Philber’s comment on my “This is the Life Style” post reminded me of one of my favorite anecdotes of last year:
While traveling last summer I met a 50-something Italian who was living in Central America. He’d offered to take me to a beautiful, remote beach — one I’d never find without a local’s help — and I immediately said “Yes!” The next morning we were in his truck riding through a jungle crawling with howler monkeys on the way to the Pacific coast.
“Trrrroy,” he said, all pensive and Italian, “How old are you?”
“Treinta y seis,” I replied. (Cuando en Roma…)
“Twenty-six?” (Clearly my Spanish pronunciation could use some buffing…)
“No. Treinta. Thirty-six.”
“Oh. Good. Because, you know, when you are 26 you don’t know what you say ‘yes’ to.”
I nodded. “Yeah, it wasn’t until I turned 30 that I felt like I could finally say, ‘Fuck you’ and actually mean it.”
This is the beach, btw. One of the few white sand beaches in that country. What you don’t see — and not because my camera’s mostly facing the wrong way — is that there are NO buildings, people … nothing on that beach but sea-drift. Totally worth the trip.
