I caught D’s cold and slept through sunrise. Since I missed the day before too, I was in withdrawl.

D took his typical walk into town to fetch the newspaper. He got a little bit sunburned the day before and spent the rest of the morning in the hammock trying to finish his book.

Since we were sticking close to home, I prepared a big breakfast in the convenient kitchen of Luna d’Miel. It was sensational if I do say so myself.

After breakfast and tidy up I went shelling.

We stayed around the apartment all day because of D’s sunbrurn. I finished my book and started a new one.

In the evening we ventured out for dinner at Basto’s with Luna d’Miel neighbours Gloria and Huw.

Since we were in the vicinity of Limon, we couldn’t head home without dropping in to visit our friend Sergio. He insisted that we stay for a glass of wine and chit chat.

We had brief snatches of time with Sergio as he worked the grill and made his guest feel right at home.

The gentleman sitting at the next time was also enjoying Sergio’s attention as well as sharing an appetizer with him and eventually we got to chatting too. It turned out he was Bob of Joyce and Bob’s Casitas del Mar. I have long admired the tidy units as we buzzed along the east shore road and was particularly intrigued because Joyce and Bob were the names of my parents.

The connections did not end there. Turns out that D knew Joyce’s sons when they work at the restaurant that D managed. It also turned out that D also knows Joyce’s brother and calls upon him for his business purposes. Joyce’s family is from Saskatchewan as is mine and her family immigrated from the Czech Republic as did mine.

We had so much fun connecting the dots in this way that Bob insisted that we stroll to his home to meet Joyce in person.

We enjoyed one last glass of wine in their beautiful walled garden under a covered palapa.

In 2016 we will divide our time between Luna d’Miel and Villas San Miquel. We are so looking forward to our first visit to the Villas. With its convenient downtown location, if D needs to stay close to home because of a cold or sunburn, I will still be able to wander town or head to North Beach. We keep thinking that the Villas will offer the best of both worlds-the convenience of Centro with views of the Caribbean!

Kath’s quote: “All true friendliness begins with fire and food and drink and the recognition of rain or frost”.–G.K. Chesterton

Love, that is all.

We have enjoyed visiting Basto’s many times that we have been on the island ( see link here, here and here).

At one time the gentleman in the white chef’s jacket operated the restaurant from a tiny kitchen up front with his sons waiting on tables.

But we understand that he is now in partnership with his brother, who was our server on this evening.

The place has been reno’d and the food was still exceptional.

The brightly coloured condiment dishes that I have always loved have changed but not the yummy provided dips which accompany the tortilla chips.

Our next door neighbour Gloria had a flank steak fajita,

and our husbands, the Especial Hamburgers.  We think that these are the best burgers on the island because of the seasoned patty and wedge of grilled onion. The French fries are to die for and it was all very hard for me to resist.

But somehow I did and chose the healthier garlic and wine prepared fish and pasta. I loved this dish so much that I didn’t regret my choice for a minute. Besides, the substantial glass of vino tinto helped….

Bastos always was a great spot and I can enthusiastically recommend it with these most recent changes.

Kath’s quote: “Life expectancy would grow by leaps and bounds if green vegetables smelled as good as bacon.”  ~Doug Larson

Love, that is all.

We headed into Centro early hoping to catch a 9 am church service but no luck. So we shopped and strolled Hidalgo. We stopped and met Nash of Nash’s Tapas Bar (a fellow Canadian) and he confirmed that we would be able to watch the Winnipeg Jets game there that afternoon.

By this time it was time for church and we felt perfectly comfortable in the Catholic church in the square.

We walked home along the sea wall and had left over pizza and pasta for our lunch.

We walked back to Nash’s only to find that the game had been blacked out on the station that he received so we went to plan two and headed to Bobo’s (ANOTHER Canadian).  We didn’t want to have too much to drink but wanted to spend something at Bobo’s since we were taking up seats watching the game. As a result, we ordered their Happy Hour Crispy Cajun Wings and beer. We enjoyed a Jets victory as well as meeting folks from home and three gals and a fellow from Boston. We had such a fun time with perfect strangers.

We hung out in Centro until it was time to meet my brother and his wife at the French Bistro.

My family chose chicken cordon bleu and I the garlic snapper filets.

D chose a tuna steak. We were really impressed with the value of our dinners which included veggies, rice, baked potato, bruschetta AND a glass of vino tinto!

We strolled Hidalgo again with Kel and Lorraine, meeting up with our friend Jose who sells baking at the end of the street. We love the pina (pineapple) pie thst he features.  The four of us sat in the square to watch the kids play and noshed our pie. Then it was another walk down the airport road to Luna D’ Miel.

With all the walking back & forth from Luna d’ Miel to Centro, we are certainly looking forward to staying in Centro at Villas San Miquel in 2016. I can’t quite believe that we will have the convenience of Centro, in a private setting and still get chance to enjoy our favourite vista of the Caribbean sea.

Kath’s quote: “The traveler sees what he sees. The tourist sees what he has come to see.” ― G.K. Chesterton

Love, that is all.

Later that same day we chilled on Luna De Miel’s Caribbean patio until supper with rums & freshly squeezed oj and nachos.

We love the colours of the sea on this side of the island, especially in the ever changing light.

But we also appreciate the  west patio too with the natural tree canopy and views of the bay.

Eventually we cabbed into Centro to Covi to stock up on some wine and met a wonderful couple from British Columbia. We have friends in both the communities of Pender Harbour & Gibson’s Landing in BC and this couple lived half way between the two. She spontaneously told me about a place that they had just discovered where they were delighted with food they had never tasted before. Turns out that they were speaking about Chiles Relleno from La Lomita, where I had my first meal on the island many years ago. They were so enamoured with everything about Isla, they even wanted us to see their little room at Hotel Casa Espana.

We then wandered over to Brisas Grill to have dinner with family members Don, Victoria, Kelly and Lorraine. Unfortunately, I had misinformed the latter and mistakenly they went to the former Brisas Caribe in Colonias. Eventually they found us but I felt bad.

In the end we had a lovely sunset dinner with our feet in the sand (see this link to read about it in more detail).

After dinner, we wandered Hidalgo with a stop at our favourite bakery truck for pina (pineapple pie). Unfortunately our friend Jose was sold out so everyone bought cookies and pastries instead. Our final stop of the evening was with Victoria and Don at their hotel-Roca Mar to fetch their leftover groceries and a last visit around the pool. They departed the next morning.

We are very much looking forward to our 2016 Isla visit, when we will not have to hail a cab or make the walk down the dark airport road after an evening in Centro. We will be spending half of our time at Villas San Miquel. We will have gorgeous sea views in a secure compound in the perfect location. On a day like Day 7 we will have saved all kinds of time and cash by not making our way back and forth to Centro. We cannot wait!

Since I have recounted this time earlier this year, I have been informed that Brisas Grill is closed. I do not know any of the circumstances but certainly hope that it all gets straightened out because we are very fond of the spot.

Kath’s quote: “Dinner is not what you do in the evening before something else. Dinner is the evening.”  ― Art Buchwald

Love-that is all.

The morning produced a long-lasting sunrise and glorious sky.

This was what the sky looked like as the sun rose higher. When the rays stream through the clouds like this we call them “God clouds”. D went into town for the newspaper and freshly squeezed orange juice from our favourite market stall.

When he returned we had breakfast of yogurt around the pool.

I decided to go shelling right out in front of Luna d’ Miel

and once again was pleased with my haul.

One of the many things we appreciate about staying at Luna d’ Miel is the simple yet convenient kitchenette. Why are my cupboards at home overflowing with “stuff” when all we need when we are on the island is this and a couple of small appliances?

We eat most of our simple meals out by the ocean but the “apartment” unit at Luna also has this glass dining room table. These flowers were lying on the sidewalk at the house next door so I snipped them for us to enjoy instead of being trampled upon.

The reason that we wanted to stay close to home was that friends from Winnipeg (whom we bumped into in the airport waiting area), had considered coming over from Puerto Moreles that day. The little rain storm of the morning made their decision a hard one to make. Eventually though the skies cleared, so we wandered into town to  meet them off the ferry.

We love hanging out at the ferry arrival area. It makes us feel like we live on the island permanently. But it is thirsty work so we ventured across the street to “wet our whistles”. While there, we ran into Victoria and Don. He was borrowing D’s snorkel equipment to use along the area by the Avalon bridge.

Victoria thought that I might like this conch shell that she had dug up on the little beach just south of the Naval Base. I loved everything about it except the potential extra weight in my luggage and adherence to the rule that conch shells are not to be transported out of Mexico (or is the rule that they can’t be taken into Canada?), does anyone know for sure?

Once our guests arrived, we walked Playa Norte to Fenix where we shared some small plates and called it “lunch”.

The live music made it a bit difficult to visit.

But we did enjoy it when this young one got up the gumption to serenade us.

Kath’s quote: “Win new friends but keep the old. The first are silver; the latter gold.”-author unknown

Love-that is all.