in paradise. 

C says, "you know you are a gringo too?" "Of course I do. Do you think I would think otherwise?"

You still hear the howlers at night though they seem farther away than when we were here so long ago. 

The Tico wait staff in town grow increasingly irritated by the hordes of very young gringos taking non-stop selfies: bikinis, posing, pouting, more pouting and then their food plate.

Retired hippie gringos are here too, but interestingly more quiet and respectful than I would have expected. This older generation I believe remember what it was like before hotels: when you pitched a tent.

It's still a small town nonetheless.  You know everyone, see everyone you've seen before and run into everyone you saw earlier that day. The sun is a hammer and the ocean, a repetitive light crest sound onto the strand. The town dogs wander and a gorgeous grey horse walks lazy like down a large street. 'Where is she going? For a walk?'

We met Greg and his wife here. From Maine originally they have been all over the world. They planned to retire in Samara and buy, but Greg said after his usual two months here he begins to think more and more: "Everyone is buying here, building and I keep thinking more land gone, more howlers pushed away by more houses. More jungle gone."

One of the best dramas I have seen was "Tsunami: the Aftermath" a BBC and HBO production done some four years after the actual events - there are many great actors in it: Chiwetel Ejiofer, Toni Collette and Samrit Michaelson. Michaelson's character plays a Thai waiter whose fishing village is destroyed by the wave. Thai hotel chains plan for new development in the wake of this destructive opportunity. 

His character sits on the ruined beach saying: "This place is ours always, I see beauty, I see it but others see it too".

Tonight while the usual beach band at a restaurant played old Beatles staples and a sampling of grunge we paid our bill and got ready to leave. Then the power in town went out. 

We had to touch the walls to find the way out onto the street but there I saw the best stars I've seen since the Sault. A retired American woman was using her phone to light the street to find where to go. As I was shouting to C ahead: "Look at the stars!" the American said the same thing to her husband. People stood in amazement looking at the sky. At some bar many yards away we heard cheering then motorcycles started driving all around the town some blinking flashlights and a few with fire crackers.

I kept staring into the sky. A young Italian was standing by his girlfriend in front of a hotel bar, they both had a glass of wine looking straight up. "Excuse me." he says, " I heard you earlier talking about the moon and stars and you know about this. This sky doesn't look real, can you tell me what this is?' 

"This is what the sky really looks like, if you don't have all the lights on." 

He asked me to tell him what the star patterns were and I pointed out Orion, other constellations,  low down, but now rising and then we looked up at the Milky Way. He asked why star positions looked different in different places on earth and I talked about the rotation of the planet and our trek around the sun. 

"Thank you, now I must buy a book!".  We saluted, I went on my way, the power returned a few minutes later. 

Samara works its magic for all worried hearts.