Portrait: Sergio

Sergio, the night watchman
...
After Chelo, our driver, honked the horn a few times, our next helper, our rescuer from the lostness of the dark night, came running to unlock the gate and then showed us to our place. Wearing his "SEGURIDAD PRIVADO" shirt and his official-looking cap and carrying his shotgun slung over his shoulder, Sergio walks around the grounds making sure everything is as it should be. He seems to work every night and a super-long shift on the week-end. Sometimes I get a little creeped out when he appears out of the shadows, but I am also grateful that he is out there keeping an eye on who else might be lurking in the darkness. One night when we had gone down the beach "too far" off the property and stayed away too long he came to find us where we were sitting on the sand watching the stars and the full moon and warned us of "muchos banditos." We thanked him and obediently headed back in closer to the circle of light surrounding the place.

We designated last Sunday as hammock day and were lounging in the shade under the palm trees when we saw Sergio heading our way carrying a coconut. As he got closer, I noticed that he was sort of whistling - which I began to realize was his way to get our attention. Sure enough, the coconut was a gift. He had chopped a hole in the top so that we could drink the milk. Quite tasty - especially when chilled and mixed with pineapple & guava juice.

At first I worried or at least wondered how in the world he could stay awake - especially during that super-long weekend shift from Friday evening until Monday morning. As one of the property owners acknowledged, it is a lonely, boring job. However, I was pleased to discover that he does have at least one diversion - in the form of playing dominoes with the security guard next door and/or others who happen to be around.

One of the normal sounds wafting in through our screen door is that of them slapping the table as they play with the big plastic Dominoes under the palm trees along the shore. Maybe we should get out there & play with them one of these evenings.

One night when the power was off, we noticed that Sergio seemed to have only his cell phone for light, so now Bob wants to buy him a nice big trusty rechargable flashlight worthy of a night watchman. In the meantime, Bob took him a little tray of no-bake cookies that he made yesterday - which brought a huge smile to Sergio's face. Bob likes to take him a sandwich sometimes over his long weekend shift - which he also seems to appreciate.