Alto Alto

Wouldn’t you know it, but the bus driver kept on driving past the Dominical stop.  Alto!  Alto!  Thankfully the bus didn’t stop every damn 5km like the transit one, but we needed to get off.  Well Alvaro, or whatever the hombres name was, did hit the brakes and dropped 4 of us off on the side of the road 200 or 300 m past the official turn off into town.  Not an ideal spot, but a spot nonetheless.  Whatever.  It would be more then sufficient given the previous ordeals 8 hrs in the making.

The first building we walked by was a hotel with live music playing.  There were a number of salty expatriate types you’d expect to see at such an establishment.  In fact it was open mike night too.  After drinking the neck of the beer, I said to Shelly let’s get up and play.  There was an electric piano, a shitty Washburn guitar with five strings, and Mike from Halifax on the harmonica.  It would be Browned Eyed Girl for our first ditty.  Nobody really payed much mind, even though the establishment was somewhat busy.  They weren’t there for the entertainment principally I guess.  Our encore was Wagon Wheel.

Shelly switched to the guitar, I switched to drinking Mojitos rather then beer, and Mike switched to check out the sunset.  Shelly was up for the next 6 or 7 songs playing some Joel Plaskett, Justin Beiber, and some other artists.   The crowd just kept about their business as darkness fell and the clock rounded 6:30 or so.

It would be back to the rental, into the cold and refreshing outdoor shower, and out to a restaurant by 7:30 for some reflections and decompression meditation.  It was an interesting day.

The next day, Monday, would be our last basically.  I woke up, and feeling quite spritely, ran an extra 5 or 10 minutes more then my usual down here.  The outdoor shower really is exhilarating especially in this climate of this heat.  So I spent a few extra minutes getting all the grit and dirt off in it.  Shelly and I went for a light breakfast and I had a coffee.  Then we poked around the stores one last time.

By noon we loaded up some things to take to the beach.  Chairs from the casa, and our books and water and towels.  We rented a body board so while one person read the other checked out the surf.  It went like that back and forth, the former and the latter until late in the afternoon.  I have been reading my Robert’s Rules of Order, 11th Edition, in preparation for the big final exam on May 11th.  An usual read, but I’ve been getting into it more and more.

Ambling home, we said a few goodbyes to a few locals we had got to know.