As it was our last day, we got up rather late at around 08.00. We found that the water supply was off again as they were still working on the pump, so we went out a little grubby! We had breakfast and then headed out for our last chance of exploration.
We had decided that we liked Santa Theresa, so we headed for the town of Cobano again and from there got onto the dirt roads again. At the point we had previously turned off to Santa Theresa, we continued straight on heading toward Rio Negro. After several kilometres of bumping and shaking around, we found the sleepy village of Rio Negro and the the river Negro! The signposts ran out that this point, but we decided to carry on as we were aware that there are really no roads heading up the west coast of the Nicoya Peninsula and thought we would eventually find the coast again.
After winding around in the hills, we started to descend and suddenly we could see the Pacific again. The road dropped down to the coast and a deserted beach at the village of Manzanillo. There was a bar overlooking the beach, so we sat there and had a drink. The students of the school appeared to be having a lesson outside on the road just below us.
The road to the north of Manzanillo runs on the beach fora while, but we decided that we would not risk ending up in soft sand.
Eventually, we moved on south and followed the road, sometimes near the beach and other times up in the hills until we reached the northern edge of Santa Theresa. We continued on to the cross-roads at Playa del Carmen and parked to look at the 'shopping mall'. This proved to be full of surf shops, so didn't keep us long. Looking across the road we spotted an ice-cream shop and felt obliged to try it out! We sat outside and watched the world go past as we ate our treats.
We headed back to the car and drove a little further to the end of the road at Mal Pais, but the beaches there were very rocky and there was lots of surf. Wanting a last swim in the Pacific, we drove back to Santa Theresa and the beach we had found previously down a track next to Cafe Zack and Casa Zen hotel. The beach was deserted so we sat under some palm trees and read and swam for an hour or so.
Feeling hungry, we got back in the car and went back to the Bakery at Playa de Carmen again where we had an excellent lunch and watched the Hoffman's Woodpeckers nesting in a palm tree.
Full of salad and ciabata bread we headed back to the hotel. We were a little later returning to the hotel than we had been on other days. We were greeted by Judy saying, "We wondered where the kids had got to - you're late"! I think we have become part of the furniture at Vista Hermosa!
Having had a cooling swim in the swimming pool, we settled down and then the power went off. This had a knock-on effect as no power meant no hot-water and in fact, since the power to the pump at the well had gone too, there was no water again!
Eventually, the power and water came back on in time for dinner and we were able to have a shower.
Our kind hosts, Judy and Xavier, said that dinner was on them this evening to make up for the issues with water which was extremely kind of them. I had home-made Spaghetti Bolognaise which Lynn had ribs again, both were delicious. We also enjoyed a beer or two and a glass of wine. All-in-all a very pleasant last evening.
We managed to do our packing during the evening too as we intended to leave before 07.30 in the morning.
Our stay at Vista Hermosa was really fantastic, we were made to feel at home throughout our stay and felt we were house guests rather than hotel guest. Thanks Judy and Xavier!
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