Dominical Day-Start
I usually stay on the beach when I spend the night in Dominical. A friend has a cabina there that I use. Waking up to the sound of the waves is nice, and so is walking along the beach first thing in the morning as I head towards work, but the thing that makes this type of day-start so delightful, is the fact that I get to wake up in the time-warp that is Dominical.
Walking along the roads of Dominical at 6:30 A.M. is like stepping back to small-town USA. There is not a soul that doesn’t greet you. If you’ve been around awhile you’ll recognize people’s dogs. One gal was out on her front porch breaking into a ceramic piggy bank. She looked up and gave me a gorgeous Tica smile. I smiled back and called her a “ladrona” (feminine thief) to which she smiled more and said that it was OK since it was her sister’s.
Banana Bread Mike drives past and waves good morning, Brendan the real estate/construction guy is strolling to the beach to check out the waves with cup number one for the day: “mornin’ Ben”. Unknowns drive by and wave.
The country living Ticos have a greeting that they share that goes something like this “aOP!” - kinda rhymes with “soap” I’m not sure, but I think that it might come from the use of “adios”. When you are walking the opposite direction from someone, and as you pass you can say this, “adios”, which seems to be “hello” and “goodbye” in one. Sometimes you just hear “dios”, and sometime just “ose”, and so I theorize that maybe this “aOP!” is derivative somehow.
Anyway, I got a couple “aOP’s” this morning as well, and the whole thing just put me in a good mood. By the time I arrived at my office and said “Buenos dias” to Erick the cab driver, I had this stupid grin on my face from just the sheer joy of it all. So Erick, who can’t let an opportunity to greet and joke pass by without taking full advantage of it asked me, “por que tan cansado?”, or “why do you look so tired this AM?”. I just had to laugh. The daily ritual of starting the day is just oh-so pleasant.
We all have different reasons for moving here. As the years have gone by, I don’t know that I have been able to focus on the “why” of it all so much. But, as I walk through town first thing in the morning, I am reminded of a hope that I had in moving here. I had hoped that maybe it would slow things down a bit. I think about sitting around the wood stove at the general store in the heart of an early America town, getting caught up on the latest gossip, and neighbors that know each other and care what goes on, perhaps sometimes a little too much, but that’s the price you pay.
I’m as private as the next guy, maybe even a little more so than the average Joe, but I gotta say, I sure like knowing and being known as I walk along the road.
