LIVING IN LUXURY AT BUCK'S HOUSE

We were very fortunate to spend our last 10 days in Nicarugua at Buck's oceanfront home on the beach at Gavilon. Buck was gracious enough to open his home to us when our current living situation became uncomfortable. The story goes....

About 3 weeks before our scheduled departure from Nicaragua we had been having very strong winds. The power went out and on the second day of no power we had no water. It was so windy we couldn't walk on the beach without getting sand blasted and our house was filled with a fine dust that seeped in everywhere. We were without water and power for a week and thank goodness for the folks at Hotel Toro Surf next door. They have their own generator and well and were kind enough to let us use their freezer and get buckets of water to flush our toilet. We kept cool and clean by swimming in their pool & using their outdoor shower. To make matters worse, the property owner behind us decided to do some burning. With the help of the strong winds, the hillside behind us was soon on fire and our house was filled with smoke, ash and dust. The final straw however, was yet to come. Because we were unable to go to the beach (too windy) and could not sit outside on our lanai (too dusty, windy & smokey), we were sitting on our bed reading in the mid-morning when suddenly there was a very loud noise and almost immediately 2 large pieces of the roof came smashing down onto the bed. What had happened was a strong gust had pulled a large piece of the eve off the roof, thrown it up in the air and it came crashing through the roof above the bed. Luckily, Grey had just gotten up and gone out on the lanai, because one on the pieces landed on his pillow where his head had just been! The 2 pieces of sharp roof tile landed less than 12 inches from where Pam was sitting on the bed. She jumped up and said "we're outta here!"

That was when we contacted Buck. We had only met him once a few weeks previously but he was so gracious to welcome 2 almost strangers into his home. Over the next 10 days we spent many hours enjoying each others company. Our favorite time was sitting out on the deck stargazing and eating hot chocolate chip cookies. Anyway, we felt blessed by Buck's wonderful hospitality and hope to be able to reciprocate someday.

These photos are of Buck's home "Casa Cook," Gavilon beach and his friend Tom's pool next door. The "before" photo was what the pool looked like after no electricity for over a week. Buck & Grey worked for several days to bring it back to the "after" condition. "Casa Cook" is available for vacation rental. Go to: http://www.casalachabola.com/La_Chabola/Visit.html