Travel Reference
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No matter how many times we make the journey, we invariably get a sinking feeling
when we round that last corner and head up the hill towards our little
casa
. Almost instinct-
ively, our eyes scan the house's façade for signs of disaster, never quite knowing what we'll
encounter.
Our return this time was no different. And doubling our usual anxiety was our uneas-
iness about Francisco. We had no idea what to expect from his costly garden renovations.
As we turned into the driveway our hearts sank. And then they sank some more.
Our garden was more or less gone.
The funky mixture of mature shrubs and weedy undergrowth that had constituted an
ad
hoc
screen between our driveway and Corinne's house below had been pretty much wiped
out. One paltry banana tree remained.
Nearby Francisco had planted a row of the most microscopic bougainvilleas I've ever
seen. As promised, he had installed a row of hibiscus plants, but (in a move that seemed to
defy all logic) he had positioned them against a wall tucked almost completely out of sight
behind our garbage cans.
Much more disastrously, Michael's beloved triangular garden at the intersection of the
driveway and the staircase, leading to the downstairs level, had been almost completely
decimated. Even the big plants we had told Francisco not to touch—including a palm tree
we had recently bought and planted ourselves—were no more. In their place were small
variegated plants and wilted ground cover that looked like a bad toupée.
And then, just when we thought it couldn't get any worse, we walked down the steps
to the lower level and—it got worse. The breezeway, formerly screened by tall seagrape
plants, was now almost completely exposed. The dense, mature bushes that had provided
such a lush blind between our house and Corinne's below had been hacked down and re-
placed with small, sickly-looking yellow shrubs laid out in an uneven, gap-toothed row.
We felt like crying.
Instead, we cursed and repaired inside for cocktails.
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