Retired Nomads: June 23 to June 30

Tried a new restaurant for lunch, Asados del Campo. We had Pollo Asado and Lechon. The chicken was much tastier than the pork. Served with a lovely chimichurri sauce and a fresh salsa. We had patacones (smashed plantains that are fried) and arepa which are thick corn cakes.

California Burgers

On our walk this morning we saw a caiman (a type of croc) on the golf course…. It was about 3 or 4 feet long…kind of small I guess, but an odd place to see one. We were told they are in the water near the golf course.

Harlequin (or Halloween) land Crab

We regularly see pretty birds when walking and even Crested Caracara and another kind of Caracara that they have here that we didn’t have in Florida. We also see iguanas and large lizards. We also have HUGE toads here. Around 4” to 6” tall. I think they are called Cane Toads.

One day last week we were exiting the gate of the villas and as we walked past the ocean I noticed islands I had never seen before. I figured I was just unobservant until Greg said “Have those always been there?” I guess depending on the visibility they aren’t always visible.

Last night we had a pretty good storm. It had rained pretty much all afternoon/evening with some pretty good winds. Today, it was sunny and beautiful again. On the upside of the storm, we didn’t need the a/c on as it had cooled off nicely.

We picked up our car this week. Len met us at the airport where we returned our rental car and he took us to the dealership to pick up our new one. They had it all cleaned and ready. We had to wait a while since our insurance hadn’t been finalized yet, but once they emailed that we were good to go. We stopped at the Westland Mall to have lunch and to shop at the “Do It Center” for things we will want at the condo when we move in next week.

On our daily walks we came across an unfortunate squirrel that got fried on the power lines. He has been there for a couple of weeks now, though he is getting smaller and occasionally the wind has shifted him. We joke we should start a “pool” to bet on when it will fall completely. Yea, that’s the excitement here…..

Another pretty good storm last night, this one had lots of lightening as well as quite the down pour. We had just gone to La Ruina Restaurant for langostinos in garlic sauce when the sky opened up. (it is the rainy season after all) We ate there several times last year when we visited and were anxious to go back now that we live here. The owner has a parrot that he brings to the restaurant. They close for July and August so we were glad we decided to go when we did.

Saturday we did a day trip to El Valle de Anton. It’s in the mountains and is at the bottom of a dormant volcanic crater. It’s about 10 degrees cooler there than the beach. Lots of beautiful vegetation there. We stopped at the El Valle Market (outdoor market with fruits & veggies and arts and crafts.) Got some fresh pineapples, bananas, Dragon Fruit and tried some peewah. It is from the Peach Palm and you can peel and eat the flesh after it has been boiled for around 20 minutes or so. Hard to describe the taste, but kind of like a nut, squash, pumpkin combination. Texture was dry and grainy. A local there had us try one of his and then we bought some (already cooked) and we had them with our smoked pork chops. They were “interesting”. Maybe some olive oil or something to moisten them would help…..

Dragon Fruit

Anyway, our main purpose for the trip was to try a new pizza place there called Buon Appetito. A couple moved from Italy around 6 months or so ago and opened it. They had a wood fired oven outside and the pizza was divine!

We went for our walk about the neighborhood after we got back and a dog adopted us. He walked with us almost the whole way and at one point he “protected” us from this other dog that he seemed certain might harm us and he got between us and the dog and fought him off. (that same dog normally just ignores us…lol) We were almost back home and he found a side road he recognized and he left us to go home.