Bizarre Foods with Phillip and Pat

We thought of the Travel Channel show today, Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern, as we had a snack plucked straight from the ocean by a local man, removed from the shell, and rinsed with seawater. The morning started with sun, after the rain overnight. I noticed that I had gotten a mild sunburn from the Isla de la Plata trip, so we didn’t take a trip to Las Frailles beach. We just walked around the town, having a local breakfast, taking a few pictures. We decided to walk south along the beach, where we came to the morning catch being sold. It was cut up right on the sand and weighed out. The birds were nearby, waiting for their turn at the scraps. Most of the scraps were collected in bins, to be hauled off, but some landed on the sand. These birds apparently came onto the beach after the fisherman left and cleaned it up, because an hour later, the sand was perfectly clean.

After we watched the fisherman for a few minutes, we continued along the beach to a large rock outcropping. The tide was out, so the rocks were drying in the sun. We saw a man, woman, and child in the rocks, collecting something with their knives, and putting it in a bag. We approached the man and asked what it was. He showed us what he was collecting, some kind of mollusk that he said was for his meal. We asked him a few more questions, and then Phillip gave him a dollar “por su ayuda,” which means “for your help.” The man started pointing out starfish and other water critters, arranging them for me to take pictures of. He told us the names of everything, then he offered Phillip one of his bagged items. It was a small peachish-orange colored mussel-type critter. Phillip bit off half, then called me over to eat the other half. It was slightly chewy, and we thanked the man again. Fresh sushi, can’t get any fresher than that. Our friend is the one in the red shirt in this picture, which shows the rocks we were climbing over. The starfish in the water between the rocks was more pliable and not as bony feeling as I expected. There were lots of little black crabs, about an inch wide, and some round, rubbery feeling porcupine-looking critters, seen in the picture with the starfish. I was carrying the camera, so of course I had to fall before we finished our adventure (yes, I am blaming the camera). I cut my knee, but it is small and only bandaid-worthy. Phillip did get a picture of it before I could rinse it off, but I’m not posting the picture because Leslie would freak out to see blood running down my leg.

After that adventure, we walked back into town and got mango smoothies. They call them mango bebidas con leche, and they were delicious. We were sitting at the cabana where we had met an American couple, Bill and Margaret, yesterday. Bill came by to get a cerveza (it was after 12:00 pm… barely) and he stayed and talked. The three of us went to a restaurant for the $2.50 lunch – soup, fruit drink, fried fish, rice, and french fries.  Now we are back at our hostel and I’ve cleaned up my knee with an alcohol wipe and Phillip put a bandaid on it.

I promised pictures of the inside of our cabin….  The beds with the mosquito netting up and with it down. The windows have screen, but there are some significant gaps around the door where bugs can get in, so we are using the netting at night. In the picture, the netting looks almost plastic, but it isn’t, it is a fabric netting.

This is the sitting are where I download the pictures to my computer before coming to the main building to create my blog postings.

And finally, two shots of the bathroom. All the trim is really good looking, finely polished with an interesting grain. It’s not a large bathroom, Phillip stood in the shower to take a picture of the sink, but it is big enough. There’s no shower door, just a half wall, but it works fine, and apparently they are used to wet rugs.

Well, I’m done posting, and Phillip has put on his mosquito repellent, so we’re ready to head back to town. We’ll probably see Bill… probably back at the cabana that sells cervezas and mango smoothies.