Bahia de Jaltemba comprises four towns located within a mile of one another. From north to south, these are: La Colonia, La Peñita, Rincon de Guayabitos, Los Ayala. La Peñita, where I'm located, is the largest; but it's not at all large: the largest general store in town is at the pharmacy! But pretty much anything you want is available, if not much choice in colors, patterns, etc, at some little store or other. It continues to amaze me how these people can make a living with these shops when you see so few patrons in them, and with multiples of them, sometimes on the same block! Anyway. I’ve visited Guayabitos, but I’ve been lazy about visiting the last two places: mostly because it’s been too hot, and because they’re further away; also because I’ve spent a lot of time trying to get my blog caught up, with little cooperation from the internet. (I’m typing this in my word program because I can’t connect to my blog. When it’s up, then I’ll just cut and paste.) So this morning I got my s**t together and headed to Los Ayala.     

Turns out to be a nice village. Small beach (2/3 mi) about the size of La Peñita but a little nicer. Reminds me of Hampton Beach 40 yrs ago.  


A few large hotels on the beach (but nothing like Guayabitos, where they are wall to wall), backed up by smaller hotels (although some of the larger ones go all the way through to the street behind them). Didn’t bother to check on room pricing for the larger hotels (definitely beyond my budget), but okay rooms are available in the smaller ones from $30/day down to $10 (didn’t check it out). Nice place to chill out for a few days, maybe even a couple weeks if you don’t want to do much more than work on your tan. Enough restaurants so you won’t get bored, and your usual assortment of beach town shops.


 Having done my due diligence in checking out Los Ayala, I took a cab to Guayabitos ($0.60) where I wanted to do a little shopping. Walked down a street that I hadn’t been to before. Started getting thirsty, so I thought I’d have a beer and watch the surf. Went down to the beach and had to go by a half dozen places before I found one open (it was only 10:30 am). But I got a beer, sat at a table right next to the beach, and chilled out for about 30 min.  





Then I walked the rest of the beach before returning to the shops area where I bought some groceries and took a cab home.  

It was a bit hot out. Poor internet still. So I just read for a while.  

Got my landlord (lives across from me) to order me a pizza for dinner.  

Rum and Coke, pizza, a couple movies, then off to bed. I know: hard life! But somebody's got to do it, and I've always been willing to take one for the team!  

(blog completed Oct 12)