tropical cloudburst

We woke up this morning and since there are no clocks in the room, I looked at my Blackberry to check the time: 9:30. Dang, slept a bit longer than I'd planned or hoped. Then Marc reminded me that we're actually two hours behind (we're in Central time zone, but no daylight savings) and that made me so happy! Slept in, but suddenly gained two hours. We walked down the beach to go out for breakfast. Look at the view. Wow. It kind of hypnotized me.

We went back to the Lobster Pot. Here's the view from our table on the deck. It looks like a movie set, the sand is so clean and artfully strewn with leaves.

It's a dumb name for the place, but the food is just so so delicious. It's like your mom cooks for you, but she's an amazing 5-star chef. I know I keep saying the word amazing, but it is really that good.

YEAH. That's the renowned french toast we kept reading about on all the TripAdvisor reviews and forums. It's really as good as I'd hoped. The homemade coconut bread the cook uses is delicious; we had some with dinner last night and it was soft and chewy and homemade wonderful. But what makes the french toast magnificent - and i'm not such a huge french toast fan - is that it's absolutely crisp and crunchy. It crunches when you cut it with your fork, but the inside is pillowy. That's a dumb food writer phrase, and a cliche, but I can't help it. That's what it is. Even though I'm still so full I can't stand it, 3 hours after breakfast, just writing about it makes me want some more. We shared a plate of "tropical fruit" which consisted of a sliced banana, several fat round red grapes, 3 slices of papaya, and 3 slices of cantaloupe. Not really too tropical, but it was good. And the OJ, just squeezed. Breakfast is my favorite meal, and this was great.

I think this blog will really be about the food, because there's the beach/ocean and there are restaurants. I may run out of adjectives to describe the beauty of the island and beaches, and there are only so many water and sunrise/sunset photos I can take. We'll see. Our 2-week fall vacations are generally spent dashing from here to there: Lake Titicaca to Machu Picchu; Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City; Delhi to Varanasi. But our spring trips are just a week, usually near water, and they tend to be low key.

Anyway, we meandered back down the beach to our hotel, stopping to (try to) buy some fruit to keep in our room. The guy only took lempira, the local currency, which is actually quite rare, here. The menus only show prices in US dollars, and everyone accepts US money without hesitation. They usually give change in lempira, so we'll try again tomorrow.

We walked out on the pier at our hotel to take a look at the crystal clear water; really, it's like an aquarium or something, even Marc has never seen water this clear. It's like Xel-Ha, cenote clear.

The sky was filling with dark clouds, but it looked like we'd have time for a quick snorkel trip.

We dashed back to our room and gathered our gear and headed out, slipping into the water at the end of the pier. There are scorpionfish around, and barracuda, but a great plenty of amazing coral and colorful plants, and plenty of beautiful fish to see. We just stayed near our hotel because the sky was looking dark, but it was so much fun we can't wait to go out again. The boat takes divers and snorkelers out to the reef a few times each day, and we're going to do that soon.

Rain drops started to fall so we went back to our room just as it really started a drenching rain. Marc lay in the hammock and I sat in a chair on the porch, watching and listening to the cloudburst. Hot showers felt so good. Muscles used for snorkeling that don't often get used in Manhattan, felt so good. Relaxing, so so good. Stress of work, melting away.

Right now Marc is taking a scouting walk into and through the nearby town while I upload this post. There is no internet connection in the room, so I have to go to the central restaurant/pool/lobby area to get wifi. There's a 2nd floor space that looks out over the water, and I sit there to write these posts and upload the photos. It reminds me of our trip to Vietnam, when we sat in a huge salon looking out at the Gulf of Tonkin, near Hanoi, posting photos and blog entries and feeling like it's a very weird world.

So far so great. I'd recommend this place without reservation. It's all so good, and we are having a wonderful time together. But then we're really good at this vacation business. We both seem to have a special talent for it. :)