I spent the morning sitting on the most beautiful beach imaginable. Seabirds squawked at each other & I watched one very persistent sea vulture trying to extract ever last ounce of flesh from the skeleton of a large but abundantly dead, fish. The vista was perfect, ruggedly punctuated with wooden boats, seaweed, lonely trees, like the one I sat under. Plus it was untouched by commercialism, just pure beach.
There is something about beaches; the simplicity, the strength and power of the waves. The juxtaposition of beauty and danger.
This place is teeming with wildlife. Any wildlife enthusiast, and there are a few around, would be in their element, armed with cameras, binoculars, notebooks and more. I am quite happy marveling at the beauty of creation rather than identifying everything. There are macaws around, but I am yet to see one. Macaw blimey.
There are a number of dogs wandering around the compound. The staff told me this morning that two of the dogs are theirs, the other two just turn up and hang out here all the time.
'The three dogs, they are friendly and fine. But the other, the brown one, he likes to bite. But he will only bite you gently'.
Well that's ok then, only a risk of a gentle dog bite. I knew I should have had a rabies jab, but time was short as I manage my time badly, apparently.
One of the dogs, a non-bitey one, to whom I've become quite attached, sat with me on the beach whilst I finished my time management book. I'm not sure how useful a read it was on reflection as it is possibly a bit dated. He listed as a success (the author, not the non-bitey dog) - 'I printed out my schedule and faxed it to my secretary, after sorting out my audio tape collection'. I described a fax machine to a group of teenagers recently and they were convinced I was making it up. I once watched a child trying to plug headphones into an audio tape. It all sounds a bit 1990s if you ask me, which, whilst in my and maybe your mind, were quite recent, the 1990s were 30+ years ago!! Plus he's still on aol (the author, not the non-bitey dog, I doubt he's got an e-mail address). But then, I'm still on Hotmail, let's not judge.
He (still the author, not the non-bitey dog) also said 'a to-do list is a list of out-of-context items and has a natural tendency to proliferation' which undermines my entire approach to getting anything done. He (") obviously doesn't use the to-do list app which lets you have separate lists for each topic, where you then list the tasks; for each task you can have a checklist. When you tick things off, the ping is very satisfactory. Sometimes I add things I forgot to add which I have already done, just to make it ping. Maybe you do too.
It made sense to organise to go visit some local crocodiles. They are not known to be the friendliest of beasts, what with being crocodiles, and they don't tend to keep in touch, but, when in Tárcoles, one ought to visit the creatures for which it is famous (although I had seen crocodiles when I came over the bridge - twice - yesterday - on my lengthy bus journey through, and then back to Tárcoles. What a muppet).
I had walked past the crocodile place on my way here yesterday from the bus-stop. - it is very close-by. In true 2023-style, I WhatsApp-d the Crocodile Man (also known as 'Adrian'), who confirmed my place on the final crocodile-viewing boat of the day. I decided there was time for a power-doze before getting crocodile-ready. On waking, there was a message from Crocodile Man saying that he had had to cancel as the two others who had booked had cancelled and they would not run a crocodile boat just for me! Well, really. I was disappointed but it clearly wasn't meant to be - it was those crocodiles' loss - plus, if I'm honest, I'm not sure my travel insurance covers crocodile-related situations. Instead, I headed into town for a little walk and perhaps some lunch.
I wasn't overly hungry due to the generous breakfast included in my booking, but I had passed a crêpe place on my walk yesterday so thought I would head there - you can't go wrong with a crêpe and I had visions of a nice light crêpe with a spot of cheese, or something. I arrived and there was a grandmother wheeling a pushchair around with a tiny child in it. I assumed she was a customer leaving, until she handed me a menu and directed me to one of twenty unoccupied tables, whilst continuing to wheel the tiny child around. Needs must.
I opened the menu - 'Chepes' - it proclaimed. Not crêpes. There were no 'crêpes' to be seen. Turns out the place is owned by a bloke called Chepe. The place is called 'Chepes'. Definitely need to go back to Specsavers.
This evening, I headed back to the beach to watch the sun set over the ocean. It was so beautiful that words don't really do it justice. The clouds were in a magical formation, creating what felt like a planned backdrop to the sun gently edging into the sea. God was turning a giant dimmer switch to gently fade the light.
I've started on my fourth book, which I've started so many times before but not got very far. I will persevere this time. I was joined for dinner by the tiniest cutest kitten called Sukki who became my immediate friend when she realised I had ordered fish.
Thank you so much for reading so diligently - it is lovely to know that you are sharing the adventure with me.
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