¡Pablo, ya!

Leave it up to me to move to the most tranquil place I´ve ever been only to live feet away from an insane Italian man and his loud dog. Let me indulge you.

I live on the dirt path pictured to the right. I live in the house on the right with the red and the white paint and the insane neighbor, we shall call him Vecino(spanish for neighbor), lives in the house on the left of the photo with the bamboo fence and the balcony.

Pablo is the dog and the balcony is his roost. God bless him, his face is so cute and for the most part he is well behaved. However, Pablo likes to bark his ass off at nearly anything passing on the path, bikes, children, gringos, etc.

Vecino is usually watching futból with his doors open so we hear the shouts of "goooooooooaaaaaaalllll" all day long from the announcers on the TV and from Vecino himself. Vecino likes to yell, and he is very good at it. So when our buddy Pablo barks at whatever we hear shouts of "¡Pablo, ya!". Pablo usually shuts up right away, usually. "Pablo, ya" is translated into something resembling "Pablo, enough already". All day, everyday, these are the sounds echoing in my neighborhood, Pablo barking like a raving lunatic followed by a loud "¡Pablo, ya!" from Vecino.

Honestly, as much as this could drive one insane, I find it kind of endearing. Last week there was a glitch in the matrix when Vecino and his wife left town for a few days. I knew the first day there was something different, Pablo was not on the balcony, girly music blasting from the house in place of the noise of futból. It is crazy, but not hearing the barking then the yelling was very strange. I have come to need the noise and chaos in order to know all is well in San Pedro. I mean, if Vecino isn´t going to shut Pablo up, who will?? Tragic.

I was thrilled the other morning to hear Vecino yell "¡Pablo, ya!" whilst drinking my coffee and staring at the volcanoes. The glitch in the matrix had passed and all survived, even Pablo´s strong voice, and Vecino´s insanity.

I hate to say it, but this is not all sugar and spice. Pablo is not a well behaved dog at all when other dogs are near(frequent due to the large population of street dogs here)and I will not go into detail on the things I have seen Vecino do to Pablo. However, I have also seen amazingly tender moments between the crazy man and his crazy dog.

Pablo and Vecino, as obnoxious as they are, are a fixture in my life here in San Pedro. Should I ever change location in San Pedro, I will likely not sleep for weeks as the only way I am rocked to sleep these days is by the barking, yelling, barking, yelling, barking . . . . "gooooooaaaaallll".