wow, i didn’t type a single word here for over a week, and so much has happened!

the day that shulztman left was also the day that jessica and chris arrived from canada. it had started to rain and their bus was scheduled to arrive at the house between 7 and 9pm. we tidied up as we waited. kelli and tommy didn’t land from chicago until sunday and then took a monday morning bus, so we hit the beach and kept it pretty low key. the details are already getting fuzzy so i’ll try and be more diligent about jotting notes each day at least. jessica and chris went to the sloth sanctuary with dawn, we drove up to manzanillo and swam in the ocean while it rained, we tried a road that took us to the beach that we’ve named t-rex road since it looked like one had just walked by and was pretty crazy to maneuver through in our suv. the rain was a bit of a bummer for a few days but it definitely got sunny during the week.

on monday we had to meet up with kellie and tommy at rocking j’s which is the tent/hammock hostel that also has @t Es, the internet restaurant/bar up front. their van was supposed to drop them off there so I went down with jessica and chris to wait. they ate lunch while I worked on the D&D pinup calendar (go buy a few!). we had been waiting over an hour and a half when I told them to take the car back to the house and have dawn an paul come back for me so that they could at least go to the beach while i waited. once dawn and paul showed up we waited for another hour or so. i had been trying to call and email whoever i could to track them down. dawn’s iPhone was dead and wasn’t booting with just laptop power so I took it to the car and used the car charger for a few minutes. once it got enough power to boot up I let it sit another minute and got out of the car and immediately saw Tommy in the road heading into @Es! turns out their van dropped them off in town and they had walked all the way past our street and were on their way back when I saw them. the next few days were full of sloth tours, atv tours, zip lining, lots of frisbee on the beach, skip-bo, toss up, drinking, smoking, and just having a great time. i made breakfast every day and so far the big hit is my tiko toast which is very similar to french toast.

we got bikes right after shultzman left so that’s been a regular part of our days lately as well. it’s very flat around here so riding a bike is a perfect way to get around. we bought three bikes and plan to sell them before we leave, either to the guy that owns the house we’re renting or maybe to one of the many bike rental shops. they’re beach cruisers with a basket up front and mine is sporting a classic D&D lisence plate!

…I’ve been typing this over a few days when I get a chance and yesterday was yule. we made a tree out of some snake sticks, fishing line, yarn, paper chains, and some terrible paper snowflakes (how do you make those again?!?). we all shopped locally for each other but paul does chrsitmas and not yule, so dawn and I exchanged gifts and gave paul his, and he’ll give us ours on xmas. it’s weird being dar from family during the holidays but being in the jungle is a little more weird since the commercial idea of it all hardly exists out here. you see some lights and a tree now and then, but it’s not america that’s for sure!

dawn got me an awesome hammock. it’s huge and striped with red, yellow, green and black, and I’m laying in it right now as i type.

after the gift exchange, dawn went with our neighbor on a much needed laundry mission. not so much for washing but for drying. that seems to be the biggest struggle out here, dry clothes and linens. while she was gone I biked to playa cocles to watch surfers and met ray, a canadian who wants to open a hostel in nicaragua and also gave me a fat hash joint that I’m also enjoying as I type.

yesterday paul and i biked deeper into cocles and scoped out a possible fishing spot. we have some gear but need to get some tackle before we can try it out. I’m looking forward to catching some fish!

it’s tuesday morning now, the 22nd of december. tomorrow will be three weeks and we’ve already seen five guests come and go. we won’t see any more until after new years. I need to peel myself out of this hammock and go upload this update.

ciao for now…