I am not a fan of crowds and I grew up in rural Italy so I’m no stranger to religious processions.
So that means I’m not too excited to be around crowds on vacation for a nominal religious holiday.
We’ve experienced Holy Week shutdown in Mexico and even Easter in English speaking Belize so this week we are ducking out. Layne is Jewish so Easter is a bit vague for her and Rusty hates fireworks so Semana Santa for us all is a private affair even though we find ourselves in a culture devoted to family and sharing and public joy. You could say we decline to fit in.
Layne found an apartment on a farm in the mountains for ten days far from stereotypical madding crowds and here we are learning to breathe at 8600 feet in a one bedroom apartment that has heat. We are just five degrees north of the equator but it is cold at night, hovering between 40 and 50 degrees and this is just the start of the mountain range we plan to drive at heights between 12,000 and 15,000 feet.
Rusty is slowly learning to appreciate this place with its many dogs and chickens and sheep.
The local dogs are sweet and inquisitive but I have to guard against being too friendly. Rusty is a jealous dog and I have made a mess of things by showing excessive friendliness to his competition. This mother daughter couple hang out and he doesn’t mind them but I love watching them snarl and growl and chase each other loving their lives in the open air.
After they are done playing they collapse in a heap and I have to hold back from petting them under Rusty’s jaundiced eye.
The owner of the farm is a man of ambition who lives in Quebec nine months of the year and spends the coldest winter months back home building his empire of rental units on his various holdings. He showed me pictures of alpine cabins he is finishing on a beach at the largest lake in Colombia, an area we plan to visit Thursday.
As it is we have use of a hot tub and the suicide shower here is properly installed to give us warm water and no electrical jolts. A Canadian building injector would approve of this place. We find it lovely.
I suppose one could argue we should be out and about inspecting the colors and culture of Semana Santa but I can silence that nagging voice sitting on the deck here, putting down my book and enjoying the scenery.
And when the sun goes down and it turns cold I can do my crossword puzzle indoors, watch Layne enjoying her favorite hobby messing around in the kitchen and listen to the wind whistling outside.
This is my kind of holiday in retirement, the one I don’t notice is a holiday.
