Diamonds and Blood
Friday was all kinds of odd. It started out in a way that was so lucky I should have bought a lottery ticket afterward. We were headed out to Liberia for a Wal Mart run and to pick up a part for the car. I noticed as I stepped off the patio and onto the mud leading to our garage a sparkle out of the corner of my eye. Looked like a big sequin glimmering on top of the mud. I bent down to take a look and it was the diamond from my engagement ring perfectly laid out on top of the mud like a perfect decoration.
Yes, I found the central diamond in my wedding ring set sitting there in the mud not ten feet from the front door. Very odd. I had perfect peace about this all along, but I figured I would never see it again. Was I happy!
Unfortunately things went disturbing shortly thereafter. We were driving along on the road between Huacas and the turn towards Liberia and came up upon a wreck mere seconds after it happened. A collectivo pirata taxi had stopped suddenly with no warning and the man on the motorcycle riding too close slammed into the taxi. I don't know for sure how fast everyone was going, but we were going about 45 mph, about the fastest you can manage on the crappy narrow bumpy roads here.
There was a car ahead of us that witnessed the entire thing. We came along just in time to see the motorcyclist's unfastened helmet sailing through the air to land roughly thirty feet away in the nearby cattle field.
The rider of the bike never lost conscienceness, and was moving his head and talking, but bleeding so much, blood everywhere. Head wounds tend to bleed like that. But I was pretty shook up, searching my car for a towel, asking the others stopped by the accident who had a towel or something to help staunch the blood while we waited for the ambulance.
One of the things I love about living in Costa Rica is the people, how they will help when bad things happen. No one hesitates, they help if they can. Within moments people were helping the victim, looking for something to stem his bleeding, on the phone, pulling out first aid supplies, you name it. When's the last time you saw that happen in the States? I've seen it again and again here.
The couple in the car in front of us that witnessed the whole thing were Americans and the man was just losing it. Not helping, but a whole lot of freaking out. He kept screaming that the guy would be dead before the ambulance got there and saying 'God damn the fucking collectivo!' I have to think his behavior was due to some sort of shock, at least right up until the moment he turned his car around to go down a dirt road far away yelling about being late for client meetings. Not blaming him, some folks are just useless as tits on a boar hog in emergencies, not knowing what to do.
By the time the policia showed up and loaded the rider into the ambulance it looked likely that he might be alright with a few broken bones. There's no way of knowing, but at least I'm hoping he made it. He was talking and rational the entire time. At least a broken leg and some bleeding.
It put something of a sober note in a day that started giddily over the diamond. One thing I do know. At Wal Mart I picked up everything I needed for a first aid kit and once I got home I packed it into a giant zip lock bag, one of the XXL ones, including the several towels I'd recently ruined during the leaking silicon disaster in the bath. They are stained but still servicable. I never want to be at the scene of an accident again and be scrambled for gauze and towels.
Yes, I found the central diamond in my wedding ring set sitting there in the mud not ten feet from the front door. Very odd. I had perfect peace about this all along, but I figured I would never see it again. Was I happy!
Unfortunately things went disturbing shortly thereafter. We were driving along on the road between Huacas and the turn towards Liberia and came up upon a wreck mere seconds after it happened. A collectivo pirata taxi had stopped suddenly with no warning and the man on the motorcycle riding too close slammed into the taxi. I don't know for sure how fast everyone was going, but we were going about 45 mph, about the fastest you can manage on the crappy narrow bumpy roads here.
There was a car ahead of us that witnessed the entire thing. We came along just in time to see the motorcyclist's unfastened helmet sailing through the air to land roughly thirty feet away in the nearby cattle field.
The rider of the bike never lost conscienceness, and was moving his head and talking, but bleeding so much, blood everywhere. Head wounds tend to bleed like that. But I was pretty shook up, searching my car for a towel, asking the others stopped by the accident who had a towel or something to help staunch the blood while we waited for the ambulance.
One of the things I love about living in Costa Rica is the people, how they will help when bad things happen. No one hesitates, they help if they can. Within moments people were helping the victim, looking for something to stem his bleeding, on the phone, pulling out first aid supplies, you name it. When's the last time you saw that happen in the States? I've seen it again and again here.
The couple in the car in front of us that witnessed the whole thing were Americans and the man was just losing it. Not helping, but a whole lot of freaking out. He kept screaming that the guy would be dead before the ambulance got there and saying 'God damn the fucking collectivo!' I have to think his behavior was due to some sort of shock, at least right up until the moment he turned his car around to go down a dirt road far away yelling about being late for client meetings. Not blaming him, some folks are just useless as tits on a boar hog in emergencies, not knowing what to do.
By the time the policia showed up and loaded the rider into the ambulance it looked likely that he might be alright with a few broken bones. There's no way of knowing, but at least I'm hoping he made it. He was talking and rational the entire time. At least a broken leg and some bleeding.
It put something of a sober note in a day that started giddily over the diamond. One thing I do know. At Wal Mart I picked up everything I needed for a first aid kit and once I got home I packed it into a giant zip lock bag, one of the XXL ones, including the several towels I'd recently ruined during the leaking silicon disaster in the bath. They are stained but still servicable. I never want to be at the scene of an accident again and be scrambled for gauze and towels.
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