Monday Feb 19^th

I seemed to have brought a wind sucking action to El Yaque!! The wind was blowing good before I got here!! Or so everyone says! Ok, it’s been 6.4 to 8.0, so still a sailing day in MN, but knowing it will come back to the 4.5-5.0 range, I am biding my time, and finishing some work instead of sailing and snapping pictures. Gotta work while the wind is down.

The morning was again spectacular, and I enjoyed breakfast looking out on the ocean, watching the kites fly as I sipped my coffee from the room service of breakfast. Steve had brought me a office desk, and I am still not quite set up completely, as I have some other parts I shipped down to get out of storage to complete the workstation. I’ll get those today.

I got a few hours of work thru the morning, and into the afternoon, before I just couldn’t stand one more second of digital interface, and headed to the beach to see what fun I could get into. The beach scene was still crowded for the Carnival fun, and the people watching was still in prime season. (Sorry only a single photo for today, see it here.) I decided to skip the +7m sail ride, and opted for some foot-bag (Hacky-sack) with the crew.

I was in poor form, but we all still had a great time kicking the bag around. We were about 5-10 min into it, and a local pro stepped in and showed us how to do a bunch of new tricks! I could not believe the speed and agility of this kid!! He was doing the hardest tricks known to Footbag folks, and pulling them off without a hitch!! Just a guy at the beach, checking out the locals, and you would be amazed at how good he was! The crowd around us grew, as we played the afternoon away. What a great time!! I got to see some of the most amazing tricks, now if I can just remember and reproduce them!

After a sweaty session, and a great workout, I hit the showers, and then on to home to change and go over to Wicho’s place to help him set up the laptop I dumped on him. He met me in front of his place by Fueza Siese, and we then went thru the place, as I got to meet his parents and family. They are true locals, and have been fishing here for years. The family is all together in separate little houses, strung together one following another as we made our way thru the place. So cool to actually be able to get into the life of a local, and see the true El Yaque we can never see as tourists. They had the chickens, ducks, and rabbits penned up for use by the family, I felt like I was back on Timber ridge farm from the days of my youth! Very interesting, felt like home.

Wicho had a beer in my hand the moment we came in, and we met Roxy at the house for the laptop setup session. I soon realized I did not have all the parts there, and we would need to get them from Vela storage, so we took the entire pile back to my room for later setup, and returned to his place for chicken and rabbit stew!! Such a flavorful meal! I was reminded again of my youth, when after a day of hunting, the only thing we could get was rabbit. This stew was a lot better than I remember Rabbit tasting like!

We drank a few more beers, and Roxy and I made plans to run into Porlamar for a grocery run the next morning at 9am, before Wicho and I headed out to Gaby’s for some more beer and pool. This was a great time! Out with a local friend, and we ended up enjoying ourselves until the wee hours of the morning with all the activities! What a blast being back in my hometown away from home!

After all the fun, it was off to bed, and dreams of wind tomorrow.

Timoteo