Got up before dawn. Went to check out the other side of the inlet; wanted a closer look at the lodgings there. There are two foot bridges that go across. About a quarter of the way down the other side, the sun came up, sort of: I got the only ‘color’ shots of the morning.  






 






 

 
 

The walk down the other side starts out pretty good: fairly good walkway, not too much climbing. Then the trail gets narrow and a lot of up and down.  

 
The trail goes up and over the hill to a beach on the other side. I got over one rise only to see another rise: that’s when I turned around; I was already sweat soaked, and hadn’t brought my towel.  


Got some decent pics along the way.  


 

 







 










 







 
 
 
Got back, took a shower, and packed up. Time to move on.  







 





 


Went up the hill to the bus stop.  



Waited more than two hours for a bus that was headed where I wanted to go. I had decided to grab the next one heading in that general direction (already let four of those go by) when one I really wanted came by.  


I was headed to Punta Perula, which is quite a way (90-100 mi) from Boca (which is only a little way from PV). So, a few hours later (and a lot of stops), the driver drops me off.  


It’s about 1 1/2 mi from the hwy to the beginning of the town. Lucky me: just as I started walking down the road, this little old lady, who speaks quite a bit of English (she owns a hotel - which is being renovated), offers me a lift, which I gladly accepted: I was already warm, and I knew it was a hike all the way into town (you try hiking a mile and a half in humid weather carrying 35 lbs!) She told me a little about the place and the hurricane problems, then dropped me off at a place with a clean room.  


We’d gone by her place, and a couple others (which didn’t look very appealing), then she stopped at this tiny place and told me to say that Rosalina brought me there. I walked in, rang the bell; this older lady comes to the door; I told her I needed a room: she turned around, grabbed a towel and a bar of soap and a key and told me it was $18. No other conversation, didn’t offer to show me the room; usually there’s a little more talking involved. She wasn’t unpleasant, just matter of fact. The room was 5 ft from her door. There are other doors, but I don’t know if they were permanently rented or what; one that I could see inside through a window looked more like an apartment and it was occupied by a woman with children.  










 



 


 
The room is just that: a bed, a chair, and a bathroom; no TV, no AC, no WIFI, no closet or hangers, no hot water. But the bed was comfortable and the fan took care of the little bit of heat. I showered, washed my shirt and hung it to dry.  


 



 
Then I took a walk around town: it’s only about a mile down the main stretch, and a couple of shorter dirt roads behind that. There aren’t that many hotels, and they aren’t very big.  



 The beach is quite a long stretch, and decent.  












 

 
Looks to me like it would be cheap (compared to everywhere else I’ve been) to have a place right on the beach, or just a short block away. There’s not much shopping, or anything else touristy; just a nice quiet beach.  

 
 











 

 
Because of the hurricane, there are a lot of places closed (even if there doesn’t appear to be any damage to them). Looks to me like it was just trees (mostly older ones) knocked down from the very high winds. I think people may have cancelled any reservations they may have had because of the dire predictions, so this place almost looks like a ghost town.  

 

 
I walked down the beach and found only two restaurants open, out of maybe half a dozen.  

 
 












 
I returned to one of them for a late lunch. 

 



 







 
 
Ordered Camaron Agridulce (shrimp something). 



 

Waitress didn’t speak a lick of english, so I didn’t even try asking her what it was. Shrimp with a tempura type batter with a sweet and sour ‘dressing’ under them; altogether, pretty good for $8.  







 
Headed back to my room, worked on the blog (no wifi, so I’m typing this in my word program to cut and paste later - don’t you just love technology!) Read for a little while, waiting for the sun to go down.  


Walked down to the beach to get pics: you can see the paltry results; just too much overcast. I was still hungry, so I headed over to the other beach restaurant, but it had just closed. Headed down main street to find something, but didn’t see anything appealing (except maybe this scuba shop / restaurant with a couple tables of english speaking dudes). Kept looking ’til I got back to my ‘hotel’. Decided to get a coke and snack on leftover Cheetos, while reading and blogging until bed time. Like San Blas, they seem to roll up the sidewalks at sundown.  

 

(completed Nov 11)