Wednesday March 23rd

            Ahh!  The sweet sound of palms and birds again to soothe me awake!  I even got up early today, at 6:30am!  I played with the photos from yesterday, and created the web page of same.  All from the comfort of my terrace, surrounded by the lovely ambience of the sweet tropical gardens of Casa Rita!  I worked for awhile in the hammock, then took a break, and just watched the birds for awhile, as I swayed back and forth.  What a great start to the day!

For breakfast, the usual spread was out, and I happened to catch the last fresh plate of fruit, straight from the fridge! Ooooh, the cool freshly cut pineapple, Muskmelon, watermelon, and mango was like heaven! Fresh squeezed OJ along side, and then some ham and cheese on toast, and the meal is all I want or need. Add the sweet open air environment, clear azure skies above, and the soft swish of palms, and the day is off to a great start!

Can barely see Coche today! Looks like it might be windy! I can see the shore birds from my terrace, on the hammock, and watch their flight patterns for clues to the strength and consistency of the upper winds, hoping for a predictor of the days wind potential. This often seems to work, and it looks strong up there!

I got down to the beach, people watching as the crowds swarm over the small fishing/windsurf village of El Yaque for the huge Santa Semana week long beach party! Most of the locals have the whole week off, and are ready to party! It is a great people watching event! We suddenly have to share our beautiful surf environment with so many others, and this makes for some friction; but if you just relax and enjoy the sights and sounds of a huge beach party, it can be very fun! It’s like Carnival has been brought to you!

This year Bernie had the brilliant plan to help keep our path to the water clear of beach squatters, a corridor of mast tops and yellow caution tape, creating our sacred path to el agua! This is working perfectly, and the staff is in all matching shirts, with official looking radios at both the beach and Vela center ends of the corridor! Alex, Bernie, Enero, and Wicho with the wrap shades, all look like nightclub bouncers, protecting the turf!

The beach this Santa Semana is as full as I have seen in two previous visits during this one week out of the surf season! By mid afternoon, it is standing room only on the beach! This helps keep the boards and sails from sitting long! You either surf it, or get it off the beach! The staff is doing awesomely, and keeps the flow moving, so I notice little or no difference in my surf access. Can’t complain, if I can plane!

Once out on the water, the number of surfers is about half of last week, so the water is very un-crowded and so sweet to play in, plenty of room for rides and big wide jibes as you come in! Most all the swimmers stay to the inside, and the jibe zone is clear for rippin! I had a blast with the camera again! Ricardo was out, and ripping the tricks off every piece of chop, like the pro he is! Got some fantastic shots of him! Photo session here.

After the intense photo fun I then had my own great afternoon session on a 5.0M and the 98lt JP again! The jumps and jibes were many, and the smiles were wide! Every face that came ashore was full of happiness from an awesome rippin session! I had to stop after an hour and a half, to save some of my joints for the next 4 weeks! The jumpin is hard on the body, but ohh so fun! Plenty of air-time today!

After the awesome day, I met up with my fellow beach chair rider, David, and we sat down for the happy hour people watching show! Good beach scene, plenty of happy folks enjoying the day at the beach! We chatted and observed the fun, and then made plans for a dinner at Atti restaurant.

Then Nikki and Yuri from Slovienia joined us, and the four of us had some very good fish and chicken, and of course some onion soup for me! Full and content, we talked ‘till almost eleven, and after Frank the waiter was reporting on the party activities thru the binoculars from the edge of the terrace, we decided to make the move to check out Gabby’s!

The place was just getting started about midnight, and the band was warming up, perfect timing! With music full on, and the place packed with regulars and tourists, the dance floor soon became full of fun seekers! It was again amazing to be part of it all, and witness so many having so much fun! I even joined in for some tambor dancing fun! What a blast!

I again met at least 3 more people from previous visits here, and we had an awesome time reliving the past years fun! It was 2am before we managed to wrestle ourselves away and return to rest mode! Great Day! Great Night! Luego..