Rented Bikes & Yoga

Yesterday we dropped off laundry at a hostel/cafe/laundromat called Cafe Rico— they serve you free coffee when you bring in laundry, have all kinds of books to read while you hang out, and charge $1 less if you don’t have them fold your clothes.. sounds like a great deal to me! Lavanderías are different here than in the States– instead of you doing your own laundry by lugging over a bag of quarters and bottle of detergent, people do it for you in their homes or out of their hostels for a small fee.

We moved our belongings from Alex’s house, Casa Caribe, to another place down the street after our time at the cafe. Alex only had 3 days available when we booked [and we weren’t sure how long we’d stick around here], so we’ll be in the new house– a private & secluded guesthouse in a couple’s garden– for a week.

Afterwards we rented bikes from Marco at Tienda Marcos for the day to ride south down the coast for about 10 km to the beach at Punta Uva. We took to the road with other tourists on rented bikes like ours and locals holding infants in their arms, coasting down the street. Motorcycles and tour buses bypassed us by mere inches while we maneuvered around potholes, fearing I’d lose my balance and get tossed to the ditch like the guy we’d witnessed the day before.

We reached the beach and as we sat on a log to get our read on, we were immediately bombarded by a stray dog [of which there are many here]. She was nosy, sticking her face in ours, stepping in between us on the log, and eventually digging a shallow hole in the sand to lay in beside our feet. We tried escaping by taking a walk along the water, but she followed closely with two friends who decided to join the party.

They finally retreated only after we hopped on our bikes again in search of lunch. We stopped at a Mediterranean place, Pita Bonita, up the road that Jason had found on Trip Advisor the day before.  Honestly, there are few words to describe this meal– it was incredible. We ordered the chicken shawarma and  “Mixed Plate for Two”, a sort of sampler which consisted of homemade pita, marinated eggplant, pickled cabbage, carrot & parsley salad, tabbouleh, and hummus. And mint lemonade for good measure.

So delicious.

After that we headed back to town, picked up our clean laundry [ahhhh], and spent the evening reading in the hammock– something we’ve become very good at.

We woke up early today, just in time to have a small breakfast and ride down a couple kilometers to Cocles beach and catch the 8:30 yoga class at Om Yoga. Jason hasn’t done yoga before so it was exciting for me to share something with him that has always held a small part of me close. It was also fun for me to see him slowly realize it can be nearly as difficult as getting our butts kicked at our gym in Denver. Class was held on the second floor of a chocolate shop, overlooking the ocean– a wonderful way to begin our Tuesday.

Next stop was a dip in the ocean, a quick stop at the Puerto Viejo Bakery to pick up more bread for the week, and, later, a chocolate tour back at the place below Om.

But, clearly, chocolate deserves its own post!