Puerto Viejo

Margot headed off for the beach on her bike. Karl and I rented bikes and rode down to Cocles, dropping in on my former landlady at the store she runs. I hadn't seen her boy who has just turned two. “Jim, you've lost a lot of weight.” Yeah, exercise will do that although I'm still many pounds up from where I was last December at the end of my year of tromping in the Andes. Slowly working off the pounds I accumulated in London. Time to spend at least an hour a morning swimming. Back to town move from the Hotel to Margot's hostel and off again on the bikes, a walk through the rain forest and along the shore, back up the road, my former thrice a day route when I lived in Cocles. Back to the hostel, damn sleep deprived, nap. Off to dinner. We hit Veronica's but in my brilliance I suggested Chile Rojo. I split a lettuceless fatoush and vegetarian dinner with Karl. Bland, soft falafels, runny hummous, a tablespoon of tabouleh that was more bulgar wheat than parsley, almost devoid of mint. Margot's vegetable curry apparently could have been worse which is not something we could report about our meal. Rain. Rain. Rain. Rain. Well it is November, is it ever going to stop? We headed back to the hostel via the grocery store so that Karl and I could make some sandwiches. At least Chile Rojo had the decency to provide only tiny portions of their horrible food.

Puerto Viejo is a lovely little town actually far nicer than Bocas Town and with much better grocery stores.   I have to say, however that Bocas is far better once one leaves town.  

Cards. Oops, another problem with sleeping arrangements. I dashed out to Hotel Puerto Viejo and secured a room just as they were closing the window. No I hadn't, the room was occupied. Let's try another room. I got my key and unlocked the padlock that secured the bolt to the door. Between the bolt and the door it looked like a chicken coop. Right past the door the steps led up. It essentially was a chicken coop, except that in a chicken coop the bugs would have been eaten.

I stopped at a Tex-Mex restaurant for a beer on my way to my room.  Eight cops came in and searched everybody in the place but me.  I've never seen that before.