Before It's Gone

With the planting project going on at Tamarindo beach, what was once a jungle surrounded, barely glimpsed gun placement pillbox, or maybe an observation structure of some kind (from the bad old days of the US Navy bombing Culebra for target practice) is now easy to see, the small trees and vines macheted down and taken away. It seemed worthwhile to turn away from the glittering sea to do some exploring, satisfying a lifelong itch to go where I probably shouldn't go and see what I probably shouldn't see. 

I blame my 'gotta go look' on my Dad, my earliest cohort and certainly his youngest, in what seemed a normal, fun way to spend time together, but was, I realized later, actually breaking and entering. Though i never broke anything, hoisted up on his shoulders to gain window entrance. They were always abandoned or at least unlived in real estate brokered houses; we had no motive to fill our pockets with anything but our curiosities sated. 

This excursion was really nothing like that at all, but had a taste of the coattails, my inner ear waiting for a voice to shoo me away, even though in truth, we never got caught. I raised a camera to my Dad in salute and stepped inside. It was a little difficult trying to imagine history while hearing the laughter of children down the beach, happily having an outdoor school day at the beach planting trees, but I tried, as silence took over, to let it speak.

At first glance, there is the rectangular concrete surrounding and a lot of rusted iron. Since I happen to really like rusty metal (as long as I don't have to be the one fixing it), it was worth a closer look.

Each corner had a fairly simple set up with eye bolts and shackles, obviously intended to be free moving.

Ok, maybe not so simple

In the center, these four bars came together, obviously shaped to be moving in at least semi rotation. Whatever connected them is long gone. Did a gun hang from this contraption? A...what? This structure is on the beach, maybe a dozen yards from the water line. The target practices had ships bombing the beaches (unless they missed, leaving live ammo still found to this day, heed the signs, they mean it), so defending from shore would seem likely.

I thought about the young boys that were here, from places in the Midwest, the South, from places where they had never seen a beach or an ocean before. Suddenly they were in one of the most beautiful places on earth, an inhabited island, a US commonwealth, with one goal, to practice killing. 

Those days are gone now, thanks to the extraordinary bravery, patience and mule like persistence of a handful of people who fought back against the powerful machine of the US government. And won. 

Is this the reinforced concrete?  

I obviously don't know a lot about military emplacements, even if I do know the story surrounding the ones here. If there is enlightenment to be had as to the actual use of this structure, I'd welcome it in the comments section. Teach away!

Have a Monday of magnitude. Do something moral.