Trip: Koliber, June 30, 2015

Stuck Living Life

There are a few things that you have to be careful about when flying a small plane; one of those things is a thunderstorm. After looking at the weather radar, we decided we would not be flying through the storms. The Southern most purple point is where we would be flying and the Northern most purple point is where we are. 

So, instead we moved from Brownsville to Padre Island, if we're going to stay put we might as well be by the beach.  

As we were leaving the hotel in Brownsville, we asked the receptionist for a recommendation of where to eat, Ricardo heard her say "Thirty Out" but after looking at the map of restaurants on my phone, I realized what he really heard was "Dirty Al's" - Ha! Sometimes english is tricky. So, anyway, we went to this place, and I'll spare you the details, but the place was highly overrated. 

We have been running into some really interesting people on this trip, to be expected right? I always seem to meet interesting characters while traveling. Here are some of the people so far:

Trung: The Vietnamese refugee flight instructor. Beautiful soul, incredibly smart, theoretical. Believes in helping humanity, working toward a better world. Wow, inspirational! *See first entry for more info ;)

Eli: (false name to protect privacy)This was our driver from the hotel. We stepped in the car and asked "Can you take us to Jason's Deli?" He basically had no reaction at all. So Ricardo had to ask "You don't know where that is?"

and he continued to stare at us. We took that as a no. "Alright, we will give you directions"

Ricardo had a better view of him, so I couldn't really tell what was happening, but later we discussed it and I learned that he was trying to speak - but couldn't get the words out.

We gave him directions to where we were going, Ricardo tried to make conversation with him but to no avail. Suddenly we were at a stop light that turned green but he did not go. The car was stuck! Cars were honking, people were stuck behind us, everyone was moving, it was kind of interesting. It was like his inability to speak was carrying over into his ability to move forward. Ha! He got out of the car, then Ricardo jumped into the front to examine the problem, popped out the stuck emergency brake and jumped back in. Then we continued to our destination

On top of that, he was the slowest driver ever. We just got off a plane for goodness sake, we were ready to go go go! He taught us patience.

On the way back we made stop at Best Buy. He had never been to Best Buy, so we invited him in! I couldn't tell if he was enjoying it or not, but hey- it was worth the effort. 

Later in the van, I was trying to learn the word for "right" and "left" in Spanish. I said "derecha?" and "izquierda?" and Eli started busting out laughing! I don't really know what was so funny. Perhaps I was mispronouncing the words. Ha! Regardless, I was excited that he was opening up to us. After that, Ricardo and him conversed for the rest of the trip. There was definitely something very peculiar about Eli. 

Julie: 17yo student from Brazil. Here with her family on their way to a conference in San Antonio. She's part of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church. She wants to be a Journalist (She may not know it, but she already is one :) )

Ricardo and I were on the beach on the East side of the beach when we started walking to the car. We were talking pretty loudly about travel experiences without realizing anyone was behind us. 

Then we got the the car and Julie passed us and said "There is a very beautiful sunset, you should go see it! I am going there now!" 

I noticed she had an accent, but wasn't sure where from. Then she started running across the island barefoot with a cereal box in hand. I told R "She had an accent, was she French?" 

We started to drive and I said - go that way! Maybe she needs a ride. At the risk of sounding like a creepy stranger, we rolled down the window and offered her a ride to the other side, without hesitation she accepted, hesitating only to inform us that she was wet so she didn't wreck our car. 

She got in, we traveled across the island and sat down on a cement ledge. She pulled out her cereal box where she had something wrapped in a plastic bag, it was her journal, a beautiful leather bound journal with dried leaves and flowers inside that she had saved. She asked us to write down our names. We actually missed the sunset, but we were content watching the sky change colors in front of us. She shared with us a few meaningful messages, one quote:

"A heart that loves is always a young heart"

and her belief that:

"The sin of humanity is selfishness." 

We think she's going to go far. What a beautiful soul!

Tomorrow: Attempt to fly to Tampico, if we can't we will at least cross the border to Matamoros, Mexico.