Independence Day

We had a blissfully lazy day. Anna was over the moon with the room's coffee maker and used it to full advantage...4 cups later and she was almost awake! She bought me breakfast in bed of some sort of hybrid Honey Monster lucky charms which were no doubt full of sugar and E numbers and tasted delicious.

By midday we decided we should really do something with the day. Since the tours are really expensive, I had planned on us going to a free place with a Tarzan swing into a river. We decided we should really use the hotel pool so thought we'd spend an hour or so there first. It was so lovely that we ended up staying all day. The weather was perfect: cloudy with spells of sunshine that made you need to jump in the pool (pure sun would be too much for us and would frazzle Anna). We were the only ones there and the jacuzzi had warmed up nicely since yesterday. The volcano remained hidden behind clouds all day, which is apparently very common so we were very lucky yesterday to see it.

As dusk came, we walked the 2km into town and had a wander around. It's a tiny place so it didn't take long, however everyone was gathering on the sides of the roads. I remembered that it was Independence Day and therefore there must be a parade! Latin America loves a parade - everywhere we've been we've seen them or heard bands practising. This was one of my favourites though...great music, tons of people (who knew this many people lived here?!) and a great atmosphere. We got a snickers ice cream cone and waited for it to start. It went on for an hour and was still going strong when we headed back. We had dinner at the same place as last night. There was again a bit of confusion over the bill and we noticed a group of Americans were questioning their bill too. I'm not sure if they're trying to swindle tourists or are just a bit incompetent - seeing as everything is just scribbles on scraps of paper in most places I suspect / hope it's the latter.Read more