Casa Metta

What a beautiful spot, a beautiful home, great weather. Its great to be here. The sea has been fabulous, we have had lots of flat water so have been able to do lots of kayaking. The water is so clear on flat days that we can see a multitude of tropical fish right under our boat.

Mike Kate and the grandkids Lindsay (4) and Tristan (2) were here from the 5th to the 15th. We all had a great time, playing, walking the beach, swimming in the little pool; Lindsay is now swimming all on her own! She likes to dive under for things and to sink down to the bottom and sit on your feet! Tristan had a good time in the water too. The two of them get along so well, they played and played all day. They found lots of cool things on the beach including a whole dried trigger fish! That was the best find, but it has to stay here. We visited the neighbors animals with the children and fed them treats. The dogs were more than happy to gobble up their treats and to play ball with the kids but Trish and Trev’s cats scampered away when the kids arrived, only two of the four came out for camerone! And Smokey, well forget him! He didn't show his face!

Mike and Kate did some kayaking and snorkeling while here and they took the kayaks out one day to where the batrays were jumping. They saw literally hundreds of batrays swimming under their boats and watched them leaping out of the water at a very close distance. They were able to get some great pictures. This leaping thing is a very strange thing the batrays do. It sometimes looks like a chorus line with many of them leaping up together and landing with a big slap on the water. This goes on at times day after day and all through the night. When the water is really flat they make a very loud slap, almost like a gun shot! These are not small creatures – their wingspan is between 3 and 4 feet on average so a fairly awesome sight to see at close range.

I started a Spanish class on the 12th for three hours a day with about 6 hours of homework every night. There were a total of 8 in the class and it was only for 8 days, one can do anything for a short period of time right? I learned a great deal, Paulina was a wonderful teacher. There was an exam at the end and I passed. This means I can go on to the second level and spend another 8 days working 10 hours a day/or I fall asleep on Spanish. Not this trip - maybe next year, that was an exhausting 8 days but I think well worth it!

Our neighbors (and friends) Jim and MaryAnne lent us their quad and Lorne and I drove the 6 miles into town. Way cool. I think Lorne is sold on getting one. I had to travel daily with Trevor to town on his quad to attend Spanish lessons; quite a different driver than Lorne! Each day he went a little faster, very fun. Perhaps once Lorne gets more used to it he will find the gas pedal…. Ha.

We have had some great visits with the neighbors here. Some very interesting and lovely people; we feel completely at home in this little neighborhood.

Our friends Ellen and Chris own Casa Metta and they have been so very kind to welcome our use of it even though they will not be here till March 5. I wish we could stay till they get here but we do need to start heading north. Ellen told us that they had a caretaker here who was in the casita (small house) and we could have the big house. Well we did have a bit of a surprise when we arrived here, as the kitchen in the casita had been ripped out and a new one, which was to have been put in months ago, was yet to be completed, or to even have had any workers for quite some time! So that puts Dirk the caretaker in the house with us. Well he sleeps in the casita; and understandably has to cook in the house. Good thing he is such an easy going nice guy.

Tomorrow, Friday, we head to Los Barriles to stay at an RV park in town for a few days then will head north looking for good kayaking. We plan to be home the second or third week of March.

Being without a computer is such a drag I tell you. I only hope we can get things off the hard drive from the fried one.