Another Day under the Volcano

Sunday, Jan. 20, 2013--Altagracia

Last night, the Canadian couple invited me up to their balcony for drinks.  They had bought a bottle of vodka and some orange drink that was low in calories.  We visited and had two drinks each.  Then we went walking through town to find a place to eat.  We settled on a place in the park.  Both she and I wanted something without beans and rice.  We had a taco plate which was really two flautas topped with cabbage, sourcream, and ketchup.  They were good.  He wanted a plate we had seen being served on the street in front of the hotel, so they went back there for him to eat after we said our goodbyes and anticipated that we might see each other again along the way since we are following similar routes.  They will go to another town here on the island tomorrow while I will wait to go to my next town on Monday.  (Bus service to where I want to go is limited to one late-afternoon bus tomorrow, so it would be inconvenient for me to leave before Monday.)  I wandered around town a little longer.  Everyone was out, since it was Saturday night.  The park, the restaurants, and the bars were all busy.  I returned to my room by 21:00, because I was so tired still from lack of sleep last night.

Got up this morning hoping to use the internet only to find that the wifi signal comes from a next-door cyber cafe which doesn't open until noon.  Therefore, I went to the park and read.  Ate an "enchilada" there.  All the Mexican food names mean something different here.  The "enchilada" was a filled pastry shaped like an empanada, filled with rice, beans, and chicken, and deep fried so it was crispy.  It was greasy and not so satisfying.  I served 1/4 of it to the two dogs who were patiently watching me and waiting for an offering.

Anywhere you are here in Altagracia, if you look to the southwest, you see the volcano towering over the area with a doughnut ring of clouds around its cone.  It's a huge volcano.  Actually, the island consists of this and one other volcano and a short isthmus which connects the two.  Altagracia and all the other settlements are along the edges of the bases of the two or on the isthmus.

I walked to two waterfront areas today.  One is a rocky area where the women do their laundry.  The island is in the center of a lake, so the water is fresh water.  They have smooth stones where they scrub and beat their laundry, and there is a large area of laid out lava stones where they lay their clothes to dry.  Only one lady was there today, probably because it is Sunday.  From there, I walked back toward town and took another road which took me to the local beach, Playa Taguizapa.  It's a well-arched, but short beach of black lava sand.  Several local families and a number of local young people were there--picnicking, swimming, playing in the sand, etc.  There is also a small guesthouse and restaurant there which would be a peaceful, pleasant place for someone to stay who loves to be near water.  The waves came onto the beach with wakes just as if it were the ocean rather than a lake, and the boys were flipping over them and trying to ride them.  What was most surprising to me was that I was the only non-Hispanic there and apparently the only tourist of any kind there.

Back in town, I read at the park for a while, and later fell asleep in my room for maybe 15-20 minutes.  It is just so relaxing here.  The people are kind and friendly, the costs are low, the facilities are good.  It's going to be difficult to move onward tomorrow to my next stop on the island--the village of Merida.

It's 18:00 as I write.  I don't know what time the cybercafe closes, so I decided to come to the hotel and try to finish this entry and get it published.  My guess is that there will be wifi in Merida, too, but I don't know for sure.  Anyway, as I walked back to the hotel after making a long, circuitous route through the side streets of the town, a bus was leaving.  They use colorful old school buses they buy from the US.  I heard it honking which is unusual, so I looked toward it.  Running right in front of it were two pigs!  The driver knew they were there and trying to get them to move to the side, but he really couldn't see exactly where they were since they were barely ahead of him.  Suddenly the larger pig squealed.  The front tire had brushed against him.  He moved to the side and the smaller one aimed for the side street where I was turning to get to the hotel.  The bus passed and the two of them casually walked down the street as if, like loose dogs, they knew the territory and where they were heading.

I will head to the park when I finish this and buy some food.  I think I will have charcoal grilled chicken with beans and rice for dinner tonight.  That will be the end of the day for me.  In the room I'll either watch TV or read my gook.  I'm less than 100 pages from finishing the one I am reading now and am going to be happy to recommend it to others; it's a very interesting story which is well written.
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Final Costa Rica Spending Update:  The previous update was for the spending while Wes was with me.  My own personal expenses during the entire time I was in the country (the 9 days with Wes and the 4 days alone) were $479.63 which averaged out over the 13 days to $36.90 per day.