Grays on Trays

Started the day with another walk along the ocean’s edge. I know, it’s getting boring and repetitious to hear. But not so for us. Every morning brings a new adventure and you never know what you might see. I had to pull the dogs away from a small eel they were attempting to include as part of their nutritious breakfast. A local guy was toting a large tree branch down the beach. What for, I don’t know. Maybe build a palapa or use as a lever to move his boat. I’d guess branches are a multi use tool in these parts.

Back up in the roost, I was stretching my body at our palapa covered yoga station in my boxers when Maria, the maid, showed up at the gate. I jumped for my shorts and once properly clad, let her in to tidy up the loft.

To stay out of the way, we assembled our breakfast on the north balcony and ate our cereal overlooking the ocean. We did some work online and spent some time in the hammock. The veggie truck pulled in with the guy announcing his wares in slightly droning, heavily accented English over his megaphone. “Watermelon, pine- napples, man- dar-reens, egcks, avocados”.  We hooked up the dogs and went down to do some shopping. With our purchase of fruits and vegetables out of the way, we stepped over to have a look at the beach. It was a gorgeous day and some fun little waves were rolling onto the sand with just enough oomph to push a boogie board. The beach had a large crowd on it. Gringo families, lots of oldies and quite a few locals out to cool off in the sea. 

A couple of stand up guys were circling around at the point and the beach front restaurants were doing a fair amount of trade. I put the dogs back up in the roost and grabbed our boogie boards. Time got away from us and we must have spent two hours splashing around in the 80 degree water. PJ is just a big kid in an adult disguise. We caught a million little waves laughing along with Gail from the off road camper parked right below the tower. Her husband, Martin, was prowling the outside waters on his inflatable stand up surfboard. He’s got it down pretty good. He offered to let us give it a try, so I did my first attempt at paddle boarding. I didn’t stay upright for too long, but kind of picked up an idea of what’s involved. PJ gave it a go and managed to stay up and get a few paddles in. 

We returned to the tower a bit sunburned with multiple abrasions from the traction pad on the paddle board’s deck. We had a blast. We hung around reading, hammocking and resting for the rest of the afternoon. Bruno had left his mark on Cali’s bed, so PJ took it down to the outdoor sinks and gave it a good scrubbing.

 After sundown, we walked through the big fancy trailer park two doors down to eat at their restaurant, Tomatina’s. We sat in the sand at the water’s edge under a palapa and ate a dinner of the best red snapper we have eaten since arriving in Mexico. Mine was done in a cream sauce with herbs and PJ’s was prepared in a tomato and ginger sauce. The plates came with rice and vegetables with a little swirl of sauce on the plate for presentation.

Ann from the bungalow on the second floor of the tower came in with her friend Dennis who had just arrived. They joined us at our table and we had interesting company, excellent food and beachfront ambiance with the comfortable, relaxed tiredness you are left with after a day in the water. Our waiter Jorge went to College in Canada and spoke perfect English. Dennis’s daughter taught at the same University he attended. Small world. Paid up our meager tab and walk leisurely back to the pad. We could see PJ’s chili pepper lights from the trail ad we walked home.