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There is a wee boy who comes by almost every day, his name is Pipo and yells “hola” as he passes. Rosalie gave him a coconut and also a bag of assorted goodies that we didn’t need. Now he often comes by yelling”amiga, amiga.” and presents Rosalie with a hibiscus flower. He a nice little kid and once when I was opening the gates to let the car out, he helped me so I gave him five pesos.

The next day he saw me in the garden and put his hand through the gate for another donation; I’m not going there as you never know where it will end. Next. he’ll be coming by with a weapon and making demands. Later, he’ll be by with a bunch of friends and before you know it he’ll be running his own cartel at the age of six.

The area we live in is very rustic and the streets are dusty. I’ve got into the habit of spraying down the car every second day when I water the garden. It seems to help as I don’t have to wash it so much. We clean the dust off the dashboard and within a few days we have to do it again.

We’re about a ten-minute walk to the beach but mostly prefer to go into town to Papa Gallo’s, about a fifteen-minute walk, for our afternoon drinks. We have been threatening to walk the new Malecón for the past three years but somehow never seem to get around to it.

It’s madness week here as St. Patrick’s day is coming up. Each morning we are woken early by cohetes exploding with a loud bang. They are rockets sent up by the local church to call everyone to mass. Some people, including the locals, are trying to get it either stopped or at least toned down as it not only frightens some people but it’s disturbing to all the dogs and especially autistic people. Someone localy is trying to get up a partition to get it stopped. I don’t think it will work though as this tradition has been going on for hundreds of years.

Also during the ten days leading up to St Patrick’s day, there are fireworks in the main square culminating in a huge display on the actual day. But more of that in a later blog. We haven’t attended for several years but are going to go this year.

I went fishing with Art and caught the biggest, for me, fish this year.

Update

We finally walked the Malecón. I wonder why they spent so much money on such an impractical thing when the streets need paving as well as all the other infrastructure upgrades that need doing. They must have used hundreds of tonnes of concrete. It’s beautiful, but maybe there are more important things.