Most of my readers are not philanthropists and this is all some really car about. I did not find Las Terrenas to be the gold mine of beautiful women. While there were better places for me to find beautiful women, Las Terrenas certainly was not the motherland of ugly women either. The ladies of Las Terrenas were very reserved for the most part, while gleaming with a happiness and excitement for life that was contagious.
Unlike many places where a male intruder to this battle is simply a lamb in the slaughter, here the battle will usually be postponed if you enter the scene. Men are expected to act like men. That means pay for dinner, open doors, be decisive and so on. Of course, being an American, this is something you almost associate with hookers these days so it was almost a culture shock for me. It took me a few days to fall back into that flow and not wonder how much she was charging for simply being so nice.
Annie was one of the chicas I hung out with in Las Terrenas. I found myself trapped between entertained and concerned by her fear. For the entire first trip she seemed to be looking around every corner waiting for a mountain lion to jump out and snatch her up. Meeting a group of children seemed to ease her fears a bit and by the last time she came up she seemed right at home. I should also note here that there were some old men who would go into the mountains to find a special plant to make their tea out of.
This tea would get them high as a kite and they would dance around town like morons. I quite enjoyed the spectacle. These men were specifically associated with the mountains. At one point I believe she tried to explain this to me, but the language barrier makes it impossible for me to know for sure.
Or maybe that it was crazy for her to go into the mountains with a strange man. There were also a few times she came up because we had plans to do something and the rain put a hold on the plans. It seemed to rain just about every time I wanted to do some sort of outdoor activity.
