The day is not finished but my memory is starting to slip. Today is one day after our anniversary. Elaine and I started dating on May 3rd, 2009. Her sister Adriana suggested yesterday that we have some private time at the lake house after it was cleaned and the party company picked up their materials from Saturday's picnic at the lake house.
After lunch with the family we stopped at Graca's house and picked up Tira (sp). Tira was going to clean the lake house for $R30. It was Adriana, Elaine, Giovanni, Tira and myself all going to the lake house in a pickup truck made by Fiat. It is a very small pickup truck. Giovanni, Tira and I rode in the back. Quite often you will see people riding in the back of pickup trucks standing and holding the role bar.
While Tira cleaned, Elaine and Adriana enjoyed the sunshine on the dock of the beach.
Giovanni and I went exploring. He gave me a fence post to fence post tour of the property. Giovanni knows the property well. I think he is very interested in the vegetation that is on the property. He pointed out several different plants to me and told me their name.
Apparently he knows the Latin name of each of them. I found it kind of funny at one point as he was showing the way. Giovanni pointed to the root of a tree and said "alta." I had been photographing everything he pointed to. This time he looked at me kind of funny as I pointed my camera towards the tree root that he was trying to say be careful crossing it because it is rather tall.
Along our tour I heard a funny noise. I looked at Giovanni and tried to ask what is that noise. He said "lagarto." In the way he said it I first pictured a cat. That didn't make sense. Cat would have been O gato. At this point I had to envision what I thought made the noise. I saw one of these creatures on the road as we entered the property days earlier.
largato means lizard. I was dying to photograph one. And after speaking with Elaine and Adriana during the middle of our tour, I asked Giovanni to help me find another largato to photograph. He said they are very fast but he took me to exactly the place where we would most likely find one. It was a large tree on the west side of the property. We could hear two of them chirping away. The sun was setting at this point and the lizards were looking for refuge as it went down. Oh so cool.When the work was complete, Adriana, Giovanni and Tira left us to ourselves waiting still for the moving van to come and pick up the tables and supplies left from Saturday's picnic. The truck finally came around 6:30. It is dark at 6:30 here this time of year. When the truck left, Elaine and I had to take a little walk in the dark to lock the gates. I think that we probably had to walk about a half of a mile out to lock the farthest gate.
When we returned we continued to enjoy a bottle of good wine and a light snack. Our plan to prepare pasta and shrimp for dinner had been postponed as it became late and we were both too tired to cook.
The nights can be rather cool here this time of year. We had the fan going all night. You don't have a mosquito problem when the air is circulating as much as it was last night. I don't think I slept too well and at one point I tried to turn the fan off. But in the dark and in a drowsy state of being, I only got it to a medium setting.
We got up at 9:30. I was hungry and in need of a good cup of coffee. Today was to be special. We bought bacon and eggs at the supermarket yesterday. I haven't had bacon and eggs since we left Rochester on Monday morning. Buying bacon here is very interesting too. It doesn't come pre-sliced. You only get a little slab of it. Slicing it is completely up to the cook.
The really nice thing here in paradise is that clothing is optional. But I had to put an apron on to cook the bacon. Not a good thing to go without when the grease spatters everywhere.
Elaine and I enjoyed a nice breakfast out on the veranda. Bacon and eggs, coffee and a neat little toasted bread that is a common around here.
It is a beautiful clear day here at the lake. We spent the morning and mid-day on the beach soaking up the sun.
I may be sorry later. I have turned a little red. We decided to skip lunch for now. Elaine is enjoying a nice little nap in her hammock and I am trying to catch up on remembering what we did over the last couple of days.
Well I am getting use to the beer down here. I am going to have one more and join Elaine in the hammocks. It is 2:30 and Adriana is coming at 5:00 to pick us up. A nice little nap would be a good thing before we have to get dressed. Oh soooo cool.
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