DOGS MISSING THE KIDS

Chaotic day. The Finca is full. All bungalows, cabañas and Dorms are occupied; everyone’s running around me, they’re all stressed out, sweat pouring down their foreheads; everyone’s shouting at everyone else. Phones are ringing nonstop.

I just see people, lots of. Some are waiting to be checked in but we have no rooms left. We even had to accommodate two guests in Carlos’ house. He’s not here anyway. He’s taken his kids to some short holiday around Guatemala, and then he’ll return to Finca whilst his kids fly out to Nebraska for the next school term.  

They’ve left two dogs behind. Rossul and Dino. Father and offspring. The dogs and I are the only ones that ain’t running around or stressing out. I reckon they already miss the kids. It will be a few months until Carlos’ sons return here.

The dogs and I, are the only ones that ain’t running around or stressing out. I reckon they already miss the kids. It will be a few months until Carlos’ sons return here. More shouting, more phones, more running, more commotion.

In the midst of this chaos, I’m tranquil, I’m keeping my cool. My secret? I write. I start writing when everyone’s going nuts, when everyone is shouting and when everyone’s think they have a life or death situation.

But this pandemonium ain’t normal. What happened? Is it to do with the moon cycles? Last night it was full moon so that could have messed out everyone’s hormones.

It messed ours two nights ago. That night, after dinner, Gaby asked me if I wanted to go on a kayak to the canyon. I was feeling a bit tired “Hmmm, not sure, the rain will come soon so it will be impossible to paddle our way back!”

She told me that everyone else’s was going so 30 minutes after there are 6 kayaks floating on the water. Gaby, Oria, Martin, Chris and myself, each on a single Kayak and two Catalan guests on the last one. Earlier on, I had convinced them to join us. I thought, “if it’s going to be sh!t at least I’ll have some company!”

It was nearly full moon, the night visibility was perfect. As the slow current was taking us towards the canyon, no effort was needed on our part. We only needed to use the paddle every so often, in order to keep the kayak on a straight line.

The tranquil river, the cool night, the absolute silence, the starry sky, all joined forces, making our way to the canyon just perfect. I was happy that I was in a kayak. Right at the front of the formation was Chris, quickly followed by Martin, me and the Catalan girls, and way behind us were Gaby and Oria. We learned later that they returned to the Finca after just a short while in the river. They reckon they got pulled by a water creature, a manatee perhaps.

When the rest of us, the front, got to the canyon, we stopped and just lied back in our kayaks to appreciate the amazing white cliff on one side and the dense forest on the opposite.

Soon the thundering and lightning warned us that it was time to get back. We started paddling towards the Finca but, as we were going up river, we had to paddle like crazy just to move up a few inches.

With the imminent storm on our tails, we pressed on as fast as we could. Martin was lagging way behind so Chris swopped kayaks with him. Panic started to get over the girls and Martin. The rain got to us, the dark clouds covered the skies and the moonlight was no longer our ally.

Before all this, I felt a calm never felt before. As if I’d been in a similar situation lots of times before. I shouted at everyone to get their kayaks as close to the shore as possible. Martin was way ahead of us so I shouted at him to keep closer to us.

“Together we have a better chance to get through this alive” – the words echoed in my head.

By now, we were soaking wet and we were unable to see anything. But we continued. Chris panicked and informed me that he was unable to proceed any further. He said: “Paulo, I’m staying here under this tree. Go get help.” I tried convincing him to carry on with us but he was exhausted. Then he just went towards the middle of the river and disappeared into the heavy rain. We continued shouting his name but no reply.

We had flashlights so that gave us some hope. Then the Catalan girls, unable to control their kayak, started shouting my name. I kept shouting “Come to the shore, come to shore!” as loud as possible. Martin stopped and asked me to pull his harm, he had a cramp.

We kept on moving slowly but surely. We saw a flashlight on the other side of the river. We hoped that was Chris. The Catalan girls asked me if we had to paddle for much longer. I wasn’t that familiar with this part of the river thus I asked Martin. His answer was “30 minutes”. I knew that to be untrue but I wasn’t going to tell the opposite.

Suddenly, we heard the motor of a boat nearing us followed by a light beam pointing at us. We turned our flashlights on, waved our harms and shouted “We’re were!” I was Gaby, Oria and Chris, that came to our rescue. He hopped on the boat and headed home.

We were saved. Finally.

I look at the dogs again. I whistle. They don’t don’t look up or even blink their eye lids. They definitely miss the kids.

Ciao 4 now

~ Paulo ~