"If you're fond of sand dunes and salty air..."

Okay, Dominical doesn't exactly have sand dunes, but I thought I'd give this post a title that the old timers might recognize (Patti Page? Anyone? Anyone?)

In the middle of the night, I had a case of “Montezuma’s revenge.” I don’t know if it was something I ate, or just a bug I picked up. TMI? Perhaps. But it may be important later. Stay tuned.

Daybreak. The rain had stopped. The kids wasted no time in getting into the pool. In fact, I served them their pancakes there. Eventually, we all got into our beachwear, sunscreened up, and headed for Playa Ventana, about 10 km down the road.

The parking area was closed, so we drove up a dirt road until we found a place to park. This is not a touristy beach. The road that we parked on was a pockmarked battlefield of gullies and canyons you could easily picture as the setting of a Hummer commercial. The footpath to the beach was equally arduous. It didn’t look that bad, but the mud was incredibly slippery. On one of the steep parts, I fell twice, and Wito fell once. Somehow the ladies and Alex made it okay. In defense of myself, I was wearing flip-flops.  So you have to cut me some slack.

I should have just done like Bella and scooted down on my butt

The payoff for all this trouble was the beautiful beach. Bordered on two sides by rocky cliffs, the beach had a shady area of palm trees, and then a wide expanse of sand reaching down to the gentle waves. It’s too pretty to describe well, especially when I can just show you some pictures.

Another cool feature of Playa Ventana, and the one that gives it its name (ventana = window) is the cave that peeks through to the other side of the rocky cliff. There are actually two of them, a bigger one and a smaller one.

Side-note: I began to feel a little weird. Achy. Lightheaded. I figured I hadn’t hydrated properly and probably hadn’t eaten enough either.

The kids had a great time playing in the water. They all love the beach. You’d think we had gone to the beach a lot when we lived in Florida, but we really didn’t go very often. Personally, I don’t care for the beach. It’s pretty, I enjoy playing in the sand, and the waves are kind of fun, but those aspects don’t quite override the fact that I hate getting sunburned, hate using sunscreen, and dislike being super hot and sweaty. And those three things are hard to avoid at the beach. Regardless, I’ll do the beach once in a blue moon for the children’s benefit.

Cristina got her dad to hack into a coconut with his pocketknife.  She just happened to have a straw with her (curse those girl scouts and their preparedness!) so she had herself a little beach snack courtesy of mother nature.  And her dad's Buck knife.  Note the mud on his pants from his graceful dance down the muddy path.  Heh heh.

I didn’t see it, but Wito saw a small low-flying plane that he said was smugglers. He said they paint the planes blue to blend in with the sky. That’s pretty smart. I never thought of that. I naively asked what they smuggled. Cocaine, he said. I thought maybe they smuggled in that cheap pancake mix. Wito said maybe they hide the cocaine in the pancake mix.

We hadn’t packed a lunch, so when everyone got hungry, it was time to go.

By this time, my head was throbbing.

Back at the hotel, I showered with the kids. Maritza made an excellent lunch of gallo pinto, sausages in a tomato/onion sauce, and fried platanos. I ate a big plate of it and then lay down to try to improve my headache. Bella came and played doctor with her doctor kit. After some Tylenol, the headache only slightly improved. I don’t have much experience with migraines, but this one seemed close.

After napping for an hour or so, I got up and walked out on the balcony to see what was going on. I saw the Blue Bomber (that’s our nickname for the car we’re borrowing) pulling out of the parking lot. “Where’s my car going?” I asked Wito. Sofia and Alex were in the pool below. Cristina had decided to go to a nearby beach with Bella to take pictures of the sunset.

I lay back down. After Cristina and Bella returned, I made spaghetti for the kids. My head was still pounding, so I went to bed with Alex and Bella.