Saturday, January 21, 2012

A day downtown

After a two mile walk and a small breakfast the bus was sighted and jumped on. Getting off on the far side of the River Cuale (it bisects the Town) we proceeded to reacquaint ourselves with familiar haunts - the Page in the Sun Coffee shop, the Farmers' Market and a walk along the Malecon - the seaside front. The Malecon has been remodelled in record time (warp speed for the Mexicans) and traffic has been rerouted to make the area pedestrian friendly. It works well. We also discovered the greatest bargain of the vacation - a breakfast for less than four dollars USD.

At the end of the malecon a surprise awaited. Each year we have been coming down one of the sights to see was a group of aerial dancers who climb to the top of a one hundred foot pole, arrange ropes around a windlass pole and then spin in the opposite way to the windup to come to ground in thirteen turns. These folks had been displaced by the reconstruction and there was discussion in the forums about their future. Well I guess the Mayor (who manages everything here) decided to allow them to get back in action. This has been the first time we saw the ritual from start to finish - a great show. Walking back to the bus stop, which was not in its usual spot (reconstruction repositioning) we saw a familiar sign CASINO, I guess that word needs no translation. Casinos here are new and small and usually only are slot arcades. The procedure is different one has to buy-in at the cage and all the money goes on a slot card. Cash out when you have won or hide it if you bust. The card is works on all the machines so one can wander. Needless to say we decided the check the place out, load up a card for twenty bucks, play twenty minutes on that money and cashed out ten bucks ahead! 

Back to a home cooked meal of green beans with yesterday's delicious BBQ chicken from the stand downstairs. One whole chicken and boiled/roasted small new potatoes for nine dollars - beats Swiss Chalet every time. Not much on TV tonight, we only have four english channels and two are Canadian - CBC Newfoundland and CTV Halifax. Not much choice unless you want to watch hockey or ice skating. The last hing we want to see is ice. BTW thanks to all those who posted on facebook their snowpics - great entertainment.

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