Day 12 - Bus Ride to Montezuma

Thomas was the first one downstairs this morning a little before 6am. I had woken up earlier and laid in bed checking weather on the iPad and playing a little Angry Birds Rio. As I walked down, a happy little young man greeted me with a big smile. Anna got up about an hour later and then followed by Olivia another 30 minutes later. I had gone up to wake Olivia so she would have an hour to get ready and eat some breakfast before we needed to leave to catch the bus. Anna, Thomas and I played some crazy 8’s while Olivia was getting ready.

We promptly left the property at 8:30am and locked our gate. The bus is scheduled to be at the stop at 9:15am. We get down to the stop and decide to keep walking to the next bus stop. Just as we pass, Eric and Jenny who we meet the previous day drove by. They stop wished us a good morning and offered a ride to Montezuma. We gladly accepted. The kids piled in the back of Daihatsu and off we went. Eric and Jenny we had arranged a trip out to Isle of Tortuga today. They are to come by later this evening for some drinks possibly.

The beach was calling our name, so we meandered on down. We had not yet been to any of the sandy beaches by Montezuma since we arrived, so this would be a treat. The rocks are plentiful near the beach head. They create pools of marine life that the kids love to explore. Zebra fish and sea urchins were to be found all over. Hermit crabs were as plentiful like the shells on the beach. Crabs hung out on the outskirts of the end rock formations closest to the water. It gave shelter and brought a constant flow of fresh food from the currents.

We played in the rocks for at least an hour before heading further down the beach. We are planning on coming back here again in the next couple of days, but on horseback. As we walked down further, paths opened up near the trees. The cool shaded paths made a great reprieve from the sun.  We eventually came across a creek bottom opening up into the ocean. Climbing up the creek bed, the rocks got slicker than snot. Anna hunkered down near the bottom and the kids and I ventured up. We came across a beautiful waterfall. We all wished Anna could have seen it up close. Looked around for a couple more minutes and headed back down to Mama.

Walked backed to the town center and ate at the place we first visited on our initial day. We knew the food would be good and the view would be better. No one was disappointed. Paid the tab and walked to the bus stop. The bus to Cabuya was to leave at 2:30pm. As we got to the bus stop at 2:05 it was parked to side of the main road. No problem. We were happy to know the bus was there. It was actually waiting on the bigger bus to come in from Cobano, before departing. We got on the bus at about 2:25. In America this bus could accommodate about 14 people . The bus from Cobano unloaded and started heading to our bus. “No way”, I thought. “Surely all these people aren’t getting on this bus”, I said to myself. They were. It was packed. Luckily the ride would not be long.

Anna met John and Connie on the bus and jaw-jacked the whole ride home. They live in St. Augustine, Florida and had a house built here about four years ago. They built the house sight unseen. Through the power of the internet they manage to find a local builder and paid for him to build it upfront. It is a small home made with love, care and a lot of personal touch for $40K. Two bedroom, nice size bathroom, and very spacious kitchen. The front patio acted as their living. The hardwoods in the place were to die for. A lot of Guana Casta and some Teak. He had built all the bed frames himself. They had incredible backboards made of Guana Casta here purchased locally for $10 each. We visited a while longer before heading back home. Looking forward to having dinner with the couple in the next few days.

Walking home we had a troop of well over twenty howlers playing in the trees above us. We stopped to watch the family play. There were quite a bit of juveniles in the pack. They did not like our presence so they decided to break off some branches and heave them our way. We got the point and decided to leave them at peace. It must have been dinner time for them, because all of them were picking off some sort of fruit of the trees.

In to the gate and the kids were back in the pool. Thank goodness we had gotten a place with a pool. It has turned out to be something all of us look forward to in the morning and at the end of the day.