Bocas del Toro Day 5

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This morning I had my usual overload of espresso. It's just too good. We shared what has become our daily breakfast, the Tesoro Club & delicious banana pancakes with real maple syrup. So tasty. They also have this homemade hot sauce that is so good. I think it's made from roasted peppers & some perfect secret spices. Then we prepared ourselves for our Goonie walk. Matty insisted that we take the dogs with us, probably because they will make sure we don't miss the turnoff to La Piscina.

With sneakers on our feet & 4 dogs trotting along with us, we headed out. Somehow it is already 11:30 by the time we leave, there isn't a cloud in the sky, & it is hot. Hottest part of the day & we're going to hike for hours. Smarties! At least a good portion of the path has a good amount of tree cover & shade. The dogs were really fun companions. They each have such different & distinct personalities. Bijou, a hound type mutt, would always wait for us & make sure we didn't lose them. Chi Chi, a huge bear of a dog that's half Chow & half German Shepherd, would stop in every river or waterway & lay in the water & wait for us. Nieve, an Eskimo all white dog would lay in the muddiest, grimiest water & always laid in the shade to wait for us. I think she liked the mud because her fur is perfectly white. Ick. Mickey, an adorable little terrier type of dog, started the walk with us until about 10 minutes into it where she suddenly turned around & headed hom. Too much for her short little legs. The walk was nice & because of the dogs (who turned off the road toward La Piscina & waited for us to make sure we saw them turn off) we found the spot! It is beautiful spot, a little lagoon that opens up into the ocean. We had a nice skinny dip (until two people showed up on bikes, where Geoff had to get out & show them his white bootie to get our clothes, ha ha ha). After we'd had our fill of swimming & shell hunting we headed back. The dogs were so cute because as soon as we started packing up they all got up & started acting excited & wagging tails. As we started walking back toward the trail, they were off. They waited for us again at every turn to make sure we wouldn't get lost. Matty must have told them we had gotten lost once & not to let it happen again. By the time we were almost home with about 30 minutes left of the walk we were wishing for a bus or cab or moving walkway. Our legs were tired. Another 3.5 hour hike, but much easier in shoes.

We heated up my leftover pasta from dinner last night & showered & relaxed for the afternoon. Fully enjoying our last evening here at Tesoro.

At dinner it was us & Herve & Dorothee again. We chatted more about Colombia & what we should see when we are there. When I asked them if they had any recommendations for where we should stay in Bogota they insisted that we come & stay with them! We, of course, said they didn't have to do that, etc. But they were insistent & so we are going to stay with them in Bogota which will be awesome. Staying with a French couple in Bogota. It sounds like a movie! We're excited. That was another one of those experiences that makes me rethink my typical American thoughts on things. Why aren't we as open as so much of the rest of the world. Would I have offered the same thing in reverse? It seems unlikely that it would have been my first instinct, as it was so obviously theirs. I like it.

For dinner we had delicious food again. I had a stuffed bell pepper filled with meat & rice & spices. Geoff had spicy shrimp. We had banana flambee for dessert & shared with our French friends. After they headed off to bed, Matty sat with us & we had our farewall after dinner talk. He gave us our Goonie names, which he said we could only get if we made it to La Piscina. Our names are awesome. He said we are like Carebears. I'm Lovesalot Bear & Geoff is Tenderheart Bear. I love our names. Who wouldn't want to be thought of like a Carebear!?! On that note we headed to our room to pre-pack a bit & off to sleep.

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