October 30, 2006, was a perfect day. It was the day before I was to leave Costa Rica. I began the day by going horseback riding in the rain forest on a mountain overlooking the Pacific Ocean. It was rainy season, so the clouds were white and fluffy, full of moisture. It took my breath away to see the deep blue of the sky touching the beautiful turquoise of the sea.
The wonderful thing about riding through the forest on horseback is that wildlife doesn’t run away when you approach. If you ride in silence, you will see all sorts of forest life. We saw howler monkeys, sloths, toucans, and snake—all minding their own business as we minded ours.
After the ride, I went to the front desk in my hotel and asked Edwardo if there was any way I could go on the water at sunset that evening. I wanted to see the islands that were set off the coast of Playa Hermosa (which translates to “beautiful beach”). Edwardo informed me that, since this was rainy season, companies who took people on boat rides didn’t go on the water this time of year unless there were at least four people in the party. I told them, “I don’t want dinner; I don’t want to scuba dive. I just want to be on the water at sunset among those beautiful islands. Isn’t there someone who could just take me out there?”
Edwardo said to his co-worker, “Freddie?” I said, “Sure, Freddie!” not even knowing who Freddie was. He called Freddie who agreed to the trip for $40US. Edwardo then turned to me and told me to wait by the yellow restaurant on the beach. I said “Just stand there? How will I know Freddie? How will he know me?” Edwardo assured me that this was not a problem.
At 4:00 I stood by the yellow restaurant on the beach. The sun was very low in the sky; the beach was beautiful this time of day. There were still a great many people out walking, enjoying the end of the day. The bay was full of boats anchored there for the night: sail boats, fishing boats, big boats, small boats.
The restaurant owner saw me standing there and came out to talk to me. He was about my age and was quite flirtatious. I asked him if he knew Freddie and told him Freddie was going to take me for a sunset boat ride. The owner said that Freddie would be here shortly.
Just then I saw movement in the bay. A very small fishing boat was making its way among the other anchored boats to shore. As it made landfall, a tall, thin, beautiful young man stepped out and pulled the boat securely onto the beach. This was Freddie.
Freddie was about 20 years old, six feet tall, 120 pounds, brown skinned, wearing only beach pants. At first I thought his hair was in dreads, but when I got closer, I realized that his hair was just very, very curly and every color of gold you could imagine. The setting sun enhanced the colors so that his hair appeared as a halo around his head.
Freddie asked me (in Spanish) to get in the boat (he didn’t speak English; I don’t speak Spanish), and we took off. We had gone a good ways from shore--Freddie was telling me the names of the islands--when all of a sudden the boat came to an abrupt stop. The engine sounded like it fell in the ocean. I yelled, “What happened?” and began calculating in my head how long it would take to swim the nearest shore. Freddie pointed and said “Mahi Mahi!” At that moment, a beautiful fish jumped out of the water. It had gold running from head to tail. Around the gold was a thin line of turquoise. The rays of the setting sun caught the fish at the apex of its jump and the fish looked like it was on fire. I was stunned by its beauty.
Freddie told me that he had dropped a line off the back of the boat; he was, after all, a fisherman. He had rigged the boat so that if the line caught a fish, the engine would stop. Then he informed me, using a hand-over-hand motion that I was to help him “reel” the fish in. Freddie didn’t use a conventional reel; he pulled the fish in with his bare hands and then hooked them when they got close to the boat. I began pulling on the line with Freddie, hand-over-hand. Now and then, the fish would take off and pull the line, burning our hands. Eventually, we got the fish close enough for Freddie to hook it.
When he brought it into the boat, he proudly held the fish by his side, looked at me, and said “Picture.” My camera had died that morning in the rain forest. I had to tell Freddie that I didn’t have my camera. He shrugged his shoulders and put the fish in a holding bin on the boat.
Once again, we took off.
The sunset was getting more beautiful by the minute. We passed schools of fish feeding near the surface. We saw pelicans dive bombing and feeding on the fish. The temperature was in the 70s; the wind in my face was delicious. We rode for quite a while this way. We saw many, many islands that were not visible from the shore. As we navigated toward the setting sun, I thought to myself, “This is perfect! I love my life and how I came to be here. The only thing that would make it more perfect is if a dolphin were to appear.”
Just as I had this thought, Freddie pointed and yelled, “Dolphin!!!” Out of the water came such a beautiful, magnificent creature, it took my breath away. Thrill bumps covered my body with this instant manifestation of my expressed wanting. I was in absolute awe.
After a bit, I told Freddie that I was finished sightseeing, and he headed back to shore at breakneck speed. It was a glorious ride.
The restaurant owner met us as Freddie was pulling the boat onto the beach. He asked me how I enjoyed the tour. I told him it was magnificent. Then he turned to Freddie and they spoke in Spanish for a minute. When the restaurant owner turned back to me, he was holding the fish Freddie had caught. He said, “This is your dinner. For $5US I will cook this for you and serve it with rice and beans and fruit and a glass of wine.” I said “Sold!”
As the sun set on Playa Hermosa, I was sitting on the beach eating my Mahi Mahi and thinking, “What an amazingly perfect day this has been!”
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