Slow Progress

Today was a pretty chill day, relatively speaking. Sadly, due to loudly gabbing and clueless fellow hotel guests, Jenn had another rough night last night so the sickness lingers on. We started off with breakfast at our new favorite little restaurant and had more fabulous homemade yumminess, including the best orange juice I've ever had. And of course Jenn wasn't going to let a little thing like illness keep her from adventure, this time in the form of zip-lining! Not only did she get the adventure of hiking up a mountain then coming back down it in the form of high-speed zip lines (sadly, all of the pictures are on her camera), she also practically got a marriage proposal. The guide was quite smitten, to say the least!

After that we bought some great little treasures at the store below our hotel where nearly everything is handmade, a lot of it by local artists. Then we just HAD to have one last meal at our restaurant (we're total regulars now)... and one last freshly squeezed pineapple juice. Mmmm! Oh, and somewhere in there we said fond farewells to the resident four-legged friends, Sam the Dog who stared us down the whole time we ate, every time, waiting for any spare morsel and, of course, my new best friend, Monica the Monkey. I'm pretty sure I saw a tear in her eye when I told her I wouldn't be coming back. But me giving her one last under-arm rub definitely helped ease her pain (as you can see in the pic).

And then, because you know how stressful vacation can be, we decided today was a perfect day for massages. We had noticed the little spa on the edge of town on our way in yesterday and both had the same idea. We thought it would a locally run, inexpensive little treat. We were mistaken. Turns out it was run by Canadians who had no qualms about charging us full price. But at that point, we were already so into the idea, we decided to just go for it. It was, um, interesting to say the least. Jenn felt she got her money's worth, I felt like I got about half of my money's worth. But hey, can there really be a bad massage??

Jenn had just enough energy left to do one last thing: to go see La Piedra Pintada (The Painted Rock). Basically, it's a big rock with petroglyphs on it. But it's set back in a lovely patch of forest with a waterfall running in the background. And the best part were the three cute little boys who ran up to the car the minute we got our offering to be our "guides". All for a small fee, of course. They were SO cute and SO eager that we couldn't resist. One of the three offered to be the one who would stay and watch our car. I figured he would be off playing with his friends within two minutes of our walking away but when we came back about an hour later he was sitting on the tree stump by our car, watching it intently. Very impressive.

The other two boys came with us and showed us where the rock was and then hiked up a little farther with us to the waterfall. We started back, thinking we had gotten our full tour when one of the boys said to me "Now it's time for me to tell you the story of the rock". Jenn and I sat down solemnly and he got out a big pointer stick and very seriously started in on his lively and clearly well informed presentation. It didn't even matter what he was saying, just watching him be so serious and go through his recitation was so entertaining that Jenn and I just sat with huge smiles on our faces the whole time, nodding accordingly when appropriate. And then, just when we thought we were done, the other boy got up and did his part of the presentation. Equally amusing. There were bravos, applause, laughter and lots of pictures.

The boys became enamored with our cameras on which they could see immediate images of themselves and soon asked if they could try to take a picture. I showed them how and they went wild, taking pictures of each other, of me and Jenn, of the rock, the flowers, the mountains, and so on. Cute stuff.

We had been told before going that there were always kids around offering to be guides and that if we gave them money, most likely either their parents or any adult who happened to be nearby would take the little bit of money they had made and keep it for themselves. But THEY had earned it so we made sure to pull them out of view by the car when we gave them each a dollar. I whispered to them that they should hide it, that the money wasn't for any adults, but only for them because they had done such a great job both in guarding our car and in giving us the tour. Their eyes got big, they got huge smiles on their faces and then, without even a second of thought or discussion between them, they ran across the little street to the snack shop and bought themselves some goodies. As we were pulling out, they ran back up to our car to show us what they had bought, thanking us and wishing us a good trip. And THAT is the stuff I love most about traveling.