This morning was Christian's dive, and so he got up relatively early, followed by me some time later, and he headed back to Waikiki beach. I pottered a bit, then got ready and went out. It was much sunnier and warmer than it had been
I walked up the main street, investigating the things I'd wanted to look at, like jewellery in the shops (uninteresting), and to call in to ask Easy Riders about what they could offer (the man in the shop on the main street didn't speak very good English, but it turned out that he couldn't help me with excursions - only with hire). I walked to the left at the end of the main street, and found the part of town that is less touristy and more set up for the locals, with travel agents, laundrettes, bus stops, and fruit shops. I went as far as the interesting shops, but didn't go all the way to the port end.
I headed back to the main street via the beach side, then followed the signs to the main Easy Riders office to the east. Turns out it was right near the Atlantis resort that our bus from the airport had stopped off at. After a long walk, I found it, and spoke to a nice man there who said the weather was definitely going to deteriorate, and that the boat to Lobos might not run the next day. Then the owner got off the phone, and spouted a stack of rubbish at me, though I did get the salient details. Essentially, we needn't pay for a guided bike tour - guiding ourselves around the north coast, to the volcanoes, or even to Lobos was easy.
I headed back into town, bought some more groceries, and took them back to the apartment. Then I got changed into my swimmers, and went to meet Christian post-dive. I got there as he was dekitting. I sat and waited as the day got less warm. We sat for a bit, and I decided that I didn't really want to go for a swim after all, and neither did Christian.
We headed back to the apartment yet again, and I made lunch from the mezze plate ingredients that I'd bought. It was nice. We took it easy for a while, and then, as Christian had decided that my idea of hiring bikes was a good one, and his preference was for Lobos, we walked all the way back to Easy Riders.
I hadn't been able to translate the scribble on the leaflet that the silly man had given me, but it became clear what he had been trying to communicate when we got to the shop and it was closed. Oh. We decided to go into the Atlantis resort and get a drink while we waited for it to open again at 5. This plan went well until we got to the bar queue and saw that no one was paying for their drinks. I tried to explain to the man that we weren't staying there, and he seemed to say that that was OK. So Christian asked for a beer, and I wanted to ask about cocktails. He showed me a menu and said that some were inclusive and some weren't. I thought I understood and so asked for one of the non-inclusive ones. Confusion took over, and we finally got the man to understand that we weren't staying there. He went away. The woman behind us said that we'd have to pay at reception and go back. The man came back and said the same thing. We walked nonchalantly off, with no intention of returning. We took ourselves on a self-guided tour of the resort, decided it was very nice and that we would never want to spend that much money on it, and then went back to the bike shop.
We sat for a little while as the man opened everything up. We booked the bike hire, and passage for the bikes on the boat, with the actual boat tickets for us to be bought on the boat. So we got to do Lobos and mountain biking in the same activity. The guy I'd been emailing about bike excursions wanted a lot more money than that, and was only to the volcanoes.
On our newfound hire bikes, we cycled back to the apartment, and stashed them on the balcony.
We fancied a cocktail by the beach (well, it was Christian's idea), so we got dressed up, and walked down to Waikiki beach again. We walked past the one that had no people sitting outside it, and went to the actual Waikiki bar/restaurant.
We found a table, stuck the legs in the sand better so that it wasn't wonky, and waited for someone to serve us. There was a bunch of British tourists taking selfies against the sunset. Christian went to the bar to buy drinks but the man told him it was table service and that they would come out. They didn't. So he went back in and managed to persuade them to let him order. He had a receipt. After another five or so minutes, a man came to take our order. He looked confused when we said we'd already paid and that we had a receipt. Our drinks came soon after. We'd decided on caipirinhas, and they were delicious.
Before long, all the people had gone, and it got dark. We were hungry, but weren't sure where to go. I hadn't managed to look up any of the restaurants I'd seen recommended online, so we had to decide on the Waikiki restaurant, which Christian liked the look of, or the nice-looking restaurant near the apartment. I chose the one near the apartment.
We strolled back there, and got a table outside near a heater. The menu was incredibly diverse. I decided on melon and prosciutto as a starter, with grilled king prawns for main. Christian had mussels for starter, and something for main that I can't remember. Meat of some kind, I imagine. It was extremely good food, and served with a friendly flourish. We had a bottle of bubbly with it.
We had dessert as well (I had a syrupy chocolate cake thing, and Christian had a creme caramel), which resulted in some very full bellies. We waddled back to the apartment and went to bed.
I walked up the main street, investigating the things I'd wanted to look at, like jewellery in the shops (uninteresting), and to call in to ask Easy Riders about what they could offer (the man in the shop on the main street didn't speak very good English, but it turned out that he couldn't help me with excursions - only with hire). I walked to the left at the end of the main street, and found the part of town that is less touristy and more set up for the locals, with travel agents, laundrettes, bus stops, and fruit shops. I went as far as the interesting shops, but didn't go all the way to the port end.
I headed back to the main street via the beach side, then followed the signs to the main Easy Riders office to the east. Turns out it was right near the Atlantis resort that our bus from the airport had stopped off at. After a long walk, I found it, and spoke to a nice man there who said the weather was definitely going to deteriorate, and that the boat to Lobos might not run the next day. Then the owner got off the phone, and spouted a stack of rubbish at me, though I did get the salient details. Essentially, we needn't pay for a guided bike tour - guiding ourselves around the north coast, to the volcanoes, or even to Lobos was easy.
I headed back into town, bought some more groceries, and took them back to the apartment. Then I got changed into my swimmers, and went to meet Christian post-dive. I got there as he was dekitting. I sat and waited as the day got less warm. We sat for a bit, and I decided that I didn't really want to go for a swim after all, and neither did Christian.
We headed back to the apartment yet again, and I made lunch from the mezze plate ingredients that I'd bought. It was nice. We took it easy for a while, and then, as Christian had decided that my idea of hiring bikes was a good one, and his preference was for Lobos, we walked all the way back to Easy Riders.
I hadn't been able to translate the scribble on the leaflet that the silly man had given me, but it became clear what he had been trying to communicate when we got to the shop and it was closed. Oh. We decided to go into the Atlantis resort and get a drink while we waited for it to open again at 5. This plan went well until we got to the bar queue and saw that no one was paying for their drinks. I tried to explain to the man that we weren't staying there, and he seemed to say that that was OK. So Christian asked for a beer, and I wanted to ask about cocktails. He showed me a menu and said that some were inclusive and some weren't. I thought I understood and so asked for one of the non-inclusive ones. Confusion took over, and we finally got the man to understand that we weren't staying there. He went away. The woman behind us said that we'd have to pay at reception and go back. The man came back and said the same thing. We walked nonchalantly off, with no intention of returning. We took ourselves on a self-guided tour of the resort, decided it was very nice and that we would never want to spend that much money on it, and then went back to the bike shop.
We sat for a little while as the man opened everything up. We booked the bike hire, and passage for the bikes on the boat, with the actual boat tickets for us to be bought on the boat. So we got to do Lobos and mountain biking in the same activity. The guy I'd been emailing about bike excursions wanted a lot more money than that, and was only to the volcanoes.
On our newfound hire bikes, we cycled back to the apartment, and stashed them on the balcony.
We fancied a cocktail by the beach (well, it was Christian's idea), so we got dressed up, and walked down to Waikiki beach again. We walked past the one that had no people sitting outside it, and went to the actual Waikiki bar/restaurant.
We found a table, stuck the legs in the sand better so that it wasn't wonky, and waited for someone to serve us. There was a bunch of British tourists taking selfies against the sunset. Christian went to the bar to buy drinks but the man told him it was table service and that they would come out. They didn't. So he went back in and managed to persuade them to let him order. He had a receipt. After another five or so minutes, a man came to take our order. He looked confused when we said we'd already paid and that we had a receipt. Our drinks came soon after. We'd decided on caipirinhas, and they were delicious.
Before long, all the people had gone, and it got dark. We were hungry, but weren't sure where to go. I hadn't managed to look up any of the restaurants I'd seen recommended online, so we had to decide on the Waikiki restaurant, which Christian liked the look of, or the nice-looking restaurant near the apartment. I chose the one near the apartment.
We strolled back there, and got a table outside near a heater. The menu was incredibly diverse. I decided on melon and prosciutto as a starter, with grilled king prawns for main. Christian had mussels for starter, and something for main that I can't remember. Meat of some kind, I imagine. It was extremely good food, and served with a friendly flourish. We had a bottle of bubbly with it.
We had dessert as well (I had a syrupy chocolate cake thing, and Christian had a creme caramel), which resulted in some very full bellies. We waddled back to the apartment and went to bed.
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