Sunday, Lazy SUNDAY

the ultimate lazy day…same morning routine…up early, advil, agua, and the eye patch and I snagged a few more precious ZZZZZzzzzz. After the obligatory shower to tame the bedhead we headed back into Quepos to see if we could change our bus tickets (thankfully not, so we stayed till 5 pm). Headed to a local soda (diner type place) for the standard breakfast fare…then back up to the hostel where the hammocks were calling. Spent some time swinging back and forth in tru hammock zen, staring at the huge pacific raptors as they soared lazily on the thermals right in front of the hostel, with the pacific providing the backdrop. I spent some time reading my camera manual and fooling around with the different settings, attempting to learn more about photography…till the motivation struck and we were risen from our hammock reverie to the card table. A learning game of Texas Holdem’ where we taught Marco how to play, and added a few randoms from the hostel…this old grizzley alcoholic Bob, who was already on his third beer before noon…and a young kid fresh outta UCLA on his first international travel experience. Bob took a liking to call me “Big Balls DC”, cause I bluffed him outta a pot at the beginning. It was a fun couple of hours, sitting with the view, playing cards and waiting till the time was ripe to head to the beach before the bus. After poker, we had the first beer of the day lying in the hammocks, and summoned up the motivation to bounce. Packed up our bags, said our goodbyes, and snagged a taxi to Manuel Antonio beach. I wanted to grab a couple of the brightly painted sarongs as gifts for MOM and Lil Sis, but they were expensive, and none of the vendors was willing to negotiate at all. So it didn’t work out, and I’ll have to find them at another little beach spot later in the trip. After a brief walk, we settled in for a final meal before the bus…a little makeshift BBQ chicken spot nestled in between the vendors selling sarongs, and t-shirts, towels, and woodworkings. My timing was all wrong, as I sat down just after a huge family…so I had to wait for them to be served, while Marco and Wes were eating…and then the family finished off all the chicken that was done, so I had to wait some more while they stoked up the charcoals and cooked some new chicken. It ended up being worth the wait, though I didn’t really get a chance to savor it, as I had to scarf it down in the 10 minutes we had before the bus arrived. Last minute pit stops for ice cream, water bottles and the bathroom and we were on the 5 pm bus back to San Jose. By far the best bus I have been on, lots of leg room, comfy seats, big windows, and a huge engine that the Bus Driver put to good use, passing cars and trucks left and right, zipping over the rickity bridges, and flying up over the mountains. Got home safely around 8 pm…another quality weekend in the books. It was a lot of fun traveling with the Habitat crew, you really get a chance to meet people and get to know them better on the road then you do in the office. Time to start planning next weekends trip :o)