I slept pretty well last night — occasionally interrupted by a large crash of a wave or a rustling of the trees in a gust of wind. I woke up somewhat naturally around 6am and explored a little bit hoping to see some critters, but there wasn’t much going on. I heard a howler monkey in the distance, but considering we heard dozens of them in Guatemala and never actually saw them, I think they may be hard to spot. I saw a couple birds, but nothing much more than that.
For breakfast, I tried the plato típico, consisting of gallo pinto (rice and beans), some fried plantains, queso frito, with some chorizo and eggs on the side. The plantains were by far the best part of this dish. Everything else was . . .okay, and the fried cheese thing was frankly a little weird. It was very squeaky and had a weird consistency when I chewed it.
We killed some time at the beach whilst we waited for our new room to be fully prepared. It gets quite hot in the sun here, and there is no relief in the room, which as you recall, is simply open to the elements and has no aircon. I don’t think I have been so hot without reprieve since Greg and I were in Cuba ten years ago. An additional problem is the lack of a mini fridge, so it’s difficult to acquire a cold drink unless you keep making the trek to the bar, which requires crossing a suspension bridge and doing a bunch of steps. Did I not mention the suspension bridge or the steps yet? This will be important later on in our story.
You see, the property is quite expansive, but more than that — it’s built into the side of a very large hill. Our unit is actually one of the closer ones — requiring climbing only 60 stairs and a bridge crossing to get to the reception area or the beach. Our upgraded room was up a lot more involved. After crossing the bridge, we had to go up probably 200 steps in the heat. Upon reaching the room, we looked in and were a bit underwhelmed. You see, the upgrade includes a plunge pool, but the rest of the overall layout was similar, but the view didn’t seem as good and we were now so far above the water that you couldn’t even hear the waves. Without exaggeration, it probably takes at least 15 minutes to walk to the beach from there, and maybe 20 back.
Nicole and I kind of looked at each other and agreed to “downgrade” to our original room. I would have preferred they show us the potential upgrade before telling us where to go, as it would have saved everyone a lot of trouble. The front desk was a little confused, and wanted to clean our original room for our re-arrival, which we declined. I carried our suitcases down the mountain to our original room and then fell asleep on the outdoor day bed from exhaustion as the waves once again crashed within ear shot.
After summoning the strength, we eventually made our way back to the beach — a task made much easier from our original room than the upgrade. I feel like this blog does not adequately convey the physical task it is to reach the upper rooms. Imagine forgetting something in your room and having to walk for 35 minutes up and down a hill to get it — drenched in sweat too.
We ordered some cold drinks from the bar and took a dip in the water to cool off. Being the Pacific, it was certainly cool. I dragged one of their stand-up paddle boards into the water but noticed something was wrong as soon as I started paddling. It was impossible to go straight — like it was missing fins and I was just at the mercy of the waves. After spinning in circles for a few minutes, I came back to the beach to discover that there was indeed no fin. Another wasted physical effort for the day. Sigh.
Having looked at the dinner menu earlier, we thought it best to just get food from elsewhere and bring it back. We are relatively close to the town of San Juan del Sur, which we assumed was like a beachside tourist town, but it was not. It was very congested with chicken buses, scooters, and chaos however. Traffic rules didn’t really seem to have much weight here, which is fine because that made parking easier as I essentially just left our car blocking a lane. When in Rome…
We picked up a pizza and a few drinks and drove them back to Morgan’s Rock to eat on our balcony. While this saved a good amount of money on dinner, it would certainly have been easier to just stay at the Eco Lodge.
As the day came to a close, we inquired about a trail map for tomorrow in hopes of seeing some other animals. There are rumors of sloths and porcupines in the vicinity. Buenas Noches.
passports & pepto bismol 