Smile of the Day

There we were, broken down in slimy tropical mud on an ecotour. When it got dark, far out in the jungle of northern Costa Rica, without proper tools, in a rental van, things were not looking optimistic -no service station for hours, and only the odd pinneapple farm somewhere out there in the dark. Then, out of the darkness came a group of guys who had obviously been somewhere out drinking.
In other places in the world this might have been an unsettling, even dangerous situation(Imagine being broken down in the dark in some North American neighborhoods). These guys however, immediately reassured us that "We are country people, we don't come with guns, we come with love.) One guy simply crawled under the vehicle in the goo and spent fifteen minutes trying to remove the damaged piece of vehicle with his hands. Then he got up, dissappeared for a half hour, while everyone stood around (still drinking beer). Then he reappeared and spent another half hour woking with vice grips. His pride in being able to rescue us is obvious. So this is our smile of the day, maybe the smile of the month.