Every time—every single time—that I
get full of myself and start crowing about all this freedom that I
enjoy, something occurs to jerk the reins. This time a fever put me
down, chained me to my bed for 48 hours. Some little virus. I have
not been sick at all since toward the end of 2009 when I had this
very same thing. A fever, a general ache, and n.v.d. As I said back
then, a fever south of the Tropic of Cancer is a different
experience. But I am up and around again this morning. It is all fragile, isn't it?
And Rick? Rick of course remains as
healthy as a bull chimp.
And so this morning we are headed out
to El Charco del Ingenio to do Fred's tour. Fred does volunteer work
there and because he is bilingual, he also leads a little tour once a
week. This is a botanical garden and nature preserve. Generally, the
idea is this. The Spanish had been here for three hundred years at
the time the war for independence started in 1810. All told then,
white people have been at work altering the landscape here for 500
years--not that the Indians did not do their fair share in other areas. Over-grazing has been the main culprit.
El Charco is a large piece of land,
which includes wetlands, that is now sequestered off. It is being
allowed to return to its natural state so that we can see the plant
and animal life as it was before the advent of the Spanish. I first
visited the place in October 2009. Should you wish to see photos from
previous visits while you await the photos of Rick's visit, you can
take a look at these earlier entries:
The latter is a report on the visit of my friend, Scott Wingert, from Swisher. He visited here last October.
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