Conducting photo tours in Costa Rica can be quite an experience because I never know what my group and I will encounter. Here is an entertaining event that occurred while we were traveling to one of our locations.

One of the destinations for my group in Costa Rica Photo Tours is the beautiful, pristine Osa Peninsula along the southern Pacific Coast of Costa Rica, a place that National Geographic says is “the most biologically diverse place” on the planet. In order to reach this location by vehicle we drive through the tiny village of Ojochal, which is very near my home.

Some Costa Ricans in rural communities have an unusual method of moving. As one of my groups was passing through the village some folks started pointing to something ahead of us. It was a fellow moving. But, before telling you this story, let me give you a little background on this gentleman.

The fellow who was moving was one of my neighbours, Senor Wilson (real Spanish name, don’t you think?), who has brought my wife and me flowering plants since we moved in. It was really funny the first day that he stood at the top of the driveway with plants in hand. He was so polite that he would not come down to the house without our invitation even though he was there to give us a present.

We finally realized after speaking (he in Spanish and we mostly in English that ) that he wanted to give us the flowering plants he was carrying. Very neighborly. Particularly when you understand that Senor Wilson did not own a car and walked, plants in hand, down a mountain on a dirt road–an hour to our house and an hour back!

Over the years, Senor Wilson has given me flowering plants many times, always expecting me to plant them somewhere. Well, it does not always happen that the planting occurs quickly enough so sometimes the plants may not be in very good shape by the time they are planted. In any event, I certainly never expected to be tested on my planting abilities when I moved to Costa Rica from Canada.

Wilson came back a few days later to deliver yet another plant while his children swam in the river by our house. To my procrastinating dismay he asked where I planted the others that he had brought me.

Unfortunately, the flowering plants were still on my terrace in aluminium kettles with drainage holes stabbed in the bottom of the pot with a machete. When good neighbor Wilson saw that his previous gift had not been planted, he politely asked in his quiet way if I would mind if he planted all of them for me. Quite a fellow, my neighbor and friend, Wilson.

Now, back to my photography tour group and the day they met Wilson. As we were driving along, we saw a man walking a horse. It was neighbor Wilson. What a sight! The poor horse was carrying two huge, not big–huge, white bags filled with clothes and household items. To add insult to injury, Wilson had propped a broom between the bags so that its blue bristle appeared between the horse’s ears. It looked just like the critter was wearing a bristle blue tiara! Not a very macho horse, I must say.

Wilson, standing by the horse, was holding a bridle in one hand and a birdcage in the other. A man, his birdcage, a horse, his crown. Quite a sight! It was moving day in Costa Rica.

We greeted each other with the usual “hola” and started to chat as the cameras were brought out and the clicking began. Just joking around, I asked Wilson if he were moving and to my surprise he said he was. Turns out the crowned steed was the moving van or shall we say Senor Wilson’s “4 X 4.”

He explained that he and his wife (who is a tiny little thing that looks about 14) were going to house-sit one of the B&Bs whose owner went back to Germany for the rainy season. He also said that it would be easier for his wife and 3 kids to live there because it was closer to the pueblo as the B&B is almost in the pueblo where the children would go to school.

I thought that it was rather interesting that he was carrying the birdcage. I would have thought that on one of the previous trips down to their new digs one of the children would have wanted to carry the cage.

However, seeing that he also carries flowering plants down the mountain, I guess carrying birdcages is not so far off the mark. He told me that the bird was young (parrot or parakeet, I’m not sure) but that it was very talkative and knew many words. To show off, it started to chatter while we were talking about it but as I have not yet mastered Spanish, I certainly did not understand bird Spanish.

Everybody’s cameras were clicking away because this was certainly something not seen every day. A moving van of a horse wearing a blue tiara, a chattering bird showing off for company, and a family of five walking down a mountain, worldly possessions in hand, on moving day in Costa Rica. My photo tours are filled with surprises even for me.