A Beautiful Life? Part 1

It is a typical Tuesday, here at the bar "La Cascada" at Pelican Eyes in San Juan del Sur. As I sip a Nica Libre (Flor di Cana rum, coke and a lime), Juan Carlos is opening a huge jar of cherries with an outsized knife. A "Bahama Mamma (virgin)" is in the works. Natalie and I quip that there are no virgin mammas in the Bahamas for damn sure. The joke goes over his head....but Durley understands and shares in our giggles.

A languid humidity settles over us all, the sun beats mercilessly, the AM clouds chased away on the brisk east wind. The sea sparkles. It is still the dry season and the surrounding hills are brown and tinder dry. A few sprinkles of green belie the fact that in fact this has been a rainy dry season.

Almost 3PM, all I have done is eat, go to the post office, swim, eat, drink and now sit at the bar and drink and play on the computer. It is "A Beautiful Life" as the eponymous song on the muzak reminds me.

Or is it?

Yet below.... corruption, poverty, lack of infrastructure, violence, is rampant. Just ask April, whose story I will tell soon. She is getting out of here as fast as she can....she has the resources to do so. That was not the plan when she came to this "paradise", now for her and her family a living hell.

A story I may be sorry for telling. It is not popular. It disturbs the money class here. But it is worth the risk... stay tuned.