fun times at the playa...

I went to the beach on friday, and today I´m still a bit sandy. All in all, it was a fun trip with my friends, the sun was strong, the water was turquoise and the beer cold. Friday afternoon half the group went to Playa Muñecos. It´s the more secluded of the two and really quite beautiful. We ate a picnic of hardboiled eggs, rice with chili, potatoes, some vegetable that is green and like a potato with a name i don´t know, and more things with chilis and limes. We tried to make a bonfire, but we had no wood. (that made it a bit difficult). We drove around in my friend roberto´s jeep, that´s one of those open ones painted with rastafarian colors. The highlights of Playa Muñecos are, 1) some how in the middle of the night on my way to the bathroom (a big rock next to a cliff) I managed to step in dog (or horse or burro or wild goat) excrement- At first everyone thought it was on the bottom of my shoe, but no, somehow this aforementioned excrement made it between my foot and the shoe. So, the rest of the night, I walked around barefoot with smelly feet. 2) Narcotraficantes came to make a deal in the middle of the night (not with us, but on the other side of the beach). So, in the middle of the night when I woke up and people were still up chatting, I saw lights on the otherside of the beach. At first I thought other campers, but these ´campers´has big flashlights and appeared as though they were searching for something. Anyway, clearly, as timid as I usually am, I was freaked out, because many a good horror story starts this way (especially when Fernando said, let´s sneak over there and try to scare them). My friends told me everything would be fine, so I tried not to worry. The next day, when we met up with the other half of the group, I was sharing my story and they calmly replied, ah, well of course, those were narcotraficantes, that beach is known for deals and trades and such....ok, so really, who knows who was there, but, it certainly makes a good story now. At Villa Rica, the beach was not as pretty, much dirtier, but there were restaurants and cantinas. Plus, we rented a cabana to sleep more safely in the night. We hiked up a mountain and hiked down into the quebradas, which i don´t know the word for in english. Basically, it was beautiful and amazing. I ate the local food (which is probably more dangerous than drug dealers as neighbors) and spent the day frolicing in the sun and surf. Basically, my weekend was like a collection of scenes from a good beach movie- all the key elements were there. On sunday, we hitched a ride to the main road and caught a bus back to Xalapa where it was cloudly, slightly rainy, and cool. Today it rained again.