Where the crescent moon looks like a smile

Where we hung out all day

These were all over the courtyard

very pretty I would be looking for hummingbirds in the gardens when we ate outside but didn't see any. Actually saw very few the entire trip which was disappointing

trees all pretty at night

These hovered over us as we ate breakfast outside ready to swoop down and steal our food. A crested magpie. It was bright blue and white. Very pretty but sneaky

the trees had orchids growing out of them

some of our new friends. I liked how the bartender converted half of a lime into this flower

After our extremely elegant dinner in which I found everything irresistible, we went for a walk on the beach. Our flashlights lit up numerous little hermit crabs scurrying in circles, their shells the size of a thumb nail. The giant moon, at 9 pm, was a huge orb with the bottom eighth lit up as an orange smile barely over the horizon to our west. (I swear it rises here to the southeast) A waxing crescent. Back at home, the crescent would have a vertical axis forming a "C". It never occurred to me the moon would look different elsewhere but then again most of my travels had me within 18 degrees latitude of home. Here I was at 10 degrees. We went down to almost 8 a few days later. Bridgetown, Barbados was the furthest south I had been but I don't remember the moon. When I was in Northern England during the summer solstice, I don't think I ever saw dark as I couldn't stay up so late.  Why oh why didn't I take a photo? And I couldn't even locate the North Star, now at 10 degrees above the horizon instead of the 42 or so that we are at.

I was on the road (miles of paths in this huge complex) before 6 am running. Already it was in the 80s (whereas today it was 22 degrees as I did my long run surrounded by snow) climbing into the mid nineties later. I hadn't run in a while, using the elliptical during our many snows (which broke again the other day!!!) so even though all was flat and at sea level, I was not Miss Speedy. I thought I would see more wildlife. I could hear the monkeys hooting and vultures quietly circled over my head.

I showered and met up with my friend eating our breakfast in the gardens watching the grackles and magpies stealing food. We found an umbrella and lounge chairs to camp out for the day. My pale skin wasn't used to being in the tropics at midday so I used plenty of protection. If I got too hot, I'd jump into the pool. They also had Jacuzzis of various temperatures. Next to us was a young Swedish family. The boy, who looked like he was 8 (at least he was the size of my 8 year old grandson) was practicing his English. I asked at what age did they learn English in Swedish schools? The boy was only 5, very large for his age. He was fascinated with English and was learning it on his own. The man, Shanna's age, was very nice. He asked about my genetic background as I looked very Swedish to him (which has been said before or Danish). No, just a bit of me comes out as Scandinavian. His wife works for a research company that takes human saliva and tests the DNA, not the human DNA but that of the flora (bacteria, viruses) It seems that your bacteria can tell a lot about what diseases you may be harboring. H. pylori and stomach cancer come to mind. Yeasts and diabetes but they are investigating many more.  I asked him how does the average Swede feel about our president? They are absolutely bewildered and disappointed. The world changed for the worst when it was obvious that he had won. He had assumed most educated Americans would feel the same. His business (IT of some sort) has American ties. When he said he was so sorry to an American colleague, he was very surprised to find that the man had voted for him.

We didn't spend the whole day lolling in our beach chairs. We did take a water aerobics class but again, I would have to be moving around the clock to undo the food. I think this was my favorite day even though we really didn't see much. Later we sat on our balcony trying to ID the many parrots that flew in front of us.  And we still had a bit of wine left.