In my mind now: Billy Vaughn playing a glaring Las Golondrinas
Back then –
The rope swing above the Tovara pool,
a round hole at the end of a long, narrow
passage through mangrove –
and splash into the dark glittering water
The black and white pictures I took from the boat
of such glaring brightness and black shadow
Tovara – a destination everybody should know about,
a glimpse of lush and simple paradise
Ramada shack, bright-colored refreshments,
wobbly tables
All a result of being accosted at the campground:
You like watch birds? Tomorrow morning 6 o’clock?
In my mind now: Billy Vaughn playing a glaring Las Golondrinas
– James Steerforth ( © 1999 and 2008 )
Dug out of memory and hard disk and revised for Totally Optional Prompts’ REGIONAL POETRY theme. Goes back much further – to a trip taken in 1977/78.
Reality check note
Moon Travel Planner says, “Finally you reach Tovara Springs, which well from the base of a verdant cliff. On one side a bamboo-sheltered palapa restaurant serves refreshments, on the other families picnic in a hillside pavilion. In the middle, everyone jumps in and paddles in the clear, cool water.”
It’s likely that things have changed since I visited in the late seventies – I remember these springs as a very small and modest place, without any sign of a hillside pavilion. It’s also quite possible that the dark glittering waters I remember in my poem are a figment of the dark glittering waters of memory.
my piece for today posted on why paisley… is entitled back then… must be a day for reminiscence… this was lovely… it is ever so nice to be able to drift back,, even if it is only with the mind….
Love how you peel away shavings of memories! Just enough to be tantalising!
Gemma