Well, those roosters do start early. 3AM, and the only light in the sky is probably from the excessive number of security lights around this place. At 4AM, the roosters were drowned out by a car alarm that would not stop. After 40 minutes, the cops showed up with their horn. A couple blasts of sound and the alarm ceased. I dont know if the owners finally came and dealt with the car, or a tow truck took it away…but the sound was gone. The roosters returned to their morning calls…and the sun was still a couple hours from rising.

We crawled out of bed at 7:30. A new bed, so neither of us slept all that well. Breakfast was instant oatmeal…plain, apparently with flax…no sugar. We are now looking at minimizing our sugar intake because everything seems to be overloaded with the sweet white stuff. Coffee, instant and lightened with a little overpriced milk.

I again had a little homework to do. It was a grey start to the day, so perfect for doing a little necessary editing to a training manual. By 11 we had some blue sky and needed some sun…also some lunch since the gruel we started the day with was quickly consumed.

 

With changing locations, even in the same town, some research is required. We walked back up to the north end of town to do some recon on the neighbourhood and water again. We then headed all the way south to check that neighbourhood. Neither really catching our eye. As we passed from north to south, we inquired about availability and price of those oceanfront rooms in the center of town. Most of the places have less than stellar ratings, and they can get away with a little smaller size rooms…dated furniture and higher prices because of their location. We might need to find a quieter island for that private hammock and patio.

We stopped for lunch at another place with almost nobody in it. A deck all to ourselves to enjoy a meal and couple beverages while watching the boats go by. Peaceful, relaxing…now if we could only wake up to this. After an hour of sitting there, finally we paid the bill and headed back to the room to start more searching for accommodation. This is turning into a full time job, but we do enjoy it.

A nap was in order, partly because we ate too much for lunch and watching the boats go by can make one a little sleepy. After that, we figured that since we were here…we might as well walk up to a few of these on the water hotels and check out their availability and rooms. Pictures tell you one thing, walking into the room tells you if it is a good or bad idea. Although it was now dark, we checked out Bocas Inn. A smaller place just to the north of here. Breakfast included, on a common area deck overlooking the water. We waited for the lady at the front desk to return by hanging out on that deck watching the fish chase each other around in the glow of a security light pointed directly down. A stingray floated by under those fish as well. The lady returned, we had a look at a couple rooms…and quickly departed. An OK looking place from the outside, the rooms seemed like they were from a nursing home more than a sexy island. More to discuss.

We still were not hungry, but headed in search of food. That big lunch seemed to not want to break down. We headed for a busy little art cafe down at the south end of town. A large sushi roll was probably going to be sufficient…and one each more than enough. Maybe it is the heat, maybe just a little tired of eating out all the time. We could buy some groceries and eat in, but our currently place is not exciting enough to warrant eating here as well as sleeping.

The rolls came. It must have taken 45 minutes, but the staff appeased us with beer and a basil daiquiri as well as appetizer composed of a couple shot glasses full of some salty soup. What looked like a small ashtray full of some scrambled egg and veggie concoction also arrived along with root veggie chips to facilitate transfer of the egg from ashtray to mouth. Melanie got 2 pieces in when suddenly she encounter a hard white chunk in one of the pieces. A bone? It kind of looked like a tooth. A human tooth. Thoroughly grossed out, she restrained from eating anything further. One of the serving staff came over and asked if all was OK and she pointed out the hard chunk now placed on the serving plate. He tried to explain it away as garlic, but no, this was hard…duro. He took it and disappeared to the kitchen.

Melanie then asked the question…could it have been one of hers? Sure enough, that crown that was put on about 5 years ago seems to have weakened and biting into the tempura roll was enough to shake it loose. A $5000 tooth now split in two with one half of that now somewhere in the kitchen of this restaurant. Immediately, we were asking for it back. Hopefully not buried in the trash…that would be bad. We are in a country of inexpensive dental, so this might be the place to get that tooth fixed. No pain now, just an inconvenience. Now a new challenge awaits us.

We returned to the room. No dessert for us. Now to find a dentist on this little island. Luckily tomorrow is Monday, so maybe someone will be working that can fix her up, just like new.