grill night

we ran into landlord juan and neighbor david on sunday out at manzanillo, they had just won a game of fútbol. they were hanging out at maxi’s with a few teammates knocking back some victory cervezas, and we stayed for a few hours meeting and talking to some manzanillans. before he left, juan invited us over for a pig roast on wednesday.
last night we walked over to his and regina’s place around seven. in back of the house, a gazebo with a bri-bri style thatched roof and a raised broken-tile floor surrounds a large outdoor grill and wood picnic table. a whole suckling pig had been grilling for seven hours, there were several whole chickens and lots of chorizos to keep it company. everything was close to done by the time we arrived, and juan kept replenishing a stack of upright burning logs in the corner providing indirect heat. marc noticed that the logs burning next to the grill looked like the ones our rental house is built with, and jimmy confirmed they were one and the same madera de teca, teak. juan is from argentina, a nation known for its incomparable carne a parrilla, and he had a big bowl of chimichurri for basting. he has already built and sold one successful restaurant in puerto viejo, and is constructing a pizzeria at the moment with a large outdoor patio and grill similar to the one at his house. i predict another great success. i ate too much, everything was so good.
we stayed until close to midnight, eating, playing dominoes and talking. i had a long chat with alex, manager of the local branch of the national bank, about currencies, the colón, inflation, the mortgage market, and luckily he spoke excellent english. i have had a somewhat difficult time conducting financial discussions in spanish.
we walked home under a clear starlit sky. there are stretches of the road where it gets very close to pitch black, but you can navigate by looking up to the stars through the break in the canopy, and follow where that gap from the road below leads.