December 19th

Jeff woke me at 0845 to get ready for breakfast at 09!!! WOWZA! I was awake from 04-06 am – I don't know why, just one of those things. Breakfast this morning was a rice lattice-like bread with stew; and a roti-like tortilla with peas with coconut. Such different breakfast items, but was good. We were also served whole bananas (we took two each for later). I had coffee and Jeff had masala tea. They tried to get us to eat more! We politely bowed out – we were full!

We readied and went out. The sun is shining full force today! Yesterday was clouded up, but not so today. We went on our walkabout – all new sites to see. But first on the agenda was to go to an eyeglass shop. Jeff needs new glasses. First place we went to, we found some for him! It was a buy one get one free so he got two different ones, one for backup. (In case he sits on them again!) Then we stopped at a little shop we split a Sprite. Then we walked toward the lighthouse and the beach, we ate our bananas. They were a bit sweeter than other bananas we have had in India. (Our lady hostess said they have 26 kinds of bananas here!) Arriving at the lighthouse, discovered it was not open again today. It is closed on Mondays, but today was a maintenance day. So we'll try another day.

We walked on to the beach. The sand was so much hotter than yesterday, due to the sunshine! We had to keep our sandals on until we were on wet sand. We are still fascinated by the two tone sand on this beach. Their were a couple of people actually in the water swimming today, and quite a few on the each itself. The beach is so much more peaceful for walking – no vehicle noise, let alone the blaring horns. There is just the splashing of the waves, some cawing of crows, and rare squawks from the small egret-type birds. 

We walked until we came to different restaurant, Sea Shore Restaurant. We each had a juice each: Jeff- pineapple, me- watermelon. These juices are so light and refreshing. They are just the fruit blended up and put in a glass! (The lime-blended juices may have added sugar.) As we were sitting watching the water drinking our juices, we saw dolphins breaching. The lady who took our order said that there were sardines just off shore and the dolphins were feeding. A French man came in and sat beside us. We struck up conversation. He has lived in India off and on for a total of nine years amount of time!

Finished, we left and walked back to our place. It's siesta and cooling off time. After we cooled down, we sat out on the balcony, under the ceiling fan. I noticed the butterfly we have been seeing so much. It has a red big body and black wings with some white and red on them. We think it is the 'Common Rose Butterfly.' Also can't help but notice all the crows. There are a few on the beach, but here just off the beach – in the housing areas – there are bunches, and contributes to the noise level. We just sat, I blogged and Jeff read. We could smell that painters are here working today. Our host noticed us, came up offered us tea. We declined but accepted water. He brought it with more bananas. We drank the water, but we already had two bananas each, so we left them. When he came back to retrieve the dishes, he tried to get us to eat the bananas. We told him we just are not hungry, but told him how tasty those bananas were, and thanked him. He smiled, nodded, and took the tray away. We decided to go back into our room for the siesta/nap time.

Around 515ish we back out for dinner and sunset. We went to the beach, and noticed the sun was going to set early due to a cloud bank. There were quite a few more people on the beach now as it is way cooler temperature. We arrived at the place we ate lunch yesterday, Catamaran Restaurant. They had pizza and it has been a long time since we had pizza! Last time was Reunion… Wow! That was in October!!! Oh, my! Anyway, we had a chicken veggie pizza. It was tiny bit spicy with a smokey, chili powder, BBQ sauce; “tiny bit” spicy chicken; veggies of bell yellow and green pepper, tomatoes, onions, black olives; then cheese, of course. We also had a watermelon salad with cheese, herbs, and black olives. The drinks were a pineapple lassi, which is yogurt/water based; a peanut butter shake; and a bottle of water. It was tasty and settled our pizza craving.

A nice sunset happened 15 minutes before it was supposed to, but we saw it from the restaurant. Then the outside lights came on and fishing boat lights out in the ocean came on. We went back to our homestay. It had been awhile since we witnessed a sunset – felt truly blessed.