We make the perhaps best decision of the month and buy rainboots - a purchase that immediately pays off in a rather unpredictable way when we meet a guy in the hardware store who tells us about his own, very similar project in the neighbouring town of Guayabitos. Coincidentally or not, he has some self-taught experience building with adobe and is interested to hear more about our project. Thanks Mexico! I guess we'll be seeing more of this guy next season.
We're now in the final stage of our yoga platform project. Having applied the Guanacaste boards to the base to make a small bodega for storing our tools and semi-valuables, we now move on to the infinitely more satisfying part of decking this diamond shaped structure with our best boards. We select each board individually based on colour, shape and texture and throw on one more coat of linseed oil before proudly drilling them into the chiche beams below.
We then take the wise advice of our 17 year old friend and cover each screw with an individually manufactured plug drilled out of the same guanacaste wood to elegantly hide the 350 screws keeping this thing together. Admittedly its a ton of extra work, not least because the air's humidity (over 90%!) has expanded into the hundreds of wooden plugs we made prematurely, forcing us to start over with this work. Ufff!! It's gonna be worth it, right?
On the 18th of August we find out the answer to this question as we apply the very last of a total 44 guanacaste boards and are rewarded with the most monumentous view over magical Monteón from our very own, new yoga platform! Ironically enough, we don't have any time left before our flight to practice any yoga, although we are in dire need of stretching out our overworked and hunched up bodies. So we find the next best solution in chiropractic care and a deep tissue massage which we consider a fair payment for the job.
Meanwhile, a brief email informs us that one of our many flights has been cancelled, reminding us of the pandemic that is keeping the world out there so occupied (or unoccupied for that matter). But, as it turns out, this just works in our favour and gives us a perfect reason to extend our already expired visa.
We spend our very last days in Monteón trying to prepare the property for the rest of the rainy season and sacrifice a few trees which we strategically place to stabilize the soil from landslides and direct the rainwater around our yoga platform. Each day, we're visited by a little colibri who comes by to polinate an evergrowing papaya tree with astonishing German punctuality.
And that's pretty much all we have time for this season at El Pajarito. It's been a journey, to say the least! On the 28th of August we scrape together our very last energy to embark on our trip back to Europe via Mexico City, New York, Lisbon and finally - quarantine station Rome. Frankly, it is also the very last day possible for our departure. After having literally pushed and towed our Ranger over the hill to be parked safely in our friend's back yard for the next few months, we set off from our property on foot and are nearly flushed away by the river which has now risen to knee-high level, confirming that it is high time to go home.
In Rome, we pretty much sleep through the first week of our quarantine. Here we are, at last, enjoying the comfortable shelter that only a childhood home can offer. And with all our gadgets lavishly feeding on electrical plugs in walls, we finally take the much needed time to recharge our own batteries.
