Vieques. Late in March, 2013.
What is it about different places and different people that provoke us to write. Somehow we must make sense of the fact that it takes sooo many people and things to keep the world spinning around. On our first day, we did not have the rental car yet, so we found a totally mellow beach a ten minute walk from Casa Rojo (our temporary hacienda). Crystal clear waters and totally deserted. After a while i noticed a thin brown bearded man wearing a loincloth and swinging a branch in and at at the water in different patterns. He paid us no mind and we did likewise. Later he passed by us digging his toes and sometimes his ankles and sometimes his stick in the sand. More patterns. He was clearly working at something. Eventually he took a what appeared to be a break and made some eye contact. I said hello and he did likewise. He must have surmised that I was intrigued by his beachside manner so he obliged. " I am the shaman of the atlantic. My name is Charlie. I take care of this beach and others on the other side of the island. I protect the beaches from hurricanes and I create these nice smooth eddies where your children are playing. You can see that I have moved the rip current away from this area. I use mimicking and sweeping techniques and other techniques that I have learned over the years."
A few minutes later he was in the shallows with the twins placing a large sea urchin in their hands and explaining to them the different types of sea urchins.
The next day we took a cab to the farmers market to buy plantains, mangoes and such. We did not plan for a ride back so we decided to stroll for a while. At some point the bags became heavy, the sun became hot, and we were looking at the map bewildered. Some guy stopped his car. He announced that we looked bewildered and told us to get in and proceeded to give us a ride to our hacienda. At some point the topic of Charlie, the Atlantic Shaman came up. Our new found driving friend said: " Oh if you run into Charlie again, tell him to call his sister in Indiana."
