This is from a really great writer, friend and fellow wanderer we met in Costa Rica

She is magical because she says yes to love, to the moment, to risk;
because she speaks the grammar of life in sincere tones with a Czech
accent; because she is a boldly intuitive person who enlightens the world
simply by engaging it fully; because she is a dancer, a muse, and a
cook without peer, which makes her a genius at the fine art of living.

We both arrived on the peninsula the week of Manifesto, but I noticed
Aaron first. He is unmistakable at 100 yards--standing up in the
saddle of an ATV, all mohawk and shoulders, pinning it down the road
like he's riding a mustang at full pitch; busting little airs and
donuts just for the madcap glory of having a few hundred CCs of juice
in his hand. I described his character in my first Mal Pais dispatch
as a "Mad Max Sioux warrior terrorizing the tourists on an ATV." I
didn't know him, but it always seemed like he was burning off a tank
full of fuel-injected angst. Then he disappeared.

When he re-appeared a week later he was rolling slowly down the road
with a stunning scarf-and-goggle-clad jungle girl on the back of his
quad. I saw them sitting together in front of the Dos Pinos ice cream
stand lost in each other's eyes, unapologetically indulging in the
taste of freshly picked bliss. The change in his demeanor was so
marked I had to do a triple take to verify it was the same Sioux
warrior dude and then realized that Cupid had popped him right through
the heart with the Winchester of love.

It would be a few more weeks before I actually met Mad Max and his
Czech chick sidekick at the cafe'.

"Hey, you stole my seat." She said, shooting me the evil eye that
eastern European women do better than anyone else in the world. Then
she laughed it off with a wave. "It's ok ... you can have it for today."

They sat down at the booth next to me, ordered coffee, opened a lap
top, and commenced making out. Aaron and I traded music. Andrejka and
I talked about Praha. That's when I made the mistake of looking into
her eyes. A flash of blue fire arched over the table wrapped around my
soul and pulled me in, never to return. She was terrifyingly
present--right there--in all her imperfect uninhibited divinity. The
sweet disarming innocence of a child combined with the sexy
sophisticated edge of a woman in her prime. I fell under her spell
immediately. I mean, how do you not fall in love with a woman like
that? I would have taken on every drug crazed tico in Santa Teresa
with a bent spoon and half a dried coconut husk had she deemed it
necessary.

Then, one by one, I began to fall in love with her entire tribe. Each
of them pulsing with creativity, style, humor, and an insatiable lust
for life. Aaron; Mary and Marty; Autumn and Dave ... these are the
kinds of people I could elope to a remote third world jungle with and
never be seen again. Each one is a testament to the power of charging
headlong into the jaws of life without blinking.

I came here to be alone; to avoid distraction; to write; to confront
my soul in a space where it had no place to hide.
Had it not been for Andrejka's hypnotic charm, I would have likely
missed some of the richest experiences of the trip.

Like Mary said when we parted .... "I don't do goodbye, only see you later."

I've no doubt our paths will cross again.

Thank you for sharing your food, space, time, inspiration, and
demented sense of humor with me.

I love the twisted artistic stuffing out you all.

johnathon.allen@allenink.ws

[www.allenink.ws -- writing from the eXtreme edge of the culture wars.]