Built-in Cameras

There are so many missed photo opportunities here. Images that flash by as we move about the island, and most of the time my camera is back home. As a tourist I always had my camera handy, but it just isn't practical now. But if I'd had my camera with me, I would be sharing these pictures with you:

• An old truck that still runs, but is missing doors, a roof, a fender, and one headlight is hanging by a wire.


• A truck laden with family on a Sunday outing. Everyone was piled into the back of the truck, some sitting in the plastic chairs and others standing or sitting on various other pieces of picnic apparatus.


• A truck sailing by with workers standing in the back, holding on to the cab, facing forward, grinning from ear to ear.


• Sitting out in my road, on the back of my golf cart, practising my Mexican staring into space routine, facing the main road. A guy in a red shirt on a bicycle madly waved at me as he passed my street. I waved back and grinned - it was the guy who helped us with the yard work after Miguel's accident last year.


• A spontaneous smile from a child who doesn't know me, but just wants to be friendly.


• Small lizards as they hop around in the hedge.


• A family sitting in front of their house, a concrete block or two as their stoop. The husband and wife, with a chicken standing on the block between them. A family photo op.


• Loco bursting out the back door and jumping as high as he can and bouncing off the wall while trying to get the iguana way up there on the wall.


• The opening of the moonflower in late afternoon. The flower bud appears to fill with gas and then suddenly it pops open and releases its exquisite fragrance. Don't ever 'help' it as it doesn't work that way (we know, we've tried).


• All the odd things people manage to lug around on their mopeds. Televisions, tools, coolers, wood, wheelbarrows. A dog wearing sunglasses. Whole families - husband, wife, and up to 3 kids


• Small kids asleep on the mopeds. Sometimes drapped limply over the arms of the parent. Sometimes sitting behind a parent, holding on and leaning up against the back, but the head is bobbing and they are sound asleep. I don't know how they don't fall off.

So many photo opportunities. I've forgotten many of them. I wish my eyes had built-in cameras. Maybe futuristic implanted lenses will offer that functionality? One blink and the image before me would be imprinted into memory. Although I'm not sure how I would hook up to download from my eyeballs so I could share with you what I just saw. But one step at a time - first get me the built-in camera.