Ojo de Agua

I'd mentioned having a plan and indeed I had one. Yesterday, Sunday, I wandered the town, stopping for the occasional pic and beer and reading breaks, but that was the extent of my energy expenditure. One of my dorm mates crammed his day full - volcano hike from 6a-12p followed by a guided tour of the island til almost 6p, then he walked around a bit, had dinner and didn't get back to the room until after 8. It made me tired just hearing about his day!

(Believe it or not, there's actually a pretty big volcano behind that church)

Since I wasn't really interested in paying $45 to go on a tour-guided motorbike to a gray sand beach called Playa Santo Domingo on the other side of the island, today I took the "direct" bus there instead. (I laugh in the face of whoever called it direct. It is a chicken bus, after all, so the 25km ride took nearly an hour and a half and, in reality, had a lot of stops. Oh well, it was pleasant enough.)

Upon arrival at the beach, I found that the water was...less than nice for swimming. It wasn't the Ganges River or anything, but it looked a little squicky along the water's edge. Rather than spend a few hours there as I expected, I found a place to grab a juice and read for a bit before I set back out. This time my destination was Ojo de Agua, two thermal spring water fed swimming pools in the middle of the forest. 

The water was COLD, but after a nearly 3km, mostly unshaded walk, it was a welcome relief. It wasn't too crowded, so it was a relaxing place to chill out for a while and listen to the monkeys above us in the trees...until it started pouring rain, that is. Even the monkeys were annoyed and were howling their protests. Oh well. It had been a long enough day, anyway. Plus, I knew that by the time I got back to town and showered, I'd be *starving* and *way* ready for dinner. Guess what time it is now? ;-)