Eels and water bills

 How do you pay your water bill? In the 3 years and 2 places I lived in Cedar City Utah, I never had a water bill. I mailed a check in Apple Valley, California – we bought our water from an Indian tribe that had the water rights. When I lived in Las Vegas, Nevada – I paid the bill online. Here in Samara paying the water bill is a small adventure. It’s a short walk down dirt roads. In the rainy season it’s all mud and puddles. In the dry season it’s all dusty and the sun is bearing down on me.

  The first time I paid the water bill was the first day I woke up in Costa Rica. I saw my first iguana on the road there. A few months ago I had to walk in between 4 cows that decided to settle down for an afternoon nap on the road. They weren’t asleep, but they didn’t get up. Thank goodness, they were huge. With horns.

  Today I saw 3 iguanas right as I walked up to the tiny office. This office is so ramshackle. Is that a word? It didn’t autocorrect me, I guess it’s a word. It has one window, that looks out to some rusted out piece of tin roof. I like the rusted out part, it gives a view of the hillside. Why have a window with a view of some metal? To keep out the sun, I guess.

  The office of 8 feet by 8 feet is covered in dust. The calendar on the wall says February, even though it’s March. There are 2 people crammed in there with 2 desks, they are literally back to back (or side to back…). If the man sneezes, it messes up the lady’s hair. It does not seem the least bit official to me in any way, shape, or form. Such is Costa Rica in a village.

  I came home and felt so over-heated. Ugh. But that’s why showers were invented. Now I feel like a new woman, ready to go out for lunch with some friends. This place is one beach over, and sits on a hill with a view of the beach. It’s going to be very nice. I hope I can get some good pictures. Then I have to get back and finish the logistics of what I’m packing, wearing, and giving up on. Tomorrow is my last day in Samara for a while. Yesterday and the day before I went on the same hike with 2 different friends, to play in the tide pools. And swim with the eels.

  My friend got in this beautiful looking tide pool, sandy bottom, about chest deep. She started to just float and relax. I sat at the edge and just looked into the pool, waiting for all the fish to come back out from hiding. There were so many, and such variety. Then I saw an eel! It had black and yellow bands, and flowed like an eel. I couldn’t see it’s head or tail, just how it moved like a ribbon by a log. I told my friend, and she said: I come here all the time, it’s ok. Eventually I got in too. We floated and had a chat for 2 hours. 2 days later I asked a local diver what it was, and he said a moray eel. Yikes. They bite. The one I saw on the first day was a good size. The next day in the same spot I showed my other friend where the eel was, and we saw a different eel, smaller with dots, and it was brown and black. She said: nope, not getting in there. I didn’t argue (I didn’t know yet that it was a moray).

  We went in a nearby tide pool instead, with other people in it. We were up to our waists and I saw a third eel, this one was only about as long as my hand, and fat as my thumb, the same kind as the dotted one in the other pool. It was a few feet from my toes, just right in the middle, waiting to be stepped on. Crazy. I don’t know if I’m a huge fan of snorkeling anymore… But I think I really have to go tomorrow, on my last day. Walking in a tide pool is great fun to see fish, but it’s not the same as having a mask on.