Our schedule here is a bit open. Most days, Chad works in the morning until lunch time, while I do some grocery shopping, work on homework with the kids, and we explore Puerto Viejo a bit. This is a laid back town, where most tourists are surfers or hippies, many of whom, it seems never go home, and end up opening a bed and breakfast type hotel / hostel, specializing in their native language and a little spanish. There are quite a few Italian, Argentine, and Spanish restaurants, and many German hotels. When people ask us where we are from, they seem to genuinely want to know... like it is not immediately obvious that we are Americans. It's nice. This past Saturday we were out on a drive to explore around a bit, and we stumbled upon a strange sight. There were heaps and heaps of locals gathered together dressed in cowboy hats, and many of them had horses with them. Their cowboy attire mixed with their normal rasta wears was an interesting mix. We decided that whatever was going on, if it was good enough for the locals, we had better investigate. I snapped some photos as we weaved through hundreds of people, seemingly dressed up for the occasion, dozens of food carts and vendors, and hundreds of horses, all on a small street that backed up to the beach. Then, as if in practice, we noticed some of the horses begin to do a strange kind of dance. The riders would whip them a bit, or nudge them or whatever, and the horses would trot around, kindof flexing and pointing their horse feet. I don't know how anyone would ever explain this rationally. We asked one of the other spectators, and they told us that people come from all over Costa Rica to compete to see which horse can dance the best. The winner gets some sort of prize. A few minutes later, they all lined up and rode their horses about a mile along the beach towards the center of town. Many of the horses danced along the way. We stayed on the beach and didn't watch the contest, but it was a crazy procession to stumble upon.
Chad hard at work in his "office".
Our front gate.
The little lounge at the hotel near our house.
The main street in Puerto Viejo. It gets a bit wild here at night, especially on the weekends. We can often hear dance music in the distance. One night when we were driving down main street on our way home from the beach we saw two men having a machete fight. I've never seen that in South Jordan.
A nice lady asking for donations outside one of the markets in town.
This is the beach that runs alongside the main street. Half of it is regular sand color, the other half is black sand.
A "pipas" (coconut water) vendor protecting his ankles from one of the many stray dogs.
An Australianish restaurant, "Outback Jacks"
Out for lunch at one of the local "sodas". Most restaurants offer "casados" or quick plates with a meat and rice and beans and sometimes plantains and a salad.
The Rasta Rodeo
Many of the horses manes were trimmed short like this...
Michael's reaction....
The procession down the beach towards Puerto Viejo
The horse dance.
Here's a little video of the horses dancing:
This week Michael spent a lot of time in the waves learning how to boogie board. He loves it, and is getting better at it every day. He also learned how to snorkel, and we were able to see some fish, lots of urchins, and a wiry starfish on our first time out. Ella is enjoying learning letter sounds and is starting to sound out words. We practice wherever we are... the sand makes for an excellent chalkboard. Violet likes the boogie board too, as well as playing in the sand, and eating new foods. She loves calamri.
Land crabs like this one live in holes around our house. Their bodies are about as big around as a softball.
Big banana leaf that we used for dinner one night. We cooked red snapper in it. It was fun, but needs a little perfecting.
Our little outside table where we eat most meals. We have to clean up after ourselves pretty well or else we are invaded with ants the next day.
Obligatory beach pics...
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