Exploring bocas by bike!

So today I thought it would be fun to ride bikes from one side of the island to the next side. We agreed to meet at 10 am. So I woke up around 8 am and was on time until...I'm not sure what happened... but anyways I was running out of time and so I went downstairs to tell them I wanted to stay 1 more day. I had been paying daily and just telling them I would stay another day as I didn't know when I was leaving. However, unfortunately today was not my day. When I went downstairs I was told they were booked. And to make matters worse everywhere was booked because they were having a convention of some sort. So I tried not to panic. The receptionist said that they may have a 3 bed dorm room that I could share but would only know when the owner came back. So I went back to the room to throw all my stuff in my bag. I had everything all over the place and had taken most of my stuff out of my bag. So I hurriedly put the stuff back in my backpack and checkout of the room. I left my backpack in the office and went to eat. Now I am worried and running late. I had sent Rebecca a message via Skype saying that I would be running late but that I would still try to make it at 10 am. So close to 9 am I went to find food. I went to a restaurant and waited to eat. I got my food closer to 9:20 am and ate as fast as I could while still tasting my food. I left the restaurant close to 9:30 am and went to find the person with the bikes. When I got to the bike stand there was nobody there. Typical. So I asked a guy sitting on the side of the street and he told me the guy that is renting the bike went to collect bikes and would be back soon. So I waited. Then waited and waited and finally a guy came. Okay I probably only waited 10 minutes but still I was running very late.  So when he finally came I paid him, gave him my name (which he didn't write down), and set off to find the road to the beach. I stopped and asked 2 people before I was off on the road to the beach. So the plan was to meet at a fork in the road where the road to her hostel connects to the road to the beach. She had told me there were huge political candidate signs at the fork as well. So I came to one area that had big signs and paused there. I looked for her then decided to continue as I hadn't gone that far and this couldn't be it. I was passing a hostel and stopped to check to see if they had rooms. Nope. So I peddled my little feet off and came up on the fork in the road where Rebecca was sitting. I wasn't even that late... maybe a couple minutes. So off we went. Not to long after we started on our journey my chain came off the bike. 2 foreigners stopped to help me (a girl and boy) and we eventually got the chain on after taking off the chain guard. So then off we went again. Sometime later my chain came off again. I put this one on all by myself but now I was being super cautious. Its those bikes that you pedal backwards to stop. So as I am going down the hill I have my brakes on so the chain is not bouncing to much. This makes riding up hill worse since I don't get to use all the momentum gained from going downhill. About mid journey we stopped at a bat cave. We paid $1 to enter the cave but we both decided that we didn't want to walk through the bat cave. A couple bats had already flown by my head and we both didn't want to go any further.


Bat Cave

When we were walking back to the main road we saw the couple that had stopped to help me put the chain back on the bike. We then set back off on our journey. Now we had already went up and down some difficult hills but once we got past that point it got even worse. By the time we finally got to the beach we were tired and sweating. To make matters worse the beach had rocks in the water. We stopped at a restaurant and Rebecca got something to eat. While we were at the restaurant the couple that had helped me with my bike chain arrived. After we all ate we went and found starfish beach which was about a 10 minute walk. It is called starfish beach because you find starfish in the water. This is a nicer beach that the first beach (one with the stones) we had encountered but not as nice as Zapitilla. When we first got there we didn't see any starfish but 2 girls found starfish and I even touched one very quickly cus I don't like them that much. Later Rebecca and I found some beech chairs (well not found since they are all over) and sat in them. I figured you probably had to pay for them but I figured unless I was told to pay I would just see what happened. Sure enough a lady came by and started to ask for money for the beach chairs. So I pretended like I didn't understand what she was saying. Unfortunately Rebecca had already went and bought some drinks so the lady told Rebecca to translate what she was saying to me. Rebecca then told her I knew Spanish. Not cool Rebecca for ratting me out. Then the lady lowered the price but we said we could just sit on the ground because we didn't want to pay. She then waved her hand as in its okay and left us to sit in the chairs. Free chairs! Then I dozed off and when I woke up it was around 3 pm. So me and Rebecca had debated weather we would ride the bikes back or if we would put them on top of the bus and bus it back. In the end we decided we decided to bike it back. I mean how hard could it be!!!!! Well let me tell you... hard. We biked it back with no chain mishaps. When we got close to the town I stopped at 2 hostels and asked if they had available rooms. The first one didn't and the second one did. It was more money than I was paying but reasonable. I then met up with Rebecca at the bank. Afterwards we went and returned the bike and rewarded ourselves with some store bought icecream. Rebecca then walked around with me while I asked if any places had vacancies. No where did because of the convention. So I decided I should take the place I had already inquired about. Rebecca walked back with me to my hostel and I picked up my stuff. At the hostel was a German girl also looking for a place to stay. I told her about the place I was going and told her she was welcome to come along and check it out. So off the 3 of us went. When we got to the hostel Rebecca went her way to find a taxi back to her hostel and I checked in to the hostel. Now I was exhausted. The heat and the ride had done me in. I showered and came back downstairs. I took my laundry to the Laundromat conveniently located across the street. I then went and laid in a hammock and I'm sure dozed off. I then got up and ordered dinner at the convenient restaurant. Laid in the hammock as I waited. I had a delicious curry fish winch coconut rice. Afterwards I hung out downstairs for a bit more because the WiFi wasn't working. I dozed off in the hammock and then decided I should go to bed. When I got to my room the WiFi was working so I stayed up for a bit longer than I had intended to. Overall a good day. I do not want to leave tomorrow!