Re-Discovering Raimundo |
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| Written by Matt |
| Thursday, 22 April 2010 21:34 |
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There’s this taxi driver I once met in San Miguelito named Raimundo who, totally by chance, picked me up again this morning on my way into the city and we recognized each other immediately. It was the way I imagine I might react when finally meeting my long-lost twin. “Gringo!” he said, and we shook hands. “You taught me how to get punched in the stomach!” And he was right. It was a long time ago but I remember having just read an insightful article on how to perform party stunts, one of which was sustaining a solid punch to the gut. I passed the techniques on to Raimundo, phonetically meaning King of the World, and he was supremely grateful. “You look older,” Raimundo said to me this morning. “Well yes, that is because the years have passed.” “No, but maybe your beard or something or your hair. How many years do you have?” When I told him to guess, Raimundo estimated I was anywhere between 40 and 45. This is something that always fascinates me about Panamanians, their total distortion when it comes to guessing a foreigner’s age. But I suppose if you showed me an Inuit Eskimo for instance or a Zulu warrior, I would have no idea either. The conversation with Raimundo eventually changed to Ricky Martin, and then further what we would do if we suddenly inherited Ricky Martin’s wealth. I said I would probably invest the money in stocks and bonds whereas Raimundo gave a three-pronged response. First, he would “build a line of women.” It’s anyone’s guess what this meant but I was not about to interrupt. Second he would “eat well” feasting primarily on seafood soup. The third way Raimundo would spend Ricky Martin’s money would be to travel. “To where?” I asked. “Huh?” “To where would you travel?” “Ah…possibly Chitre.” “Have you ever won the lottery?” I asked, and Raimundo said with a garbled bit of Spanish which I interpreted as, “something something something…eat lots of carrots.” Now normally if someone told me he’d spend millions of lottery dollars on carrots, I would shut up and go with it but Raimundo was a close friend so we spent the next few minutes debating, among other things, how we would go about with our day.
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| Last Updated on Thursday, 22 April 2010 21:38 |
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