La Playa

I discovered today that the area at the back of the cafe, 'A Page in the Sun', where the deckchairs are arranged around a low table, is called La Playa, the beach. I have the largest double espresso I've ever seen, so I may be flying out of here like the parascenders dragged off behind a speedboat.

Yesterday we did the tourist thing and went on an excursion. Highlights included seeing coffee, cocoa and vanilla plants in a botanical garden up in the hills, a roadside bakery where they built a sort of pizza oven into the hillside, an artisan cheese producer, lunch sitting in the middle of a river (yes, with our feet in the water) and a tour of a small family-run tequila distillery, with the obligatory tasting. Alexis succumbed to the temptation of a tequila infused with coffee and chocolate. I hope the bottle survives the journey home.

Our tour mates included a Mexican family from Mexico City, with the eldest son, Arnolfo, waiting to hear if his application for a Masters in Computer Science at Manchester University has been successful, and a couple from Vancouver who had previously lived in the Cotswolds for a year whilst on a sabbatical and knew friends who lived in Sandbach!

Delightful company, with a very young but very skilled guide, made for a great day.

The weather unfortunately has not been so good, and the forecast for the rest of our stay ranges from poor to terrible. I don't think this is divine retribution (did I gloat too much about coming to all-day sunshine and 30 degrees?), and I'm treating it with indifference. If it rains it rains, but at least it's warm. I think Alexis is disappointed, after she'd built up my expectations, but I'm just enjoying my monster espresso in La Playa.