By the Time It Gets Dark

Sunday was the Schnaibles' last meeting here, so both congregations went to Barrigona afterward for one last farewell. Laura Rangel made empanadas for all, and they were quite delicious indeed.

The "volleyball" game. Bill was the only one who really cared about how the game is actually played, but they all seemed to have fun.

Trees on the beach.

Barrigona's sunsets are picture-perfect every time.

Ella loves Bill.

Almost gone...

The surfers started coming back in after sunset.

Santos is full of brotherly love for Jesse.

Ella's current fascination is with feeding people and asking "Why?" Here she's sharing her empanada with Keysha. There was a bit of red tide at Barrigona that day, and after dark bioluminescent plankton glowed pale blue in the break every time the waves crashed. Watching the electric glow ripple down the beach made us all appreciate anew how marvelous Jehovah's creation really is, and how he made the earth to appeal to human senses.

The next day was designated town day, so we paid our landlord to take us all into town in his truck.

It was a bumpy, dusty, "this-feels-so-local" ride.

First stop: Beers and bocas at Pablito's.

After some Trits, we headed down to take the beach into town. On the way, we found some horses.

These blackbirds are everywhere. They always precede their calls with a sound like a broken tape recorder.

Walking toward Sámara.

Lou trying to shake some coconuts loose.

Laurita leaving her mark.

Some local guys were harvesting cocunuts.

He reached the top in a matter of seconds and started tossing coconuts down to his friends.

These horses have a very 贅沢 life.

The same horses we found walking down to the beach. It was just an all-around good day to go to the beach, I guess.

Local surf school's gym.

Wooo Brittany!

The ride back from town. We were going to walk, but Brittany had gotten dehydrated and felt sick so we talked a taxi driver into taking all seven of us back to Esterones in his old Corolla. We were all glad it wasn't a very far drive.

By the Time It Gets Dark is a song by Sandy Denny (covered by Yo La Tengo)