WE'RE NOT IN KANSAS ANYMORE

If you haven't been to Costa Rica add it to your bucket list peeps! The second part of this vacation was the longest. After being home for one day to get re-packed, it was time to meet up with Daddy Warbucks and head to the beautiful locale of Costa Rica. For many people, the only image they have of Costa Rica comes from the beautiful posters on the wall at Starbucks showing locals picking the gourmet coffee beans we enjoy in our favorite latte.But Costa Rica is a magical place to visit. Its majestic terrain and exotic wildlife draw many to Costa Rica each year.If you are thinking about taking a trip to an island paradise with plenty to do and see, Costa Rica is your destination. Our hotel was literally in what seemed like a jungle or rain forest. Most of the trip was indeed very relaxing, as their was no town or anything nearby. Just us and nature. We stayed in Manuel Antonio at a stunning open air hotel. What an experience! Between the hotel and the critters. We definitely weren't in Kanas anymore. The views out the window were much different form that of the Casa du Borghese.The hotel and staff were truly exceptional....the only thing was the Mistress almost dropped my gin and tonic a couple times with small reptiles dashing about in the lobby.

Manuel Antonio is not the largest park in Costa Rica, but many tourists like it because of its beautiful white sand beaches and crisp sea water. If you like fresh fruits and veggies, a lot of fun activities and plenty of interesting wildlife.Manuel Antonio National Park has been called the bridge between land and sea. It's paradise-like beaches and tropical forests create an almost magical experience.Snorkeling, horseback riding, and white water rafting are just a few of the experiences you have.Take a Kayak tour at Damas Island Estuary where you can spot monkeys, snakes, sloths, and crocodiles. Of course the big attraction to Manuel Antonio are its idyllic gay beaches, park, and scenery, filled with very handsome men.People have been known to loose their tan lines there.

Our room was way cool, and right up my alley, complete with outdoor shower, which I could get used too. Of course the upstairs balcony it occurred to me, probably had a bird's eye view right in the shower. Who cares...I was in lala land.

From our balcony most days, and around the grounds, were all kinds of creatures I got first hand experiences with. At first I was a wee nervous, but over time I begin welcoming them to the balcony. I can't even explain how it felt to have monkies visiting. And the birds there are truly chic and regal.

The beach was surprisingly very gay and clothing optional!!!! Daddy Warbuck's even took a gratuitous of one of yours truly tanning my touche'

And the COCK-A-TAILS!!!!!!!!!! Non stop flowing and oh so yummy......

Needless to say, I'm am still very relaxed since being back, but peeps...I sure do miss these views! More on the trip in the next post...…

IT'S THE WEEKEND, SWEETIE DARLINGS

I can't think of a better way to end this hot and humid three day work week, then with,  none other than  Edina Monsoon and Patsy Stone, form Absolutely Fabulous as they embark on a new tale in the premier of their new movie here in The States today!!!! While I won't be seeing it this weekend, I do have plans to go see it...along with my boofont and cock-a-tail🍸🍸🍸

 

I'll be scarce this weekend, with time being spent at my home away from home, the Raven. I can't think of a better way to stay cool in this heat...so I say I'm letting it all hang loose in square cuts and sitting poolside with some frozen libations.....suppose to be in the high 90"s! There will be a late night swim. I also have a pool party to attend on Sunday...so you will begin to see my condition already.

Hope you all have a great weekend...Sweet Darlings!

THE FABULOUS BARBETTE

Long before Ru Paul eyed his first pair of six inch stilettos, Boy George donned his colorful caftan, or Divine bust her large frame on the scene.... a handsome young man from the small town of Round Rock, Texas barnstormed the stages of Europe’s most lavish theaters and night clubs as Barbette, a beautiful aerialist drag queen who became a scandalous sensation throughout the Roaring Twenties.

 

 Performing his erotic, high wire and trapeze routine in lavish, feminine regalia, Barbette shocked audiences by revealing the true nature of his gender at the very end of his act. From a child who picked cotton and walked his mother’s clothes line to headlining at the Moulin Rouge in spectacular drag, Barbette was quite the original act.  Barbette himself says that when the circus came to Austin it changed his life. He begged his mother to permit him to run away and join the circus. She told him he was free to go as soon as he finished his high school studies. Barbette said he doubled up his studies and left Round Rock at sixteen.

 

 

Barbette was a sensation in Europe, he started purchasing property in Texas. He was a top-paid act in the Roaring Twenties. He boasted he travelled with twenty eight trunks, a maid and a maid for the maid. He was big time.  After twenty years or so on the stage, it all came to an end, when Barbette got sick while performing at Manhattan’s Loew’s State Theater. He contracted polio. He decided on a radical and painful treatment plan that depleted his savings.  His career as a performer was over.

Barbette is listed on the 1940 census in Round Rock as living with his mother and step father, Samuel Loving, as well as other siblings. Imagine how crushing it must have been for him to see all that he worked for come to an end and then winding up back in Round Rock—a flamboyant peacock amongst the grackles. What must the town’s folk have thought about Barbette, a man who dressed up like a woman for a living, coming home?

 

After a year and a half of operations and recovery, Barbette created an ethereal spectacle using over fifty women entwined in silk ropes and other hanging apparatuses swirling about the big top. It launched his second career as a director and trainer of female aerialists in the circus, stage productions and films. All the while, when Barbette wasn’t on the road, he returned to Austin to reside with his sister Mary and her family. It’s no wonder he desired being on the road, taking on productions into his seventies until his body finally gave out.  After he fell and became partially immobile, Barbette took his own life back in Texas at his sister Mary’s home. He was buried in the Loving family plot, right by his mother and sister Mary.

 

I also found out there is a book about his life which might well be my next read.

 

 

Wildflower reveals long-forgotten secrets of this enigmatic performer: his arrest in London on morals charges, his bout with polio, his infamous collaborations with some of Hollywood’s greatest stars— Orson Welles, Vincente Minnelli, and Judy Garland, Jack Lemmon, and Tony Curtis as well as his hidden affair with French surrealist  Jean Cocteau. Wildflower captivates with every page, dramatically revealing the startling and at times heart-breaking story of Round Rock’s first and greatest drag queen. Also to note, the author Kyle Taylor crafted this book entirely on his own, from the fonts, research, photos and backing, everything about it, because publishing houses didn't think it may be of interests. So I HUGE hat tip to Kyle for this sure to be brilliant read.

CHECKING IN WITH KRYSTLE AND ALEXIS

 Have you seen Krystle and Alexis lately? There fountain and pool fights were as legendary as their shoulder pads. But poor Krystle........ My mother always said "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything." 

 

 

And then there's Alexis.......

 

Alexis still looks pretty good for 80, and could probably still kick Krystle's butt. I still think Joan looks better with shorter hair though....

 

So much more chic. And let us not even get started on the Electric Mayhem's Janice from the Muppets......

 

 

Time with the band must have clouded her judgment darlings.