El Palmero

This brave fellow is a neighbour of ours.  He built our palapa roof over our casita a number of years ago.  When we needed someone to trim the dead palm fronds from the tall palm trees, here comes Domingo.  So that’s where he gets all the palm fronds to build the palapa roofs from.  Just a little aside regarding his name – when we contracted with him to build our roof, I asked him what his name was.  Now I admit that my Spanish is not great, but I do know how to ask someone their name.  So when he responded by saying “Domingo”  I told him it was alright if he wanted to start work on Sunday but I still wanted to know his name.  I’m not sure but I think maybe he was born on a Sunday.  Being a palmero is not for the faint of heart.  Qualifications include not being afraid of heights (some of these palm trees are 3 stories high) and not having a fear of large creepy crawly insects who live in the dead palm fronds.  The yellow shirt is a bit of a uniform.  The colour and thickness discourages bugs.  I think I’d be decked out in something that resembled haz-mat attire, in heavy yellow cotton of course.  Domingo is a good friend and this image just had to be painted.

El Palmero