25 November 1998
We hadn't made plans for sure to meet, but I hoped I would find Jake. While walking down the street, I saw him eating breakfast alone. Just as he saw me, I jokingly ducked down behind a truck. I peeked around to see him ducked toward the table, gripping the tablecloth over his head. HAHAHAHAAHAHAAA!!!!!!!! so funny!!!
He had to catch the bus within a couple hours. While we walked a bit on the beach, I saw these snail trails on the shore. It took me a while to figure out what they were.
We sat on a couple of the beach lounge chairs, just talking, laughing and chilling when we heard a whistle and, "Hey!!!! Those chairs are only for rent!" We tried to just act natural and ignore him, but he walked up.
He wanted us to pay 1000 colones each to "get to sit all day!" Jake was all, "how much for fifteen minutes?" and he negotiated both chairs for 1.5 hours for 500 colones. As the guy was walking away he laughed, "it's going to rain in one hour."
We chilled legally on the chairs and laughed and watched (and laughed at) a guy doing tai chi. He actually turned out to be pretty cool when we talked to him as he walked by. He told us about Bruce Lee's death and a couple of simple positions to help strenghten our chi. Our chis?
Jake meditatively tossed rocks into the ocean while I wrote his name in the sand as an homage to our friendship. I finished and he said, "I thought you were going to make it big."
I accompanied him to his hotel room ($6 per night, with several beds, and a toilet and sink) so he could grab his stuff. Back toward the bus which was waiting (waiting for 10:00 am, not waiting for Jake), we exchanged emails and goodbyes. I'm greatly thankful to have met Jake.
