You would never guess what, we had another lazy morning!
We drank coffee with our feet in the pool and just watched the world go by. A lizard joined us for a while, scuttling from the shade of one plant into the shade of another before stopping and having a bit look around and then repeating the process until he got bored or his tail fell off or whatever else lizards get up to.
Jose Pablo caught me having a detailed inspection of a banana tree; inspecting how the fruit grows pointing ‘upwards’ rather than ‘downwards’ as I would have expected. His father inherited a banana plantation on the east coast of Costa Rica and so he explained how they are grown, harvested and transported.
We had a snack and then decided, like all mad dogs and folks from England, that we should head out for a walk at around noon. They should write a song about that. We had heard talk of a trail, just off the main street, that led to a waterfall. Apparently, it was clearly marked with a large sign saying “waterfall”. Simple.
We traipsed along the high street under a belting sun, the sun dripping down our faces and our necks. You could feel the heat searing down on you and it was hard work walking down the street. That waterfall at the end of this was starting to feel like a glowing jewel at the end of a long dark tunnel.
The only issue? We couldn’t find the sign post and so we had no idea where it was. JP and Natty had stayed behind as they had some work to catch up on and so we were alone with only my terrible Spanish to help…..I could just about work out ‘water’ but didn’t stand a chance with ‘fall’!
We got to the end of the street, at least to the point where it was safe to walk without being hit by a truck coming around a corner at great pace, so we decided we would call our mini adventure to an end and retire to the cake shop for another round of cold drinks and doughnuts.
We didn’t get washed away by a rapid, we didn’t get eaten by a crocodile or bitten by a snake or some undiscovered beast and so we marked it down as a win. We did get to watch an Italian couple negotiating a property sale with an estate agent while their early teenage son smashed down a huge bowl of spaghetti. Fair play to the lad, his white football top was pristine when he finished…..great skills.
All of this excursion and hard walking was taking some toll. We darted back along the street jumping from shop to shop to take advantage of air conditioning where we could, to get a moment of comfort. Despite the issues with the street, all of the shops appeared to be clean, cool, smart and tidy and we spent some time browsing and picking up some bits and bobs to take home.
We eventually ended up back at the Air BnB and used the pool to cool off while JP and Natty shook their heads at our stupidity for both not being able to find a huge natural phenomenon, and for the time that we chose to do it.
Time was ticking towards early evening and so I walked down to the beach with the kids and, along with every other tourist in town, we watched the sun slowly dip down behind the horizon.
I’ve done this in Ibiza and thought it was stunning. I was wrong. Ibiza was all right, but THIS was on a different level. The ‘show’ probably lasted for maybe an hour and it felt that every time you blinked the colours changed and became more beautiful.
To stand on that beach with my two kids was special. To know that I had brought them to this place on the other side of the planet and to have them stand there with me in silence. Just watching, in awe, at nature’s beautiful painting was something that will stick with me, and them I hope, for a long time.
With the sun almost dipped below the horizon, we made the short walk back to the house to get washed and dressed for dinner. It was a short drive into town to a lovely little spot called ¡Pronto! Which was an absolute delight.
JP and Natty had been there for lunch the previous day whilst we were looking for areas of outstanding natural beauty, and were very keen to go back in the evening as it was so nice. It was run by a chap called Giuseppe Morisco who finished in the top 10 of Gordon Ramsay’s MasterChef TV show in the US.
The thatched roof sat on top of a mainly glass and wooden frame but the inside was very smart, clean and stylish. Not what we were used to in Santa Teresa which was cool, bohemian and sandy floors.
As a result, the clientele were a little different. By different I mean well-to-do American types with a little bit of coin and very low levels of involvement in managing and parenting their children. One table saw a pair of out-of-control kids with thick hair climbing all over the furniture and placing their greasy hands all over the external facing glass. If that had been my kids I would have been ashamed and asked for a window cleaning cloth to fix their mess….but these guys were rich, so they didn’t have to.
Anyway, one ‘Kamila’s Favourite’ pizza later and a few beers to chase it down, I was, what I would call, “holiday happy”. I had the feeling of being hit by waves, kissed by sunshine, fed like a king and with ale swilling about in me.
This has been another good day. Pura Vida.
Itchy Feet and Titchy Feet 