All to soon, it was time to leave. On the way back to our bus, we walked
on a path that had the rainforest on one side and the sea on the other.
We saw more interesting wildlife, including an agouti, which looks like
an overgrown rat, but is about the size of a pig. What made me laugh
though was a little scheme that the local raccoon population has thought
up. One of them was walking in front of the people looking incredibly
cute, while its friends were raiding the bags and picnic baskets behind
people's backs.
The walk back to the bus was a lot quicker than the hike to the beach.
We had to climb down a short stretch of steep and rocky path and cross a
little stream, but soon we were back at the bus. We went back to the
restaurant for our lunch and by now I was more than ready for it as I
had not eaten anything that day. Shortly before we reached the
restaurant, our bus had to make a sudden emergency stop. A huge iguana
had decided to slowly walk out right in front of our bus.
Despite the excitement, we soon arrived at the restaurant. As soon as we
sat down, we were served corn chips with various different salsas. They
also came round with jugs with some kind of fruity drinks. I am always
nervous if I don't know what precisely I am served, but after smelling
Graham's drink, I decided that this was probably OK. Fortunately I was
right. It was some red concoction that was very sweet, but tasty and I
still don't know what I was drinking, but as I did not get a reaction,
it did not contain banana. Graham also tried some white juice and he was
pretty sure that this contained banana so I gave this a wide berth.
The food was gorgeous. We both had Rice with Pork and Chicken which was
served with Salad, Plantain and Yuka. I was a bit angry about the
plantain on my plate. When we stopped at the restaurant earlier in the
day, I had explained to our guide that I am severely allergic to bananas
and even though I had never eaten plantain and therefore do not know for
sure that I would get an allergic reaction, as they are part of the
banana family I should avoid coming in contact with them. He did not
overly concerned and sure enough, there was plantain on my plate. Graham
took them off me together to the food that had been touched by them and
I did not suffer any consequences. I was not sure what precisely Yuka
is, so I gave this a wide berth as well. People on our table had started
to order margaritas so we decided to have a margarita each as well,
which was very nice. For pudding we had some traditional sponge cake,
which was very nice.