Today, I awoke with small pangs of homesickness. Funny how that which can seem monotonous and mundane on a daily basis, can be missed when absent. Or maybe it’s validation of what an enjoyable everyday life we lead? Whatever the cause, I’ll try to muster the strength to continue.

Today, we try Roys coffee lounge for breakfast, a cute hostel, hippie looking shop with a fabulous outside seating area. Great smoothie and veggie omelet, coffee not so much. But, we got to watch the cats play and a service dog lounge in the sun, so a very decent morning indeed.

Wanting a taste of adventure before beaching it, we headed towards the sugar mill ruins on the western part of the island. A maze of roads that were littered with wild horses and old navy bunkers used to house arsenal back when the navy had run of the island, wove us deeper into the jungle. Finally, we saw a hand painted sign that called out the ruins. Hopping out of the jeep, we followed a small path into the thick of it and found the remnants of what used to be a thriving sugar mill. I’m not sure how the industry got run out of the Caribbean, but will have to research.

The ruins satisfied our history fix, so we headed on the the nature tour – basically a rickety dock that wrapped a quarter of a mile into the mangroves. Mike wasn’t impressed, but I thought it was pretty interesting, to be almost floating on top of the roots & amazingly alive swamp. So much so, I did a side plank!

The beach we chose for the day was picturesque: completely secluded, palm trees, white sand beaches. The quintessential beach day stretched before us and we read, collected shells and lazily dipped in the water when the heat got too much. Truly a wonderful day that continued as we made our way into Esperanza for a bite to eat.

We found ourselves wanting to try somewhere new, so wandered into Bananas, a bar restaurant right along the main strip. A few happy hour drinks later (not very good ones, FYI, but cheap) we found ourselves talking to a Denver couple! They lived in Morrison, he worked in the roofing business and they were around our age. Small world! We got his info, so would hopefully catch up while back in reality.

After a bite, we decided we were close enough to sunset to enjoy another beverage at our favorite jaunt, Duffy’s. And boy, are we glad we did! The sunset was spectacular and the company, even better! An English gentleman by the name of Sebastian, struck up a conversation that led to one of the most engaging we’ve had thus far. Turns out he had a magnificent vessel, a sailboat, he could take us out on the next day, for he didn’t have any other charter guests. We signed up then and there and bide adieu until tomorrow, going to bed with the open ocean in our dreams.