Oct
4 2013
Greetings,
So, last night we went into town to
try to find a jazz club we’d heard about. Sharon was here with us and she has
been wanting to get out to a jazz club for a while now, so off we went. The
club we were headed for is in Casco Viejo. We had the cab drop us off at the
national theater just a couple of blocks away from where the club was supposed
to be. The front door of the theater was open and so we stopped to look inside
(Johne and Sharon had gone to the ballet there while I was gone and they wanted
me to see it) and to find out what was happening there that night. They were
setting up the stage for an orchestra so on the way back out we asked the man
at the door what time it would start and where to get tickets. None of us
understand much Spanish, but we got that the show was supposed to start at 8:00
and we thought he might be telling us that it was free. It was before 6:00 at that
point and we still wanted to find the jazz club and we needed to get some
dinner. We walked past where we thought the club was supposed to be but didn’t
see it. At a restaurant another block down the street we “donde esta”ed and
they sent us back where we’d just been. There was a coffee shop right about
where we thought the club should be so we went in there to “donde esta” again. As
it turned out the club was right next door but closed for three weeks for a
remodel. So we figured we were supposed to be going to the theater. We had a
wonderful dinner at a lovely restaurant right across the plaza from the theater
and had the waiter confirm that the show was free and didn’t require we have
tickets. When we went into the theater at 8:00 we found out that it was the
Central American Youth Orchestra that would be playing, a group made up of
teenagers from all over Central America. We were excited until we sat though
one speaker after another talking about what a great program it was, how
important it was culturally and where else the kids would be traveling (which
would have been boring even in English). At about 8:45 we were going to give up.
We left our not-very-good seats on the side of the third balcony and headed
down to the lobby. The man we’d talk to at the door earlier was there with
programs and said they were finishing with the speeches and it sounded like
they were wrapping it up, so we ducked in to the side of the orchestra seating
and found much better seats than we’d had before. They started with Ride of the
Valkyrie which was awesome. They did a wonderful job and I was so glad we’d
stayed. Next they played “Pictures at an Exhibition”, which is a difficult and
complex piece and they did a very good job of it. However, in my always humble opinion, it was an unfortunate choice
of pieces because it’s unpleasant, discordant, disjointed and is way
too long. It was also very cold in the theater, and getting late, so we left at
intermission. I am always amazed how these opportunities seem to just appear
before us. Even cold, long and discordant I’m glad we had the experience of
hearing these very talented young musicians play.
In
other news: Once again plans seem to be changing aboard Second Star. Nothing is
for sure yet, but Johne just got a big welding job building a hard top on a big
Catamaran. It will keep us here a bit longer and at this point we’re debating
if we’re going to Ecuador at all. The cards don’t seem to want to stack in that
direction. We’ll see how this next little bit plays out. Whichever way we go,
I’m sure it will be good…
Oct
12 2013
At
this point the aluminum is ordered for the hard top job. We are now planning to
head back through the Canal at the end of Oct when Johnes visa expires and then
head on to Cartagena Colombia. We’ve made a good contact in Colombia and we
think we’ll be able to get a lot done there, as well as seeing new territory.
The
next couple of weeks will be a hard press to get this job done and be ready to
go, but I’m looking forward to moving on and being someplace new and different
again…
