When we are out and about we often see things that we call “Island Scenes,” you know, scenes that you would never see if you didn’t live on a tropical island. Palm trees, especially coconut palms, to me are one of the quintessentially tropical markers. And as we were walking down a beach one day we came upon two men who were harvesting coconuts from tall 50 foot swaying palm trees. One of them climbed up using his spikes and the other one caught the heavy bundle of coconuts that descended from a rope.
Hola from on high!
These coconuts are mainly used for their coconut water, but of course can be used for any number of preparations from coconut oil, toasted coconut, coconut milk, even piña coladas! This is a great service for the beaches because a coconut that falls from that height could easily kill an unwitting person below. Win/win! Here’s a video of them at their work:
We hung out for a while nearby with a friend and enjoyed the sunset. I tried my monkey best to climb a coconut palm, but without the spikes I couldn’t get too far 🙂
My coconut tree climb is not nearly as impressive!
Horse riding and a pack of dogs on the beach
Classic sunset shot
We also watched another traditional method of living off the land and water when we saw a man setting up the fishing net at the edge of the sea as the tiny ripples lapped softly against the sand. I’m not exactly sure what he was fishing for, perhaps sardines as we often see them when we enter the water. This is the kind of economic activity that has been going on for hundreds of years and that you probably won’t hear much about on the news or through the government: a direct connection to nature and your livelihood.
Boat at sunset
A ceiling fan and a clock on a bamboo pole. Is this where island time came from? haha
One thing that living here has already taught us is the lesson of living in and appreciating the present moment. Most of the time we are planners and always thinking about the next project even before the current one is finished (me especially). But here we have had to slow down (a bit) because you just can’t expect things to always be consistent or constant. And maybe any move or big change would do this, but because we are usually so stable with routines and expectations from our previous life in Colorado it has been a dramatic shift for us.
For instance, one minute we are working with the electric drill in nice cloud cover, and the next there is a huge downpour! Then because of the sudden rain, the electricity goes out and we have to change our plans. Well, how about a siesta instead? Go with the flow as they say.
Or we start getting used to the free wifi signal we could pick up on the roof of our cabana and the next day it is just completely gone.
Free rooftop internet
And so we go to a coffee shop only for the internet to go down there and so we go to a fast food place with wifi and it just simply won’t connect. OK, universe, we get it. We are going down to the beach instead.
Me swimming or something like it -lol
And then three days later, the rooftop internet is back. No sense in stressing about it.
Or the city has run out of trashcans (zafacones), check back in two weeks, they say. So we haul our trash to a nearby dumpster we just happened to find. Whatever works.
Or the postman says we can’t do general shipping forever so we need to get a box, but the person who sets up new accounts isn’t in, so come back tomorrow at 8:30am, and so we do, but that person didn’t come in today either, so come back tomorrow. Ok, manana. No hay problema.
Or the car lot does not have any small used trucks, so the salesman offers to sell his own personal truck to us and personally drive it to our house 30 minutes away. How great is that?! Ok…aproveche la oportunidad. Then the car buying process takes a whole day. Why not? We are on island time right?
Checking out the truck
Or you talk about getting a little kitchen island to increase counter space and you just happen to see one in the store! We got it, universe, we are not going to think about it. Act today! Don’t delay!
Or we just start dinking around the yard removing vines because at that moment it seems like the thing to do and suddenly it is 2 hours later. Time flies.
Fruit trees just covered in vines
It is a very freeing feeling to live in the present and interesting to realize we normally…didn’t! (Or we were too much in our heads to realize we were.) We were so busy planning out the future or expecting our routine of everything exactly the way it was the day before running at high efficiency and productivity that we could easily forget that we, all of us, are living RIGHT NOW..in this present moment. That whatever we are doing, right now, is exactly where we should be. And if there is a block in doing something, then do something else or figure a way around it. This sparks creativity and ingenuity.
It can be somewhat frustrating to live in the ever fresh present when things are all new around you, but only if you go into anything with any preconceived notions or expectations. If you go into it with an open mind, often we have been pleasantly surprised and always feeling alive, living right now. Future planning is still important so you know where you are going and reflections on the past help to hone your skills and avoid making too many mistakes, but life happens in the NOW.
It definitely helps not having a job or anyone but ourselves to report to. If we felt rushed or impatient with somewhere to be, we would have a lot harder time adjusting. But we have already become so immersed in this time shift that we have forgotten what day it is. Saturday feels like Tuesday. There is no difference except when the sun goes down. Our rental car was due on October 4th, but I still thought it was the 2nd! So we were a little late bringing it back. Oh well. We are on island time, right? And I think I like it!
