Fruit at the end of the walking tour

We then walked along the seashore to our last stop - a juice bar.  On the way, Javier pointed out an abandoned seafront mansion which had been confiscated from a narco by the government.  Local people feel that it should be sold to a developer or someone to raise funds for their benefit, rather than being left to decay.

At the juice bar, Javier showed us several local fruits and gave us samples to try.  These included tree tomato, lulo, the biggest  smoothest passion fruit I've ever seen, guava, sweet mango, and zapote - a strange, caramel-tasting soft textured fruit.  The last one was the only one I didn’t particularly like.  We were then invited to buy a juice if we wanted.  The most popular choice with locals is pog - a combination of passion fruit, orange, and guava.  I went for lulo and orange, thinking it would be less sweet than the other options.  Again, having not had fresh fruit juice in a very long time, it tasted particularly good to me!

Javier left us at the juice bar as he had another tour to do.  He had been an excellent guide, and we all made sure we tipped him appropriately. 

After finishing our juice, we returned to LamArt for lunch.  This is the last time we will be on the coast for a while, so Mark ordered a seafood risotto which, bizarrely, came with fried cubed potatoes - carb overload!!  I had a very tasty fresh salad.  We then took a taxi back to the hostel.

We didn't need anything else to eat today, so we packed up our remaining chicken and salad to take with us on our long driving day tomorrow.  I then went to the shopping mall with Marina and Susan and managed to buy a small cool bag.  Unfortunately, they didn’t have any ice packs.  When I tried to ask for them, they showed me to where the ice cube trays were.  Close, but not really fit for purpose!

Back at the hostel, we sat chatting to some of our fellow passengers, including Sam and Megan, until it was time to turn it in.Read more