Life may not be exciting in San Juan, but I certainly haven't had cause to be bored yet. Mornings are busy with Spanish classes. In the afternoons, if we aren't being carted off to yet another beach on a school organized group trip, there is always studying, reading, getting groceries, stopping to chat on the street, sweeping out the ever-present sand, etc. etc.
Last week, Wednesday afternoon found us going horseback riding again. It had been about 12 years since I had ridden a horse and now I have done it twice in as many months. Well, this time I thought I could push myself a little and on the way back I engaged in a friendly race with a friend. He won of course. I laughed a lot. It was fun. I'd forgotten that I kinda knew how to ride. Well, kinda would be the operative word in that sentence and I have the saddle sores to prove it! Remind me to buy one of those fake 'asses' that I've seen should I ever decide to go on a 10 day trail ride!
On Friday we went out to visit Nick's farm (see previous post on Nica friends for info about Nick). It's not that far out of town and features at least two private beaches. The one where Nick has chosen to build his house has some of the loveliest, softest sand I have ever felt. It's a great spot! It got dark before we got around to packing up, and I managed to leave half of my bathing suit out there somewhere. So, yesterday we went back out to see if we could locate it. I couldn't find it (but there are always more at the store for about $10 bucks). While we were there we decided to check out Nick's other beach which is a favourite of many of the locals.
The fact that the locals like El Toro beach might be made into an interesting cultural comparison. No self-respecting gringo would ever call El Toro their favourite beach... there is not a grain of sand on the whole place, neither on the beach nor in the water. What it does have going for it is that the water is calm and clear, and there is NO ONE there. Consequently, lacking half a bathing suit was not a problem, as we enjoyed a terrific swim without any suits at all and dried off au natural! Ah.... now THAT is swimming!
This blog chronicles a 10 month period of travel that I took with my 13 year old daughter in 2007/08.
