After a lovely sit in the hot tub in our own private courtyard last night I crawled into bed. So far the only downside to this absolutely wonderful place is the bed. It is hard and somewhat lumpy. But really I shouldn’t complain about anything in this paradise. It cools off nicely in the mountains here in the evening and days are warm.
Breakfast consisted of pancakes and fruit and coffee (hot for Rudy and iced for me). We sat for a long time in the shade of the restaurant. A lovely family (parents and two kids) sat a few tables away from us. The were Canadian (I surmised) and the woman spoke passible Spanish. She was teaching the kids how to order in Spanish and I absolutely loved their interactions. The mom so delighted in the exchange with her kids and they laughed and giggled. It brought me back to the Guatemala days and the fun we had with our kids experiencing day to day life in a different culture.
After breakfast we wandered down the street back to our house. It is so great to be in the countryside after the hustle and bustle of the city. Everything feels very safe here and I am content to wander and explore on my own and am not concerned about finding myself in an area with unsavoury characters. I spent the rest of the morning sketching various scenes in our courtyard and off the balcony at the top of the house. I am finding that I can lose myself in this activity and when I lift my head an hour will have passed. I guess that is the definition of playing.
Around 2 o’clock I decided that an adventure was in order. Rudy had his nose buried in the computer doing some coding to fix up this website so that the banner photos would work better. Since I really couldn’t help him (that is an understatement ;)) I felt no guilt about my expedition. I decided to take the road out of town towards a couple of the waterfalls. I didn’t know how far I would get or what the terrain would be like. The road rose and followed a gully for a while and then I was engulfed in jungle. Although I was climbing it was mostly a gentle slope. I passed under massive trees and huge stands of bamboo and although the day was warm, I mostly walked in the cool shade. There were a number of people on the road, some coming down and some walking in the direction I was taking. I stopped to talk to a bunch of young German women and got lots of information about how far it was to the waterfalls and what the road was like on the way up. We swapped some travel stories and then we separated and went our way. I made it a place which I thought might be the path to the first waterfall but after following it for 15 minutes I saw it was taking me to a cluster of small houses so I turned around and headed back to the main road. Just five minutes further on I found the path to the small waterfall. I made my way down and cooled my feet in a pool. Although I wouldn’t have minded going further I realized I needed to get home as I didn’t have any water on me and also Rudy and I were planning to go out at 4 o’clock for something to eat.
When I arrived back at the house there was much excitement. A hummingbird (colibri) had flown into the house through the courtyard and had hit the window trying to get out. Lidia, the woman who runs the house, is a huge bird enthusiast. The are feeders and fresh cut fruit all around the courtyard. When Rudy alerted her to the accident she immediately picked it up and tried to revive it. After a number of false starts and more banging into windows (and the bird even falling into a pail of water) Lidia was finally able to revive the bird. She mixed up some sugar water and fed it to the bird who amazingly lay in her hand and drank deeply of the elixir. Once its feathers were dried, it was able to fly away. It was so great to see the care and attention Lidia paid to the bird.
I am very enthused about what this area has to offer. I am so glad to be in the countryside. I feel relaxed and happy. We had a delicious meal for supper and wandered around town a bit. Happy Valentines Day!
