March 12 - Playa Grande, Dinner at Les Colores del Pacifico

Today -another hot day. We felt quite sun-baked yesterday, so decided to spend most of our day under the thatched open air "lobby" of this bed and breakfast, Colores del Pacifico.

After breakfast, we took our new friend, Nina, to the dentist for a root canal in Brasilito, just down the road. Nina and her friend, Rhianne, have sold all their possessions in London and decided to move here and start a business. They were sick of the rat race of their lives in London. They have given themselves a year to explore and to ponder before investing. We like them both very much and admire their spirit of adventure, but also their wisdom. They want to open an ecologically friendly place with yurts for their guests and also employing aquaponics where fish and plants support each other. They also want to grow their own food as much as possible. Rhianne has experience with solar panels and is handy with tools. They each bring a lot to the venture.

Then, we went to Playa Grande, a wide open surf beach, not far from here. It is beautiful and it was essentially deserted. We plunked ourselves down under a tree and watched a few surfers. We didn't go in the water, partly because we didn't want to trek across the hot sand, partly because we decided to stay out of the sun today, and partly because the waves looked pretty serious.

Then, we went to the mercado and bought fixings for a small lunch. The afternoon, we wiled away in the communal area by the pool which we have entirely to ourselves. We are truly enjoying the
peace and serenity of this place as these kind of days don't come along in our lives very often.

The day ended beautifully. Six of us ate dinner here on the terrace in a meal cooked by Ben and Charlotte. (Ben is the owner's son and manager, and Charlotte is his partner). We were joined by Nina and Rhianne. Nina has Greek and British heritage and spent her childhood in Greece, has dual passports and speaks Greek and English. Rhianne is Australian. The other couple was a wonderful due who met at Rutgers, but now live in Atlanta. He has a tech job and is studying for his MBA. She is close to her PhD in Phamacology. They are Nadia and Mahmoud. She is of Lebanese descent, but lived in Saudi Arabia and went to the American School there before going to Rutgers. He was born in Alexandria, Egypt and came to the U.S. at age 10. We find them both delightful and it is so nice to reminisce about Egypt and Arabic, not to mention having an in-depth and intelligent conversation about the turmoil in the Middle East etc.

It was a lively, intelligent group, international in flavor. Not a drop of alcohol was had, but there was wit, laughter and good conversation. The meal was also delicious - both Mark and I had gazpacho as an appetizer and tuna with ginger for the main course. (We passed on dessert). It was a memorable evening and we hope that we continue to have contact with each of these four people.