Tourist

I bought a new keyboard yesterday so can now do better punctuation and so on!

For some reason the satelite signal for e mail hasn’t worked for a couple of days, hopefully it will work today, although I can send this via normal e mail in any event.

Having done the blog yesterday I just had some porridge for breakfast loaded the old batteries into the dinghy and rowed ashore,  I tried a couple of laundries for a service wash but because it was Saturday and they are closed tomorrow I ended up deciding to just do a hand wash of some essentials as I didn’t want to waste the day hanging around laundries. Once I had returned the batteries and claimed my 23 dollars for each, recycling fee, I went to the  Castillo Serralles which took me up through the old town. The Castillo was where a family lived whilst running their sugar and rum plantation for a hundred or so years, for America this is old.  There is a Japanese garden, a lookout and the house itself, not really a castle, but a fine old house which was fascinating although the tour was labouriously slow and took nearly 2 hours.  The house is centred around a huge room with a fountain pumping water 30 feet into the air to fall back down into a  pool and with the Wind blowing in this cooled the house down. The formal dining room has a fine wooden ceiling, and the master bedrooms fine bathrooms a la Mount Stuart,  but by the time we were released from the tour I had had enough and went my own way. I then explored the town a little, the old town is Spanish Colonial and partly tumbled down but some evidence or restoration is around and  I hope that they will save enough of it to preserve it’s essence, because outside the old heart it is a sprawl of modern stuff.  I bought a couple of bits and pieces then drove into the mountains to see more of the country. I had intended to find a ‘diner’ on the road but ended up managing not to and had a sub for lunch instead. I enjoyed the day pottering around in the car, I’ve not driven since January,  visited a couple of beaches  and returned to the harbour at sunset. I had a couple of beers and squid empanada at the harbour restaurant / club where I leave my dinghy and then back to the boat.

The batteries seem to be holding their own, I’ve not had to run the engine since they were put in with the sun providing nearly. 3 Kwh yesterday to keep us cold.

Slainte

Jock and Yemaya.