27th May - Zebrabar still

One thing to point out before I begin today's blog. David wanted me to mention the rather strange sight we saw at the side of the road the other day, a kid dragging a rope behind him attached to a toilet seat… the strangest toy we have ever seen!

 

Well we were woken in the middle of the night last night by rain!!!!!! Yes RAIN!! Unfortunately it woke me up because it was raining on me through the ceiling hatch, so I had to unhook the net and slide out of bed to shut it, which I couldn't quite as there is a large piece of tree in it currently! I have instructed David to remove it ASAP.

 

We headed down to breakfast which was just as good as yesterday and lazed around most of the morning. A particularly funny incident: whilst David was lying in a hammock I spent a good ten minutes consistently tickling him with a stick until David, seemingly being driven to total distraction by the flies, realised it was me! Two guys walking past also found it particularly amusing.

 

At about midday we took a taxi into St Louis as we had some errands to run and I had not seen it. Our first stop was the internet where we posted the blog (even putting some photos up as you all know by now, David was rather excited!) and checked emails. We found a little supermarket and bought ice creams and went for a wander round the town.

 

St Louis is full of character but I wouldn't go so far as to say it was charming, which is the word David used! It has very pungent smells wafting around and most of the buildings are in a state of disrepair. The beaches were busy although mostly covered in rubbish (they are the same beaches the children use as a toilet and in fact so do the adults) and they must see quite a few tourists because we were hassled insistently a few times, especially by begging children. The area seems quite poor compared to a lot of other places we have seen, or maybe everything was condensed into a smaller space making it appear that way. I wasn't too impressed with it, I can think of other places I would rather be (!) but I think David liked it a bit better than me.

 

We concluded our wander at the supermarket again where we bought 10 litres of water and then hopped in a taxi back home. Halfway back we stopped and somehow fitted three women and all their bowls of salt and buckets and things in with us, I am guessing we were in a 'shared taxi'! They babbled on quite pleasantly while David and I looked at each other in disbelief about how we were all squashed in with so much luggage as well! However we made it back to Zebrabar in one piece.

 

Lunch consisted in a packet of paprika crisps and some mini muffins with chocolate centres (just as healthy as all the white baguettes we usually consume for lunch I am sure!!). I had 2 muffins, David has had 6…

 

The rest of the day was spent reading and relaxing. We learnt that Marco, the son of the couple who own Zebrabar who is about 3, had that morning gone on the new swing (detailed in the last blog) so much he had ended up being sick! This proves the point about how successful the new toy is I think. Dinner was lovely as usual, the usual salad followed by a seafood curry with rice, with apple in something like crème fraiche for desert. We have requested a BBQ for tomorrow!

 

David taking over for a final comment:  on the 100 yard walk from the building to the truck last night, we got lost!   I had to use my compass watch to find the way back and we struck out again.  How embarrassing.  Now I know why Nicki doesn't like walking back to the truck on her own.