The sun doesn't shine every day

Jan 10
Went for a walk down Orient in the morning because we had arranged to pick up some jewelry from Marie at 10 am. We had also booked a massage for Paula at 10:30 with the Club Orient masseuse.

He has a beach side tent set up at the far end of the beach by Papagayo and it was something that I really wanted Paula to do since I knew she'd enjoy it! Having picked up the jewelry Paula went for her massage and I sat on the beach. I was going to get us a couple of chairs for the day but the wind was blowing pretty hard and sand was flying. It didn't seem like much of a beach day and hardly worth $20 for beach chairs! Paula loved her massage and although I think she should have gone again the next day I couldn't talk her into it. She agreed it was a crappy beach day so we decided to head back to the condo. On the way, though we stopped in at the Club O boutique. I've been getting the morning croissants there but they actually have quite a selection of gods available! Paula got her Dads cigar in there as well as some candies to take home. Once back at the condo we heated up a bowl of soup and piddled around with pictures or reading books, eventually dozing off for an afternoon nap. As is typical the crappy weather was only temporary and by 3 o'clock it looked sunny out though it was still pretty windy. We decided that was perfect for the pool which is right off the beach. We caught some rays there while reading our books until Paula decided to play in the waves. She loves to feel the waves crashing in on her and while I didn’t feel like going in it was fun to watch her. We both noticed some idiot doing push ups in the surf. At first we thought he might be a drowning victim since he was face down in the water on the beach.

Then, occasionally he would pop his head up and take a breath. From time to time he'd do some pushups which is stupid because it’s saltwater, you float like crazy which means your pushups could probably be done with one finger. Plus he was fairly chubby so we knew he was no Olympic athlete! Another attraction on the beach is all the kite surfers! Wow can those guys move, they make it look so easy and fun to do but I know it must be tricky to get the hang of. As the sun started to disappear we headed back to our condo for cocktails and dinner. We had bought some groceries, including some shrimp which I peeled and Paula cooked up in garlic butter. We had some spaghetti with the shrimp and it was a fine meal! We have noticed that the French side grocery stores have some quite unique items! For instance, we saw pigeon plucked and ready to cook, pig snouts, and most disturbing, pig penises in a jar! Who eats this shit? That is truly weird. I was gonna buy milk but when I saw all the milk was in an unrefrigerated isle I declined. Again, they don't produce much of anything on their own so all goods must be flown or shipped in. The first litre of milk I got was from Texas according to the label. The Dutch side is much more American, in language and products. Anyway, Paula had bought some spices from Sandy on Orient Beach and Sandy mentioned that there was a big street fair by Maho Beach tonight so we decided to check it out. Even though it's in another country and on the exact opposite side of the island it's still only 30 minutes and not too far to go to. We got there and it was busy but we found a place to park out of the way. Ten minutes later we had seen everything there was to see and were ready to come home. It turns out it just wasn't quite what we were expecting. However, I did see an ice cream shop and we got a couple of cones to treat ourselves with. We made it home again safe and sound but not without the obligatory evening rain shower along the way!