Our room at the Costa Linda Beach Hotel in Playa El Agua comes with a free breakfast – if you can drag yourself out of bed by 10:30 am. And as Christi and I are feeling rather becalmed in this island paradise, 10.30 am seems awfully early. Lassitude is seeping into our bones, which is not a good thing when you consider our next destination is Colombia. We’re a little nervous about visiting a country with such a violent recent history, but all the travelers we’ve met on our grand tour of South America rave about the friendliness of the people. These are the same travelers who warned Christi and I that Venezuela would be a challenging destination – and they were right about that, so we can only hope that cities with such infamous names as Bogotá and Medellin are really just little slices of heaven.
The only blot on this hot, sunny day is the realization that my fancy Nikon camera has dirt (almost certainly sand) on the sensor, which is showing up on many of my recent photos. After 5+ months of constant use and abuse my camera is, a bit like Christi and I, worn out and in need of some attention. I clean it up as best I can and then inform Christi that relaxing by the pool with a good book has to be put on hold because we need to go back to Playa El Agua for another photo shoot. Christi is…less than thrilled. Why pay for luxury if we’re not going to indulge she says quite pointedly? I appeal to her sense of wonder and the tremendous people watching opportunities and when this fails, I resort to begging.
Playa El Agua is, as usual, swarming with activity and we plunge right in. I also take a plunge in the Caribbean and do my best to look like a hunk emerging from the water in one of those adverts for some fancy cologne. As I scan the resulting images, I realize I need a personal trainer, a better diet, and a camera that lies.
We eventually return to the Costa Linda Beach Hotel to relax by the pool and write our diaries – sadly neglected in the presence of Ashley and Kelvin. We also have lot s of food that we were planning to eat at the Javimar apartment, so we have tuna and sardine sandwiches for lunch. The rest of the day is taken up with vegging in front of the TV, lounging in the in-room hammock, and ultimately packing. Tomorrow we head for our ninth (I’m counting Paraguay!) and last country in South America, Colombia, arguably still the cocaine capital of the world.
Blog post by Roderick Phillips, author of Weary Heart, a gut-wrenching, heart-wrenching, laugh-wrenching story.
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