Today started with a burst of excitement; we thought we had been broken into. The kitchen area was in a hell of a state with debris all over as if it had either been ransacked, or subject to a police drugs search. When we calmed down and thought about it a little more we realised that, unless the burglars had been very interested in snacks rather than our electrical devices and fancy clothes….then it was more likely to have been animals.
We chatted with the on-site security man and sure enough, he confirmed he had heard racoons in the building and had disturbed them and that the two cleaners who lived in the outhouse just next to the front door were going to keep an eye out for them.
He also confirmed that the cleaners would take any laundry that we may have and have it washed and folded back in our rooms the next morning. It really was luxury but with kids that like a costume change more often than a pantomime dame it was a brilliant service.
We gave Natty and JP a little bit of time and space as we set off to explore Santa Teresa. Walking the streets didn’t change my mind about the filth and the smell. You had to tip-toe around human and animal waste alike which was quite an invigorating sport as you had to also avoid mopeds and cars that were, in turn, trying to make the best of the ‘roads’.
In fact, as we made our way up the road we actually saw the road improvement programme taking shape. We had missed the part where a load of soil and rocks had been deposited in the middle of the road but we did see a digger smoothing this out across the road, filling in the holes and doing his best to hide the huge boulders that were mixed in with the finer red soil.
A local dog was quite taken by this and he split his time evenly between barking at the rocks and pissing on them. Maybe his barks were in protest at the lack of traffic lights and high vis vests, and the three guys with shovels watching while leering at passing women…..it goes to show what’s possible when you put your mind to it.
We walked the length of the street, occasionally dropping in to boutiques and supermarkets to try and make it look like we wanted to buy something rather than just take in the conditioned air. We stopped for breakfast at a lovely little hipster coffee joint filled with confused looking American teenagers with cool tattoos and a lot of daddy’s trust fund to help them through what looked like a difficult morning.
I don’t think my choice, a cream filled croissant, was the most local of dishes, but the mix of that and the coffee that I washed it down with was most welcome.
With sweat dripping down our backs and off our foreheads, we made our way back to the accommodation, not before dropping into a supermarket to buy a bodyboard for the afternoon’s entertainment.
When we got back, we chilled by our pool. A little square of perfect sanctuary in a town full of madness. Our tranquil peace only occasionally interrupted by the squark of some exotic animal or other, or the very foreign sound of mopeds whizzing by on the main street.
Once we were fully relaxed, we decided to take a walk down to the perfect golden beach to see if we were able to fit in any more relaxing. The water was warm and perfectly clear and after a brief plodge I headed back to the golden sands and let the kids fight over whose turn it was on the body board.
The sound of the waves and the warm breeze was just helping me along to a slight snooze when I felt someone standing over me. Assuming that it was one of the kids I was about to tell them to leave me alone when I realised that it was a young lifeguard with a Baywatch style red float in his hand.
“Just to let you know that there are some pretty strong rip tides out there where your kids are playing”. I thanked him profusely for the warning and decided not to ask how he had deduced that we were English on the basis that maybe he thought we were American and that’s even worse.
I briefly toyed with the idea of going back to sleep and letting the kids find out about the rip tides themselves but the very thought of the paperwork was too much to take and so I brought them in.
We decided to wander back home and get a drink, some fruit and hang about in our own space where we assumed that we wouldn’t be killed by our own water. As we settled on the sun loungers with our drinks in hand, we noticed movement in the corner of our fenced off private garden followed by the clashing of the security gate.
We looked up assuming that it would be the security guard, he was usually positioned behind the driveway doors, not the pedestrian gate, and was maybe coming back from a break. But no, it was a family of four coming in through the security gate. I stood up off the lounger and tried to be as threatening as possible without letting them smell my fear.
They explained that they just wanted to have a look around and maybe have a barbeque on the outdoor kitchen space, explaining that they had previously stayed at this place and had remembered the security code.
We hurried them out of there, which they did without too much fuss thankfully, and a few hurried phone calls from JP and Natty resulted in the owners coming over to chat with us and calm us down. The codes on the door were changed and the security guard was asked to redouble his patrols. How very exciting.
We all spent the afternoon repeating to each other what had just happened in our little corner of paradise over and over in disbelief before returning to the rest and relaxation targets we had set. As the sun started to dip and the heat of the day left us we decided to head out for dinner.
We jumped in the car, dressed in our eveningwear finest (so smart shorts, not sports shorts) and headed towards a café and burger joint called Drift. We were well looked after all evening, which was all the more impressive as there were strong indicators that the serving staff had taken ‘artificial stimulants’ to get the through the shift.
That being said, if they could make burgers that good while off their face, fair play to them, they can do what they like. And ‘do what you like’ seemed to be the motto of the place given the ‘exotic’ smells coming from the tables next to us.
We chatted, we ate, we drank and we smiled.
A lot of smiling.
Then we went home and we slept…..it had been a good day.
Itchy Feet and Titchy Feet 