Day 7. 

The Goddess isn't ready to leave yet. Neither am I for that matter. That's a good thing because we still have five full days ahead of us before we do. Today was another of those seemingly interminable days, bobbing about in the shallows, chewing the fat with friends, picking up drinks at Happy Hour and it's all just so predictable...

BANG! --as something hard smacks off my head. Huh? What? Did I really write that? The balance of my mind must have been temporarily disturbed.

The sun woke me up as it usually does and after it became clear that The Goddess was going to stay in The Land of Nod for a bit longer I decided to take the beach walk by myself around 7:20 or so. I saw and caught up with Larry (Biturbo) and we had a chat about the previous day and this and that. I was in the mood for some power walking, so we bid each other adieu and I moved on. The beach was fairly quiet but there were only one or two nude walkers and the beach was starting to get a bit active. Tomorrow, I'll start out a bit earlier and maybe carry something in case I need to cover up. A couple of interesting observations: Kakao is flying large Quebec and Canadian flags; the other is that the seaweed buildup that Dave mentioned in his reports is between Coco Beach and Mont Vernon. It looks like the reason for this is that there is nothing in between in the shape of beach bars or watersport businesses and so no one has an incentive to clear it away.

Back over the rocks past Pedro's I ran into a guy who asked if it was really OK to make the naked walk all the way down. I shared my understanding that as long as you are done by 8AM, you are probably OK but that there are no guarantees.

Back at the unit, The Goddess has arisen and has something on her mind...

Breakfast seems like a good idea and we head up to the Paradise View to share a galette and drink a bucketful of their wonderful coffee. From there we headed to the the pharmacy at Cul de Sac for some needed supplies and then to US Market to pick up a few things to cook for dinner tonight and Sunday. On the way back (real report alert!) we noticed the opening of a new store on the right, coming from the roundabout to Cul de Sac. The signage on the store (I'm assuming it's a store) says Leader Price but gives no indication of what kind of place it is. If we get the chance, I'll pull in and find out. Unless someone already knows.

Then what happened? Oh, the beach. You know, sand, water, sun, books -- I'm reading a Philip Marlow story now and it's a lot of fun. [At one point this week, I was watching from the water and counting the number of people reading a 50 Shades book. It's not fair! Women can get away with reading that kind of material on the beach. Guys can't.

Time for a drink but a swim of the beach is needed to justify it. Willy is convinced I'm certifiable, I'm sure. As I headed back up the beach she called, "see you after your next swim!"

(As an aside, as I write, Friday I'm In Love just popped up on my iPod. It's the song of all traveling professionals and you have to dance to it with your arms spread out wide. It's so good I had to play it again.)

OK, where was I? No grill at The Perch today so The Goddess deigns to share a mahi-mahi burger with me at Papagayo (neither of us really wanted to put any clothes on to go elsewhere). Linda Ronstadt has just popped up on the iPod now. The Shuffle Gods are really on a roll tonight.

More sun, Philip Marlow wise cracks some more then we bob about inThe shallows again before another beach swim for Happy Hour. I ordered a couple of Painkillers and Willie managed to get the proportions wrong while her mind was elsewhere and we enjoyed a drink that was 2/3 rum to the other ingredients. Then what? Oh, wait! I remember. More sun, sand and bobbing along until 5PM came found and the Goddess stared having other ideas again.

Dinner was Turnedos avec champignons et au jus with a robust Cahors. We took a walk over to Papgayo around 8:30 to see what was going down there on a Saturday evening. We saw and heard (YMCA followed by something  from the 60s), shuddered, and headed back along the beach for some in-house music and our own company again. Now as Birdland winds down (I told you the shuffle was playing a blinder tonight -- that's a football term, BTW, the kind of football the rest of the world plays) I bid you all goodnight and thank everyone for following along with this slightly twisted diary.