Good Night, and Good Luck Sleeping

Constantly: Taxis and their attendant cacophony at all hours: notifying and insistent honks, tires on pitted concrete, wooden speakers in trunks, 50 Cent and Feliz Navidad. Birds that sound (follow us on this one) like Goofy when he’s skiing and falls of a cliff. Birds that sound like birds. Barking, baying, and rooster choruses that make earplugs purely ornamental. Backfiring motorcycles. Water overflowing somewhere onto something, always. Horses and horse-sized pigs being ushered down the street.

Often: High-pitched gecko chirps. Dog fights. The shrimp guy.

This morning: Firecrackers at 5:30, crackling at half-minute intervals, for fifteen minutes. Then nothing for two minutes. Then a parade.