Easter Relaxation

 One of our sets of friends has a daughter who owns a large house in town with a swimming pool!  So I escaped the craziness of the beach for 2 days and went in with them while Glenn joined us for 1 day!

But first, a beautiful sunrise!

Here's the garden area of the house we went to - it was lovely!

And the relaxation area!

The pool was perfect and if you wanted to get out of the sun, you could move into the shaded area under the roof where there were couches to sit on, a frig and sink and a shower area!

Most of the flowers around are in full bloom and this was lovely!

Full moon - our last one!

Glenn actually went out with a friend on Easter morning at 3:00am to fish - he said it was pretty cool fishing under the full moon!  Made it back in before all the day people got to the beach and caught a nice pargo!

I enjoyed watching a church service online on Easter morning.  And that evening we all brought food to a potluck at a friends' house and 18 of us had a fun time!

Holiday Craziness

 8 of us decided to try a new restaurant in town called the Fish Market - it was receiving high praises online and we knew who the chef was as he had prepared a meal in a home that we were invited to!  Friend Norm stopped and made the reservations but when we all arrived, the gal said we didn't have any - darn - a communication failure!  But we sat in the bar area and then decided to just go ahead and eat there which was fine, except the chairs had no backs and after 3 hours there, our backs were sore!

Here are the guys:  Norm, Bob, Dale and Glenn

The table next to us had "tequila cheese" which was fun to watch in the making of it - we'll have to try that next time!

And here are the women:  Me, Jo, Brenda and Peggy

My pina colada was huge as you can see in the above picture!  I ordered shrimp and it was excellent!  Everyone enjoyed their meals and we'll definitely go back, but hopefully be seated at a table this time!

Good Friday of Easter week we rode ATV's with Del and Linda out to the "oasis" - they had never been out there and it was a fun ride, except it was quite hot!

I went up on the neighbors' patio to take these next 2 photos - this is how packed the beaches were!  Since NO campers were allowed on the beach the past 2 years due to COVID, they came out in droves this year!!  WOW!!

Our place is where the yellow ATV is at and there were campers as far as you could see!  The police parked right beside our wall and Glenn kept them supplied with ice, water and sometimes popcorn!

The trash barrels for the subdivision are in in a cage that you can see at the right hand side of the picture - but the "government" has these 3 on the beach that we aren't supposed to move!  But each night the cows (free range here) get into them and pull the trash bags and munch on whatever is in there!  It's noisy at night listening to them bang around and this is what the beach looks like in the morning!  Several days a bunch of us have picked up the trash over the last month or so and then when the "guy" finally comes to take it away, it's all bagged up for him.  So we have just been leaving it and during Easter it was quite a pile up on the ground for him to rake up and bag!  You would think they could pick it up in the evening so this wouldn't happen but I guess they don't think that way!

This is just ONE DAY'S beach trash that the "government" people picked up along the beach - they did hand out trash bags so people could use them which certainly helped!  But there was still a lot to pick up at the end!

It was pretty crazy during the day with the ATV's and side by sides going by in front on the beach and up the road beside us!  Glenn kind of enjoyed sitting on the porch and watching all the action - not me!  It was just too loud!  So 2 days I left with friends  - more on that in the next blog!

April Happenings

 Life is good - sunny days, sandy beaches, beautiful sunrises, fishing for Glenn, reading and  walking the beach and playing cards and swimming with the gals for me!

We had heard about this restaurant outside of Santiago that was supposed to be really good!!  The 6 of us were up for an adventure so we headed out mid-afternoon as we knew we had to get there and eat and get back home before dark (right - that didn't quite happen - and we weren't on daylights savings time yet) and it took us a good 45 minutes to even get there!

Adventure was the word - we went through Santiago and then were on dirt roads for the next 1/2 hour!  We went through 2 small towns and ended up at the restaurant which is out in the middle of NOWHERE!  An interesting place, kind of like a small ranch with all kinds of animals - cattle, goats (with lots of little babies), ostrich, chickens, turkeys and peacocks!  Along with many types of birds in cages at the restaurant and rabbits!

We were the only ones there and they didn't speak much English but we got ordred!  They had no fish or shrimp that day which was disappointing but plenty of other stuff to order!

It's an open air restaurant and of course everything is cooked from scratch so it did take a while - we walked over and saw the animals and all the beautiful flowers while we waited!

I'd like to say our meal was amazing but it just wasn't - I think we had our hopes set too high - the meal was good but not a place we would drive back to since it took so long to get there!  But always fun to do stuff with friends!

Sunrises - I just can't take enough pictures!

This little guy was in the bathroom off the dining area - what a cutie - and I never saw this gecko again!

Glenn caught a nice batch of trigger fish - one of my favorites!

And more sunrise pictures!  By this time we are on daylights savings time so it took a while to get used to the new time and we were up in the dark for a few days!

March Photo Dump

 March has come and gone - time to post those last few pictures that haven't made the blog yet!

This was an interesting set of clouds one day!

I love watching the sun coming up!

I play word games EVERY DAY!  In fact,  I have become quite obsessed with them!  Along with the daily wordle, I play wordus where you can play as many times as you want!  And once I got the word on the first time!!!!  And now Jill passed on another word game called quordle where you play 4 words at once - yup, I'm addicted!!  Just hope it's helping my brain - ha!

Rayna, Matias and Jaime all had birthdays in March!  HAPPY BIRTHDAY!  They all love skiing and are decked out in new gear which were birthday presents!

Happy Birthday Jaime!  Jill and Jessi got her even MORE gnomes!!  

I LOVE pictures of my 3 beautiful daughters!!!!!

One of the breakfast places in town makes the most delicious caramel rolls - YUM!

Patty relaxing on the front deck!

And that's a wrap for March!

Beach Bums

It's always nice to wake up to amazing sunrises!!   It was beach day!  Grab the towels, the sunscreen, the umbrella and some snacks and let's head down the beach!  Glenn decided to drag the kayak down too so he could do some fishing and Patty and I wanted a quick ride!  It was NOT so fun pulling it down on the beach though - there are 2 wheels on the back but the sand is deep and it kept tipping so I had to keep looking back to make sure it didn't flip!

 Patty and I looked for glass but hardly found any - but it was a nice walk and we had fun taking pictures!

Glenn gave us rides on the kayak - it's only a one man kayak but you can easily sit on the back for a while!  The ocean was perfect that day!

Picture posing time!

This pelican was fun to watch and we got pretty close before he flew off!

I rarely get pictures of me taken but Patty took this one of me walking along looking for glass!

 It was a fun day with the 4 of us!

Buena Fortuna Gardens

 For something different to do, 4 of us ladies made reservations at a neighboring town to do a tour of a garden and have lunch!  Patty and I picked up Hillary and Linda and we were off!

The place was easy to find and since we were a little early, we waited in this cozy outdoor area until the rest of the group arrived - it's limited to 12 people which makes it nice!

This is the outdoor kitchen where the food was prepared - pretty cool looking!

Kisha is the owner and did the tour - lots of plants and spices and beautiful flowers!

This is a kumquat tree - have you ever tasted one?  She had each of us taste one - VERY sour!  But it sure was a pretty tree!

This has a lot of the nursery plants and a cactus garden that her son did - she hopes to sell plants in the very near future!

The tour was very informative - I'm not a garden person but still enjoyed hearing about different plants - this is the lunch they served, all from her gardens - very colorful and unique dishes!!  No meat of course but the food was very good!

It sure is a small world - Linda sat next to a gal that when introduced, were originally from the same town in Colorado - Linda had taught her son!!  So they had fun catching up with each other! 

Waterfall Ride

The sunrises are still as pretty as ever when they happen - my walks are not as long due to the ever annoying issue with my foot but I still walk about 1/2 way (to what I walked last year) and then turn around - glass is at a premium this year!!  Patty usually meets me at the end of her road (they are now at their own rental - an absolutely gorgeous place) and we walk together!

Since Patty's have an ATV at their disposal with the rental, we decided to take a trip to the waterfall!  The guys donned scarves and goggles to wear as it's always a little windy and sandy on the ride out!

We had to park even further out than last year due to the heavy rain they had - it had moved rocks and boulders even further out!  But it's a great walk in through the water!

The canyon leading in was as cool as ever!  Lots of water coming down the waterfall and it felt so good on our feet!

Our mandatory waterfall picture - which usually ends up on our calendar!

We hiked back out and decided to go to the Lazy Daze Beach Bar - that wasn't a good option at all!  I do have to say Glenn's french fries were the BEST ever!  But my mango daiquiri was horrible!  And the service was ridiculous!  Oh well - you can't always pick the great places!