Sunday, January 10, 2010

WILD, SLEEPLESS NIGHT IN COSTA RICA!!!




Hola Y'all!!!

First of all let me tell you we live in a REALLY quiet little farming village. It is extremely quiet here, especially at night. Well....except for this goofy rooster up the road who has a TOTALLY messed up schedule.
But last night we had a REAL lively night!!

Me and the other perros usually always go to bed before Mom cause Mom has trouble going to sleep so she stays up late. Some nights she just can't sleep at all.

Anyway, Mom finally came to bed about 1:00 and we were all snuggled in but Mom could not get comfortable so she tossed and turned trying to find her "sleep spot." (Kinda like us dogs turning in circles as we settle down for a nap.)

Anyway, she could not get to sleep so at about 2:30 she got up and got back on the computer to see if there were any new rescue posts she needed to take care of. She came back to bed about 3:30.

We're still having the Vientos de Navidad (winds of Christmas) so the ol' wind was howling pretty hard outside.

The cats would get up on the roof and have to hang on for dear life and we could hear 'em scrambling for a foothold.

Anyway, we all settled back in and Mom was ALMOST asleep when we heard LOUD BOOMS!!!!!
Mom sat up real quick and all us perros started barking and trying to crawl under Mom!!! We do NOT like loud booms!!! Some of us even jumped on TOP of her and pushed her back down in the bed!!

Then there were MORE LOUD BOOMS!!! Two in a row!! Then another!!!! Then another!!!
Mom was trying to figure out what in the world was goin' on at 4:00 AM and trying to untangle herself from eight frightened (but willing to defend her. We WERE barking after all.) perros who had managed to get on top of her, under her, and wrapped around her neck, pinning her in bed like a mummy!! The bed was vibrating cause us perros were all shaking so much!!

All of a sudden us perros saw someone at Mom's glass door!!
Being the ever so brave guardians we LAUNCHED ourselves off the bed, leaving Mom in a total tangle of sheets and blankets, and ran barking fiercely at the intruder.

Mom finally got herself untangled enough sit up and see the man at the door!! She's blind as a bat without her glasses and she could only see a silhouette!! But she DID see that he had a GUN in his hand!!!

She jumped up, grabbed her shotgun, and ran to grab us perros out of harms way and saw that it was just Dad, on her landing, with his gun.

He asked her if she was ok and said the booms had waked him up and he was checking to see where they came from.

He checked the yard and everything was ok. The booms had stopped so we all went back to bed.

Mom thought she might ACTUALLY get an hour or two of sleep when she heard ..... .....music???

We all heard it too and we jumped up and started looking all around. Mom got out of bed ....again....and looked out her front window where she thought the music was coming from.

There was a truck coming down our road with a group of men in the back playing drums and trumpets and stuff. Not REAL loud but HEY!! It's 4:30 in the morning!!

The truck pulled into our driveway, (we're kinda at the end of the road)on the other side of our gate, and stopped. They parked there for a few minutes playing their music!!
Mom stood in her window in the dark, watching them to see what they were going to do. She called downstairs to Dad and asked him, "Are you seein' this?"
(Mom thought maybe all of this was a bad dream)
Dad said he thought he had heard music but figured maybe some idiot had a radio on too loud. He got up and went to the front window to look out.
Yep!! There was a truck, in our driveway, with men in the back playing music.

They finally turned around and headed back up the road, playing their music.

Me and Mom just walked around the room for a few minutes, shaking our heads and asking each other, "Did you see that?"

By now it's turning daylight and the other furbabies have decided it's time to go out and pee.

Mom starts toward the door when suddenly a really weird, loud noise sounds right outside her upstairs window. As she opens the door, so the others can get out, she sees Lisa (aka Supermom) chasing the black and white cat that comes over here sometimes and tries to fight with our cats. Cat yowling and Lisa barking.

I ran out with the others to see what all the fuss was about. Normally me and Mom sleep in but today I had business to tend to so out I went.
Milana, who is too small to get off the bed by herself, was the only one left in the room with Mom so they snuggled back in and Mom got maybe an hour and a half sleep.

When she got up she called our neighbor and asked him what all the noise was about last night.

He laughed and said the neighboring village was having a fiesta and it is traditional, sometimes, to go around to the neighboring villages and wake the people up. They set off loud firecrackers that sound like cannons and ride around playing music.

Now we've lived here for four years and it has never happened before. Mom says she hopes it won't happen again for a lot more years!!

I also heard her plotting with Dad about getting even with the people in the neighboring village. Mom says she's willing to load her sound system up on the back of a truck and............ WMFWB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kisses and tailwags from a very tired Perro Primero
BudBud

5 comments:

Lindsay said...

You know what, bud bud, I've seriously considered moving to Costa Rica, but being a serial insomniac myself (Reggie short-sheeting me and trying to claim my pillow in the name of Eskie-dom doesn't help) after that story, I think I might just stay here and freeze in Philly...
Maybe come and visit when the neighbouring village isn't in down...

Unknown said...

Having visited Oaxaca Mexico, I know musicians just sort of come around playing, hoping to make some $, but never heard of this kind of thing. And having lived in a 'ghetto', the loud booms of AK47s and quarter sticks of dynamite are cause to hit the ground, not look out the window... you guys are brave!!!

Steve said...

Woooo Hooooo! Might as well join in on the fun Bud Bud! Next year go party with them and they wont be able to wake you up! :)

Anonymous said...

I heard on the radio that according to a recent survey on happiness, people living in Costa Rica are the happiest in the world! Hearing this story, and knowing a Professor im Costa Rica who never leaves home without a gun due to the crime rate, I wonder how one reconciles these two issues!

Mr BudBud said...

True there is a crime problem in Costa Rica, as there is in every other country in the world. The main problem here is they rarely punish the criminal even if caught red handed. They are released to do it again. It also depends on what area in which you live. Our neighborhood is very safe and the people here all look out for one another. We, being expats from the states, just still have that built in radar and a bunch of loud booms at 4:00 am makes us jumpy.