I was done with half my work for the day  by 1:00, which considering the amount I have to do was quite a feat. I headed out to see what was happening on the beach. We’d woken to overcast conditions, but it was now very hot and sunny, with a wonderful breeze.

I said hello to the police officer at the end of my street and he asked why I wasn’t dressed for swimming. I told him I was just going for a quick peek at the beach, this being my first winter on Isla and therefore my first Semana Santa. He then asked how I am liking Semana Santa so far and I struggled to articulate that the atmosphere is pleasant, settling on “the soul of the beach is so peaceful”, and, from the expression on his face, that got my point across. I said that no one’s drinking to excess, the children are having fun, the music is lovely, etc.

The guy doing the parking next to the bright pink house piped up and said that it was nice to see a Gringa out and about enjoying the festivities and asked how come I haven’t left with everyone. Well, I sure wasn’t going to go into the real reason (ie. I got an extension on my healthcare coverage to be out of the province for eight months), but rather said that I’m not in a hurry. 🙂

And with that, I bid them farewell and headed down to the beach, avoiding all the vehicles, motorbikes, bikes, and ATVs hell bent on running me over. 😀

I ran into the blanket guy, as I expected I would, as I put in an order with him last week and told him I’d be looking for him the first week of April. I wanted a blanket with more yellow and he had a couple, but the only one that I liked was just like my first one, only with yellow instead of pink. I wanted something different and picked a traditional ‘rainbow’ pattern instead.

This one will go on my bed at home and the other one will be for the bed in the back. I told him flat out that I’m done with blankets for this year and hope that he won’t harass me buy more. I’m very pleased to have picked these up as I’ve been looking for something for the bed in the back for ages.

I then continued on in search of raspado and came upon the same guy as Wednesday. I have never seen anyone so excited to see me without the words ‘It’s Rae from Travels With Miranda!’ being uttered! He had his wife with him to handle the money and he said, “That’s her! That’s her! That’s the Canadian gal! She bought a pineapple one from me, no caramel, no milk!” Then, to me, “Right? Am I right?” I laughed and said yes. The woman shook he her head and said, “My husband’s crazy. What do you want today?” I picked guava and, OH! So yummy! I got an extra scoop each of syrup and fruit compared to my last two raspados. And then, he said, “She pays a special price, 20!” I felt like a celebrity, LOL!

Rather than return home by the beach, I decided to go up and check out what was going on at this end of the village. It was probably a dumb idea to climb up when the foot path is so narrow and there was a long column coming down, but I hugged the wall and barreled my way up.

It’s definitely busier today than the other days and I can feel it from the house, with more music and traffic. But it’s not overwhelming in the least and I don’t feel a need to hunker down in my house, like I was advised would probably be the best thing to do. I’m just concerned about the noise levels going up. Right now, there’s very loud music very close by and I am going to have to shut the office window. Hopefully, the fan will keep me cool!