Tue 20th 0844 Just got up. Feel vaguely hungover and not entirely sure I cleaned teeth last night. Gonna have a shower before breakfast (bit annoyingly no one in kitchen just now but not a big deal). V good to have beers and chat with someone all the same.
Oh, liam went to starfish beach yesterday, saw loads of starfish - they are in the water (duh, should have twigged). But I will see them - even if no photos as not planning to take phone - when I go tomorrow to swim. He also by sheer luck saw a sloth in a tree and another crossing the road while he was there!
1121 Had shower, cooked (bad, but tasted OK) pancakes. Tiny bit of chat with Israeli guy and an Italian woman over breakfast, also chatted with Liam a bit.
I was going to go to Finca Los Monos but it looks like the only "standard" tours are once on Mon and once on Fri. I was toying with and perhaps will go to the beach but it's overcast and raining (and it just got mildly heavy) and I'm massively dithering, feeling it could be miserable if I'm basically soaking wet the whole time including on both buses. My current gut feeling is that I might go in half an hour or so - one weather forecast seems to suggest the afternoon might not be so rainy. It's not absolutely pissing it down - I popped out front - and of course it's still warmish.
It feels vaguely "undesirable" if I'm maybe going to go over to that beach today and tomorrow but I guess that's quite cool, nothing here feels like a must do (I guess technically now I have my flip flops I could do that bat cave without getting my proper shoes wet, though TBH I'm not sure they'd be ideal) and I kind of like bumming around a bit and it's all exercise/swimming practice if I do go to the beach.
I asked at reception and (not too surprisingly) they were a bit vague and noncommital about what the weather is like here.
I guess absolute worst case is I'm soaking wet in 30C temps with some wind chill for a couple of hours. Assuming they actually let me on the bus, I am not gonna die or anything in this weather.
I might treat myself to a pizza at Tropical Birds this afternoon, if I do go swimming.
The weather forecast suggests UV peaking at 7 today - this is still high, but I guess the cloud cover is reducing it so that also reduces risk of sunburn. And TBH sitting here under cover (with walls on three sides) on the lower terrace it is actually quite pleasantly just-slightly-cool and the muggy feeling isn't there.
There is a very tame small gecko here, it seems to half live in a crack in the (slice of tree trunk) tables. There was also a tiny babyish gecko on floor earlier.
Liam sent me a video of the gecko thing on his plate (I saw this happen, but the video is of an earlier time) having a bit of leftover pancake crum. I also got him to send me a photo of a starfish on the playa estrella beach so I have one given I didn't take one other day and am probably not taking my phone with me if/when i go to swim.
1829 On upper terrace, two guys here. Said hi but no more, fine.
Not a bad day. Weather did dry up tho still cloudy - actually it's been very pleasant, not at all cold but fresh feeling. Went over to Playa Estrella - bit edgy in bus as realised that (having left most stuff in hostel) I didn't have even a copy of my passport (which I could have done, if I'd remembered) and that I'd left my flip belt attached to belt on trousers on dorm bed, but as it happens neither mattered.
Surprisingly quiet on the path to PE and beach en route but quite a few people on PE itself although not as busy as yesterday. Saw a couple of starfish in the water near "start" of beach, not so many as walked down but the bit where I went swimming at the far end had quite a few under the water. Did bit of exercise on beach before swimming.
Swimming not great, but I guess it's all practice. Beach slopes gently at first then rapidly goes from waist-ish to over head deep. It is quite cool to see the starfish under you as you swim (pseudo-snorkelling I guess) tho I was always a bit worried I'd stand up and tread on one. (I didn't.) The larger ones are way bigger than my foot across, it being about 9" , so I might guess 16-18" .
I did try to swim parallelish to the shore (it's not quite that "tidy" ) and also to use the starfish/the bottom as a guide to how deep the water was, but a couple of times I tried to stand up and realised I wasn't able to stand - I didn't exactly panic but in a semi-controlled way I would immediately start swimming towards shore at this point and chances are literally a stroke or two would have seen me back able to stand. Partly because of this and partly because I'm crap I didn't push myself to swim any major distance continuously - I wanted to be sure I always had something "in the tank" when I decided to stop in case it turned out I needed to swim to get to somewhere I could stand.
Was maybe in water 30-40 mins (but definitely not swimming all that time). Got bus back no trouble, I was mostly dry by then anyway (cool wind helped), came back to hostel and quick chat with Liam and a couple of girls who have just arrived and are in my dorm in kitchen then upstairs for semi-hot shower (upstairs bathrooms on first floor are much nicer than downstairs) and I did - given I dithered but am prob not going back to beach tomorrow (it's a fair trek over and I may just putter round town and I can prob swim on Bastimentos) I also rinsed the red ss T-shirt I'd worn out to swim so it's hopefully not salty. Then out for pepperoni, chorizo and bacon pizza at TB - for some reason it was only 15.5 today (which is 14 for pizza and 1.5 for drink as on the menu), so maybe they didn't charge this 10% "is it tax or suggested tip" - I dropped 1.5 in the tip jar. Very nice grey cat sat and stared up at me all the time I was eating, obviously couldn't give it pizza but I did stroke it a bit.
Then back here via 13 Mart or whatever it's called to get a fresh 5l of water and up here.
The two girls have come up and are chatting to each other. Feels surprisingly busy up here.
I did see "La Gruta" on the bus over to beach, I just might go tomorrow now I know where it is but gut feeling is I won't. It feels a bit of a slog, it may be iffy going alone (eg drop torch and get fucked) and I'm a little reluctant to make the effort and risk getting eg trunks mankily dirty (I suspect the bats just crap in the water under them). It is "most of the way" to the beach but I don't fancy taking torch to beach and risking losing it and as I said going to beach feels a bit of a slog.
0321 On bog about to clean teeth and go to bed. Been chatting with Liam and couple of cool Czech guys (Miro and Petr). I think I was mildly restrained and feel OK. Talk with Liam earlier about doing Filthy Friday, v mixed feelings. Anyway, bed shortly so will send this.
Oh, liam went to starfish beach yesterday, saw loads of starfish - they are in the water (duh, should have twigged). But I will see them - even if no photos as not planning to take phone - when I go tomorrow to swim. He also by sheer luck saw a sloth in a tree and another crossing the road while he was there!
1121 Had shower, cooked (bad, but tasted OK) pancakes. Tiny bit of chat with Israeli guy and an Italian woman over breakfast, also chatted with Liam a bit.
I was going to go to Finca Los Monos but it looks like the only "standard" tours are once on Mon and once on Fri. I was toying with and perhaps will go to the beach but it's overcast and raining (and it just got mildly heavy) and I'm massively dithering, feeling it could be miserable if I'm basically soaking wet the whole time including on both buses. My current gut feeling is that I might go in half an hour or so - one weather forecast seems to suggest the afternoon might not be so rainy. It's not absolutely pissing it down - I popped out front - and of course it's still warmish.
It feels vaguely "undesirable" if I'm maybe going to go over to that beach today and tomorrow but I guess that's quite cool, nothing here feels like a must do (I guess technically now I have my flip flops I could do that bat cave without getting my proper shoes wet, though TBH I'm not sure they'd be ideal) and I kind of like bumming around a bit and it's all exercise/swimming practice if I do go to the beach.
I asked at reception and (not too surprisingly) they were a bit vague and noncommital about what the weather is like here.
I guess absolute worst case is I'm soaking wet in 30C temps with some wind chill for a couple of hours. Assuming they actually let me on the bus, I am not gonna die or anything in this weather.
I might treat myself to a pizza at Tropical Birds this afternoon, if I do go swimming.
The weather forecast suggests UV peaking at 7 today - this is still high, but I guess the cloud cover is reducing it so that also reduces risk of sunburn. And TBH sitting here under cover (with walls on three sides) on the lower terrace it is actually quite pleasantly just-slightly-cool and the muggy feeling isn't there.
There is a very tame small gecko here, it seems to half live in a crack in the (slice of tree trunk) tables. There was also a tiny babyish gecko on floor earlier.
Liam sent me a video of the gecko thing on his plate (I saw this happen, but the video is of an earlier time) having a bit of leftover pancake crum. I also got him to send me a photo of a starfish on the playa estrella beach so I have one given I didn't take one other day and am probably not taking my phone with me if/when i go to swim.
1829 On upper terrace, two guys here. Said hi but no more, fine.
Not a bad day. Weather did dry up tho still cloudy - actually it's been very pleasant, not at all cold but fresh feeling. Went over to Playa Estrella - bit edgy in bus as realised that (having left most stuff in hostel) I didn't have even a copy of my passport (which I could have done, if I'd remembered) and that I'd left my flip belt attached to belt on trousers on dorm bed, but as it happens neither mattered.
Surprisingly quiet on the path to PE and beach en route but quite a few people on PE itself although not as busy as yesterday. Saw a couple of starfish in the water near "start" of beach, not so many as walked down but the bit where I went swimming at the far end had quite a few under the water. Did bit of exercise on beach before swimming.
Swimming not great, but I guess it's all practice. Beach slopes gently at first then rapidly goes from waist-ish to over head deep. It is quite cool to see the starfish under you as you swim (pseudo-snorkelling I guess) tho I was always a bit worried I'd stand up and tread on one. (I didn't.) The larger ones are way bigger than my foot across, it being about 9" , so I might guess 16-18" .
I did try to swim parallelish to the shore (it's not quite that "tidy" ) and also to use the starfish/the bottom as a guide to how deep the water was, but a couple of times I tried to stand up and realised I wasn't able to stand - I didn't exactly panic but in a semi-controlled way I would immediately start swimming towards shore at this point and chances are literally a stroke or two would have seen me back able to stand. Partly because of this and partly because I'm crap I didn't push myself to swim any major distance continuously - I wanted to be sure I always had something "in the tank" when I decided to stop in case it turned out I needed to swim to get to somewhere I could stand.
Was maybe in water 30-40 mins (but definitely not swimming all that time). Got bus back no trouble, I was mostly dry by then anyway (cool wind helped), came back to hostel and quick chat with Liam and a couple of girls who have just arrived and are in my dorm in kitchen then upstairs for semi-hot shower (upstairs bathrooms on first floor are much nicer than downstairs) and I did - given I dithered but am prob not going back to beach tomorrow (it's a fair trek over and I may just putter round town and I can prob swim on Bastimentos) I also rinsed the red ss T-shirt I'd worn out to swim so it's hopefully not salty. Then out for pepperoni, chorizo and bacon pizza at TB - for some reason it was only 15.5 today (which is 14 for pizza and 1.5 for drink as on the menu), so maybe they didn't charge this 10% "is it tax or suggested tip" - I dropped 1.5 in the tip jar. Very nice grey cat sat and stared up at me all the time I was eating, obviously couldn't give it pizza but I did stroke it a bit.
Then back here via 13 Mart or whatever it's called to get a fresh 5l of water and up here.
The two girls have come up and are chatting to each other. Feels surprisingly busy up here.
I did see "La Gruta" on the bus over to beach, I just might go tomorrow now I know where it is but gut feeling is I won't. It feels a bit of a slog, it may be iffy going alone (eg drop torch and get fucked) and I'm a little reluctant to make the effort and risk getting eg trunks mankily dirty (I suspect the bats just crap in the water under them). It is "most of the way" to the beach but I don't fancy taking torch to beach and risking losing it and as I said going to beach feels a bit of a slog.
0321 On bog about to clean teeth and go to bed. Been chatting with Liam and couple of cool Czech guys (Miro and Petr). I think I was mildly restrained and feel OK. Talk with Liam earlier about doing Filthy Friday, v mixed feelings. Anyway, bed shortly so will send this.
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