And Then There Were Three

Thursday, December 29

After we hugged the Vermonters good-bye, Helen and Charlie set off to see the sculptures on the Malecon. 

The little open car is a pulmonia, the local open air taxi originated here over the protests of taxi drivers. (Pulmonia, as those drivers christened them, means pneumonia!) At this season it’s a bit chilly driving around in them, but kind of fun, especially when all 8 of us could crowd into the back of the pickup truck variety and sing along with the inevitable 60’s pop music piped in for us.

That evening as the dew started to fall, we loaded into the dinghy for the long awaited exploration of this big estuary, home to four marinas, a golf course, several hotels and many residences. Many fish were jumping and the wading birds were out in force finding plenty of prey. The banks, unfortunately, are mostly rock lined but a few mangroves are left. We saw black skimmers, many egrets, yellow-crowned night herons, great and little blue herons, wood storks and hundreds of flying cormorants. Also noted California style canals with docks installed side by side where the residences were packed along the slough, but oddly, no other boats in transit. Finished our cruise in last of sunset afterglow with Venus and Jupiter joining the crescent moon.