It rained this morning, which started the day off a little cooler with a breeze. It was nice. We walked down to the huge stone fortress, just outside of oldtown which Wyatt was telling me has an impressive maze of tunnels inside and cannons up on top. But, since he was last here they hiked the price of admission up from about $2 to $7 a person, which I felt was exorbitant (sp?), so we passed it by. I know it probably does not sound like all that much to go see an historic monument, but we have been hit up at these tourist stops so much along the way, at ridiculous tourist prices, and you can walk along the fortifying walls around much of the city for free, that it didn't seem worth it.
We walked down the Bocagrande, the area where the high rise hotels, and the small stretch of beach are that looks like Florida. We fantasized about beautiful tropical beaches we have been to, and ones we hope to go to. We have a bad habit of talking about the next trip before we are done with a trip. When we got really sweaty and thirsty we stopped to have beers at this cool, open air bar. We ate dinner at an Indian food restaurant and the food was plated so pretty I wanted to take a picture but we were in the bar area with a red light on and it made the food look uniform and weird. But the main thing is we had a salad. A real good salad with cucumber and tomato and red pepper, and carrots, with a nice vinnaigrette. It's been a while, veggies have been cooked or non-existant. There has been a pretty major craving. We have had tons of nice fresh fruit though, just easier to find good, peelable fruit, than veggies. I was looking at Delane's blog today and feeling so envious of their beautiful garden and Gavin's armfuls of freshly caught veggies, and remembering last summer when Wyatt and I could hardly keep up with the bounty out in the side yard garden that Joyce planted and was so fruitful! I really have missed that during this trip.
Rain started falling again as we walked back, up prostitute ally by our hotel, the music at the disco was starting up, the offers of cocaine were plentiful, and cabs honked at us from all sides.