I tend to wake around 6:00 a.m.... as the sun comes up, the sound outside changes over from the millions of frogs to the birds living on the property. Usually it is the pigeons I hear first... soft cooing... and then in the background I hear a few high pitched "cheep cheep"s of the bananquits, sometimes punctuated by a loud "Crack" of a mockingbird. I wandered out to the edge of the restaurant deck where D and I sat sipping our coffee. I brought my camera this morning, and as luck would have it, a heron flew down and patted across the beach within just a few feet of us. I followed him with my camera, this shot amused me the most.
"Hmm... this looks like a nice place to stay"
I was in such a hurry to post my blog for April 6th that I failed to mention the paddleboarding. Yesterday the water stayed calm enough for me to take the paddle board out past the buoy line, so I headed out and spent a long time doing laps up and down the length of the beach in front of the hotel. Every so often I would kneel or sit on the board to watch schools of fish swimming by below the board, then I would turn, stand back up, and paddle down the beach the other way. I was very surprised that I never felt any panic while out on the water, even without a life vest. If I wobbled I would just drop to my hands and swing my legs to either side of the board. I discovered that I could paddle hard and pick up some decent speed by using my lower arm as a pivot point, and pushing with the upper arm to really dig into the water. I roasted in the sun a bit, but it was a really good time. As the action picked up on the water, and speed boats began passing close hauling towables behind, I decided to come in. I figured I would surf in on my knees, so I sat down on the board to shorten the paddle handle... but as I unlatched the handle I nearly dropped the end into the water. I leaned hard to the right to grab the handle piece and tipped completely over. Even out where I couldn't touch bottom, no life vest and no goggles, I didn't totally panic with my dunk. I did worry about losing the paddle, but I kept a good grip on it and doggy-paddled back to the board. The water has been chopping up early every day since Sunday, so I haven't been out on the board again, but hopefully it'll calm down enough to get out there again before we fly home.
Here is Dan early in the morning, before the sun hits the beach and warms everything up.
My typical morning breakfast dress code... I think the sun is bleaching out the gray streak in my hair.
Our company front of chairs being set up for the day.
This is Fruita... our favorite fruit vendor on the beach (and the only one we are buying fruit from on this trip!) I was taking pictures of birds when I heard her say "aaaaaaany fruit?" and I practically screamed "YES! PINEAPPLE!" She greets us with hugs and kisses, and then we paw through her baskets to see what she has available. Everything is whole and fresh, she peels and cuts up the fruit for us on the spot.
G loves to buy coconuts... Fruita will crack them open and have G drink the coconut water out, then Fruita scrapes all the hard coconut into a bag for us to snack on. Crunchy and refreshing, this is far better than any potato chip.
Fruita and G, holding one of the tiny and oh-so-sweet bananas
I did not have my camera out for very much of the day today... most of the morning was spent walking down to the big craft market at the end of the beach with my sister and two nieces. I had never visited before because I'd been told it was a "high pressure" market, and the activity there proved true to what I'd heard. We arrived just as some of the stands were opening, and everyone wanted us to come look at their particular booth. Most of the booths had very similar items (wood carvings, sarongs, t-shirts, beaded jewelry, paintings) Some had more of one item than another, but for the most part there wasn't anything in the market that we couldn't find in any of the booths along the beach which are closer to walk to. Save for one item... I found a wood carving of a doctor bird which was unique, and I felt it would match my pileated woodpecker at home, so I picked up one of those for myself. While we were away, D had walked down the street to rent a scooter for quick trips down to the grocery store and a little further exploring. After we came back from our trek down to the shopping center, we took a little bit of time to regroup with everyone and determine what to do for lunch.
We gathered together on the beach side of the hotel and wandered up the beach in the afternoon seeking out a place for lunch, however we couldn't find anything we wanted up the beach, so we walked back down and ended up next door at Charella Inn for lunch. I ordered some grilled fish, which turned out to be pan fried, and had something in it that did not agree with my stomach (such is the life when traveling with allergies) After having gotten sick, I had a bit of toast in the room to settle my stomach and just showered and relaxed until dinner time. Our lunch was so late in the day that nobody was terribly hungry by dinner time, and we all mostly snacked on leftovers or picked up some jerk chicken from across the street. I ordered curry shrimp at the bar, which was really tasty (though I left my camera in the room so I didn't get a photo of it) In the evening we hung around the bar playing dominoes and enjoying conversation.
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