Wednesday, February 01, 2012

death on the beach


Nope.  Not mine.

In fact, I am doing quite well, thank you.  My throat does not ache.  The sneezing has stopped.  My sinuses are clear.  A dry cough intrudes now and then.  But I feel almost normal.

And my doctor agrees.  My blood pressure and heart rate are back within the acceptable range.  If a bit high.  However, it was good enough for her to wish me a great trip to China.

But not before I took my house guest to one of Melaque’s beach restaurants.  I confess that I am rather tired of beach restaurant food.  This one was not a terrible experience.

The real reason for the outing, though, was to see what I have been reading about on our local message board.  For the past week or so, large numbers of fish have been washing up on the Melaque beach.  It is as if an eleventh plague was being served up on Egypt, and the target went a bit astray.

And fish there were.  Of several varieties.  Most of them small.

There are probably as many theories as there are inactive minds around here.  I would not have been surprised if the Knights Templar (the imaginary ones in Europe, not the rather nasty real ones in these parts) had been blamed for the kill.

The more rational theories are red tide, temperature changes in the ocean, or simply the residue of garbage fish discarded from a trawler’s nets.

I am rather partial to it being another of the Maya 2012 end of the world omens.  Not as dramatic as Exodus quail falling from the sky.  At least, it would be good for tourism.  For a few more months.

But the solution will require the services of another Hercule Poirot.  Because this particular one has a bit of trip preparation to complete before Friday.