Travels with Hayley

Woke today to a slightly panicked text from mum checking if I was alive as the diaries have ground to a halt! Everyone has found their holiday legs and is going to bed much later so there’s just literally no time in the day to write them – I’m making bullet points though so nothing will be missed, I’m determined to never forget anything about this trip. 

I went and sat on the stairs by the pool (pool was locked as it was only 6.45 and it was the only place I could find a WiFi connection…) and we chatted on FaceTime which was lovely and proved that I was indeed alive and well and had not been kidnapped into the white slave trade. Although as mum used to tell me as a kid, anyone that kidnapped me would bring me back pretty sharpish 😂

It was Homa’s 50th birthday today so I had managed to get her some foil 50 balloons, a sloth keyring and the matching cuddly toucan than we had got Kristy. I took them down to breakfast and sang happy birthday and she was so pleased. The toucan is now named Antonio so we now have Manuel and Antonio the toucans! 

Sat by the pool for a bit when it opened joined by a huge iguana, I’d have leapt out of my skin 2 weeks ago if an iguana was within 20 feet of me, now I barely bat an eyelid! Apparently they won’t attack but if they feel threatened by you will whip you with their tail which Marvin assures us is like being hit with an iron bar so I’m careful still not to do anything antagonistic! 

I was trying to write diaries but it was sooo hot I ended up in the actual pool (which is shaded by a massive sail which is a very smart idea) and just typed in there! Kristie came up and joined me and we just companionably typed, edited photos and chatted away. There were beautiful birds flying around us and I just felt like I could stay here for ever, I have loved this trip so much, I just don’t ever want to leave (although obviously I miss you all terribly etc etc…😜)

The Australians came to join us and they decided what was needed extra here was beer as some stereotypes about nationalities are in fact there for a reason 😂. We have a whole morning free today, it feels so weird not doing anything, so we did a quick supermarket run for their beer and my Coke Zero. We were out on the ocean this afternoon and I decided what I needed was a cheap waterproof mascara (you can’t let standards slip, I can hear mum every time I try and go out with wet hair and no lipstick and have to sort both out!). I went to the pharmacy and was going to use google translate when I realised the pharmacist spoke no English but another customer stepped in and translated and we found a waterproof mascara. I asked the price which she told me and I couldn’t understand but he assured me $2 or $3 US dollars. Great, I stuck that on my Monzo card. I was a little bit surprised therefore when I got back to WiFi and the Monzo purchase popped through at £19 😂😂😂 There was obviously a breakdown in communication along the way somewhere! Let’s all hope this is a very good mascara shall we 😂

Back in the pool and Martina joined us, she’s lovely. She’s Czech, early 50’s and lives in New Zealand with her Italian husband, how complicated! She’s very glam, her swimsuit is by Yves Saint Laurent. Her husband spends a lot of time taking photos of her, I think he can’t quite believe his luck he got her – neither can anyone else tbh! They met as teenagers in Switzerland, lost touch when they returned home and married, had families etc then reconnected on Facebook in 2017 when they were both divorced and ended up getting married 2 years later. Isn’t that lovely 🥰

Kristie and I headed into town for the ATM and stopped at the bakery for lunch (I had refused to participate in breakfast today after yesterdays fiasco, I don’t care about breakfast much at the best of times and just couldn’t bear the stress!) and got the most delicious things! We got like a puff pastry empanada full of spicy chicken, a puff pastry pocket filled with what I think was a cross between buttercream and custard, covered with icing sugar and something called Tamal Yucca which was nothing like the tamales we’d had earlier, it was kind of like a polenta cake except chunkier, sweet but not too sweet. All delicious. We bumped into a big group of the others in town so made them all have a bite of everything as snacks are not snacks here in my book unless I’ve got everyone to try them and appreciate them with me! 

Minibus picked up 7 of us plus Marvin who was sneaking a freebie at 1.40 and took us to the marina which was really fancy!

We got on a catermaran and headed out to sea (an an aside, travel sickness tablets are absolutely life changing, why did I not try these decades ago?!). It was the most wonderful afternoon. Music playing, they were serving cocktails and fruit, the wind was in our hair and we just laid on the deck and chatted. Suddenly we came across a pod of dolphins who were jumping up in the air and playing and keeping up with the boat – it was truly, truly magical. We moored up and went snorkelling which I haven’t done for decades. Took me a while to figure it out and I still maintain I had a crappy mask but I managed it and we saw a few pretty fish even though the visibility wasn’t amazing. The sea here is saltier than anywhere I’ve ever been though, when it gets in your eyes it stings like a buggar!

There was a slide off the top of the boat that dropped you off the end a couple of feet above the water so we did that and a platform right at the top you could jump off so I did that too – I’ve got so brave on this trip with everyone around me!

Once we started heading back they served us a meal of freshly cooked mahi-mahi fish, rice, beans and vegetables which was delicious and we moored up again to watch the spectacular sunset. It was really, really special. A song came on at the end that reminded Judy of her late husband (he died last year after having cancer and then getting Covid) and she got really teary (the 6 pina coladas didn’t help) but everyone was hugging her and looking after her and just being so sweet.

We headed back to the hotel and as it was Kristy’s birthday yesterday and Homa and Martina’s birthday today was had a party up on the roof by the pool and Marvin bought them a big cake. We all just sat and chatted and said goodbye to Richard and Alison who were leaving a day earlier to go off to another hotel in Costa Rica for a few nights instead of going back to San Jose. It was a really lovely end to a really special day. Judy made a speech thanking Marvin for his leadership and the group for being so great and it was so lovely it made me cry, she really got how we all felt into words.

Can’t believe tomorrow is our last full day as a group, I’m not ready!!

Lots of love always xxx

Ps. The mascara looks great but is not what I would call waterproof being that it came off in the water 😂