Monday, February 21, 2005

Weak Start To The Week

A couple of buddies and I got off to an early start and headed to one of those canopy tours. It was really a lot of fun. After about a half-hour ride in the back of an open sided truck you reach your destination at a beutiful spot right by a nice little river. At least it is little this time of year, it gets much larger during the rainy season. The tour itself consists of climbing via pathways to launching platforms where you use pulleys to traverse gorges, forests, and the river on guidewires. There are 13 of these stations and the longest ride is about a quarter of a mile long. Great fun and I would highly recommend it. It is supposedly second best only to the canopy tour in Costa Rico.

239) Canopy Tour Bar

At the end of the tour you land, literally, at a little open air bar under a large palapa. It has a concrete floor, a few tables and chairs, a wood and rope railing, and a lovely view of the river. The top of the bar was a nice dark wood called parota. There were a half dozen leather padded barstools so it was a comfortable place to sit and have a drink well waiting for the trip back to town.

I had a couple of Pacificos

240) Pancho's Last Resort

Wandering a short ways was this place, also on the river and with great views. It had a green stone bar with wooden stools. There were a few tables for eating and they had neat metal chairs with ornate metal-work backs to them in the shape of cacti. Sitting on the bar were four terrariums. Three of them had large tarantulas and one had a very tiny snake. The manager of the place wondered over while I was having my drink and asked me if I liked spiders. He had taken the largest one, named Dr. Kervokian, out of its cage and had it in his hand. Spiders don't frighten me so he seemed a bit disappointed that I didn't jump when I saw it. The are native to the area and during mating season they wonder down from the mountains to the river and you can pick them up off of the highway. He said they live about 10 years in the wild and up to 15 years in captivity. Forget getting a cat, these are much easier to care for and just about as affectionate. Rounding out the menangerie, the guy that owns the Canopy Tour Bar came over with an eight-foot long Burmese Python named Monty draped around him.

I had a margarita and we caught the bus back to town.

Didn't do much in the afternoon except hang out and get ready for dinner. We went to a very nice place on the island called the River Cafe. It has a very large service-bar with three stools at one end so when I have a drink there I will certainly count it. There were five of us at dinner though so no room for us all. After dinner we went home for a gin and tonic and called it an early night. My friends are all leaving tomorrow so we may not be hitting many then either. Two of them have an 8:00 P.M. departure so I might hit a couple of them after they leave.

Closing in on a quarter of the way done, only 760 left to go.

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