Friday, July 15, 2016

Reds Marker

Oliver thinks it was around the same time as Hemingway was traipsing around and inbetween  the Sister Citys of Key West and Havana.

Here at Latitude 10 or thereabouts  was almost nothing.... In later years they made a really entertaining surf nut's  movie down here Endless Summer with many natural beauty scenes... and that was over 20 years ago already...

Reds Marker was the name of the only shanty bar around in the late 40's........ it was owned by a fellow named Trever there is still a picture of him on a wall in a faded black and white photo in a frame with glass over the picture

Trever was a big man he was wearing long pants with no shirt worn up high with a thin belt he was standing next to one of those Willy Jeep Station Wagons........ Some back then  called him a Conservation Guide... well way back in those days...... there were no paved roads to  or anywhere near Playa Iguanita...  just a lot of mud and hardship on those rutted Ox Cart Trails...........

His location there was on the shore.. a river ran out nearby.. and there were occasionally some crocodiles around.... Fleetless Clouds hung overhead... even though they say there is no such word.. that is  exactly what they were... overhead fleetless  they just stood there virtually Still....  or fleetless with little or no movement... it was balmy and stifling hot... why you could almost reach up and touch them out behind the place in the distance  was a volcano... that sometimes puffed towering smoke and then ash would fall..........
almost a like a light snow........ a dusting.

Call it Theatrical Wander Lust... if you like........  before all of the above happened you see there had been a plane crash in the sea not so far away.... the weather was bad at their destination so they had to divert the big float plane.. well it cartwheeled on landing  as the right pontoon snagged something just below the surface and the passenger door wound up  jammed no matter how hard that big man Trever  beat on it to get it open.......  it remained deformed and latched,sadly some drowned.

It was just kind of known around there after that incident  that  the big strong man had a good heart... however you might not want to piss him off unless you cared for a beating he could be touchy ... the big burly sensitive  type.

Next time you find yourself around Latitude 10 on Bahia Culebra  in Central America... come have a visit...  have a look around for the old concrete foundation there is still some Red Paint on it  at the old location of Reds Marker.

                                Oliver.

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