Day 12

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Woke up in our steamy tent bright and early this morning - bright as the sun rises at 5am-ish and early because other people are NOT quiet in the morning!! We went for breakfast at a gorgous cafe called Mojo's where tasha had a breakfast burrito and em had sweet french toast. We are officially in LOVE with Costa Rican coffee it is so good!! We gulped this down and then headed further into town to hire bikes. Got them cheap from a friendly old man, who teased us about our useless Spanish...must learn more!! Initially a bit wobbly on bikes as its not often we use them at home, we set off down the road only to realise there were no brakes. This was going to be an interesting journey. Luckily, as we sailed past our breakfast place, Tasha called out to the waitor there are no braaaakes..to which he told us to just cycle backwards to slow down. Worked a treat but is a really odd feeling?!

As we set off down a country lane, our surroundings turned into jungle and the road turned into bumpy rocks. Not comfortable on the bums at ALL!! eventually we ended up at Ponta Uva, a beach where you are safe from the surfers and it is easy to swim. We parked our bikes on the beach, did a little sunbathing but it was hot hot hot, so we headed back after a couple of hours. The journey home was much more eventful. First of all, Em was trying to be too clever and take pictures of Tasha steaming ahead...bit of a wobble and her arms seemed to take over her brain and crash...into the bushes she fell. With a nasty scrape up the elbow and a bit of a bent basket, it dawned on her that she was taking after her mother more and more each day... (!) We stopped to wash the wound down and have a drink of water, so pulled up to a nice looking cafe. Officially the weirdest experience of our trip so far. The lady who served us was actually a nutcase. She was mixing up her spanish and english, but was probably scandinavian (there were a lot of yar yar yar¨s mixed into her sentences!!) Was she high? was she crazy? had we arrived on some kind of space warped other planet? who knew. We very quickly gulped down our drinks served in interestingly coloured glasses (is that meant to be brown or is it just dirty?) and quickly sped off.

We arrived back at our new hostel and grabbed our clean laundry on the way home - heaven!! Had quick showers then went out for something to eat. All our preferences were closed so we ended up at a really cheap but friendly looking restaurant where the food was brill but the service was awful... never experienced it so slow before!! From here we went straight to Ladies night at a bar near our hostel where it was free Mojitos and chocolate strawberrys for girls!! could it be better? ... these freebies were served by a beautiful bar man who could have worked for Abercrombie. yes is the answer to that question. After this it was across the road to Tex Mex for some live music from a band...some weird rasta guy at the front was swinging his dreadlocks around his head like a helicopter! Another nutcase perhaps. Outside another bar across the road again, Tasha made a new friend who was trying to sell us tours to islands etc. When he realised we were tight with our cash, he recommended a good bar he knew... so we followed him willingly down some back roads! There was only one moment where tasha and em squeezed hands in nervousness, but then we saw a brightly lit bar and our new friend left us there. Not so creepy after all. It was an absolute dive so we decided to stay for one drink and enjoy the live salsa band, but little did we know that you do NOT stand still in a salsa bar. As soon as her drink was momentarily left on the bar, Tasha was whisked away by a local for a little salsa salsa!! Turns out shes a natural (either that or the man made her look very good) and soon Em was dancing beside her with anohter local. It was so random but so fun and we stayed a good hour or so, eventually leaving feeling like we¨d been in a sauna!!!

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