Semanas tres y cuatro – Cooking and Classes

We are starting to feel like our brains are full and Spanish classes are becoming harder. Last week we were studying the present perfect – which is the simple past tense, go figure. And a million (ish) irregular verb conjugations, oh and that Romper means ‘arse’ in Norwegian, ‘to break’ in Spanish but that’s less interesting...

Cooking however has been a bit more fun and we’ve been making use of local ingredients, figuring out which is the best veg stall – one with the good parrot, one with the bad parrot, one with the best papaya... Prizes for recipe suggestions with the following vegetables:





Fresh fruit is the absolute highlight of our diet here, breakfast looks like this every day (admittedly often with cake or toast on the side):



The last two Fridays have become ‘fast food Fridays’ which is probably not a habit we need to get in to, especially as the original theory of ‘everyone gets thin when they travel’ isn’t quite going to plan. Something to do with rum, cake and ice cream I suspect. Fast food Friday means lunch from the local street stalls, empanadas, other fried foods that we are yet to figure out the names of and ‘chicken and chips’ Caribbean style – aka plantain and bbq chicken. Yum. Oh and maybe a little home made ice cream from the bakery. Oh dear.



Alongside getting the most out of the cuisine (and the most use from elasticised waist bands) we’ve been taking advantage of the amazing things you can do here in your free time. Spanish always in our bags, often remaining so, we have enjoyed an amazing day on a catamaran – snorkelling and sailing were both amazing. I saw and held my first six legged starfish! Our ‘wow a freak of nature’ was probably more accurately described as a genetic anomaly by the captain/on board biologist! We also enjoyed diving for sand dollars and seeing a ray and small reef shark swimming together, oh and venturing in to the mangroves to see the absolute craziest underwater creatures – I can’t even start to describe them, well sort of giant shell-less snail shaped with tentacles all over.....okay no, can’t describe them!! We did get a little bitten, nothing to show for it but a weird sensation that the captain said was micro-organisms that were essentially eyeballs with claws – sort of the very start of a crab?! Okay a little crazy again!





This weekend we hired our very own water taxi, paid over the odds (must remember to haggle) and were picked up from a local dock and taken to Playa Wizard. The beach was totally amazing, very few people, a small sloth and amazing clear water. Heaven for the afternoon.





Sunday we seemed to be glued to the hammock again studying but did venture to the swimming hole opposite to cool down – it’s tough.

Semana dos

Moderately more activity in our second week, managed to drag ourselves away from the hammock for a few outings including to another island for a Thai meal. Thank god we were with someone who knew the way as it involved a walk through the forest in the dark and mud!! But was totally worth it. What else? We went to a cooking class at the Spanish school which was fun – mostly we remember the rum and the rain and not the cooking but it definitely tasted good!! I think there was ice cream... and some dancing which is testament to the amount of rum when it comes to Gio and dancing!
We also decided to take the bus out to Estrella beach – starfish beach and see the ‘hundreds’ of brightly coloured starfish we have been hearing about. After much walking and swimming and goggles filled with water we discovered about 5 in total. The highlight was a fish jumping over Gio’s head when he was swimming but apparently we need a return visit as no one can believe we managed to miss ALL the starfish!
As is an almost daily occurrence in Bocas a big storm hit on Thursday which we enjoy as part of the craziness of Bocas – especially the puddle I found that went up to my knees, Gio found that more entertaining than I did...
This weekend we hit the beach and spent a chilled out Sunday snorkelling and being entertained by the crazy ghost crabs on the beach – we are officially very easily entertained!

Sunday




Lesa y Samba







Beach opposite our casita

Monkey business

So we have been here a week! Not sure the Spanish is that impressive yet but definitely making progress. Apart from study we've been leading the quiet life. But Bocas doesn't really do quiet!
Friday night the dogs (Sassy y Samba) spent the night howling at the full moon! Then the storms arrived, never experienced anything like it - thunder like a bomb under the house and rain like a swimming pool emptying on to your roof. Crazy crazy crazy.

And then the monkeys arrived!! We have had a whole troop of howler monkeys visiting for the weekend. It's been hilarious and meant we've spent far too long just sitting watching them. They too seem to be signed up for the 'let's keep it noisy in Bocas' plan and make the most bonkers growling, grunty, howling noises.



So we've enjoyed really feeling like we're out in the wild, and have ventured out on our bikes to explore some wild and gorgeous beaches and scenery.

Here are some photos of the sea/ our ride to work (for you Karl), and our rather exotic little cabana.