This is how we've been spending our afternoons...does anyone wonder how our screenplays are coming along (or not)?  One of the problems of not speaking Spanish is not noticing when they are offering the drinks two-for-one, and then not knowing how to tell them we don't EACH want two!  But for $5 for four bottles of beer (we recommend Pacifico!) you can't really do a lot of complaining.

We've been enjoying the simple pleasures, just walking around and taking everything in.  At a little shop, big enough for about two people to stand inside, they were advertising "Cocos Frios " ("Cold Coconuts" ).  For just over $1, the man took a coconut out of a cooler and whacked away with an enormous machete, pieces flying everywhere (they don't worry too much about lawsuits here).  He stuck a straw in the top, and after I sipped out all the liquid he cut out the meat and put it in a little plastic baggie for us to munch on.  The job that normally takes me the better part of an hour, with hammers and chisels and numerous bodily injuries, was reduced to a few safe but hair-raising seconds.

We're trying to get back into the swing of things: keeping up with the news, studying Italian, exercising, writing.  It's hard to be here and not treat it like "vacation" -- it's just our new life.