Picture Posting

The links for recent picture albums in Shutterfly.

Jamaica Day 1

Jamaica Day 2

Jamaica Day 3

Jamaica Day 4

Miami Day 1

Miami Day 4

Miami Day 6

I do have to get some pictures off the cell phone to complement the actual camera pictures.  I will try to get those soon.

Miami 2015 Day 8

We woke up and started getting packed for the trip home. We had to check out by 11am.  Before we could really check out I needed to get a new debit card to replace the missing one. So we walked over to the Bank of America near the police station in Sandy Isles Beach and I got in the queue to get something. Daniela took a short walk to a gas station and bought some snacks with the last of our cash but amazing the wait was really short. The lady that helped us was very nice and quick and it was only a few minutes before I had a temporary debit card and some cash in hand.

We started the walk back and decided to stop for breakfast at El Mega Chuzo.  They do have a breakfast menu but most of that is scrambled eggs. I am not nuts about the concept and had instead salchipapas which is basically hot dogs and french fries.  It was actually a very large serving and very good.  Daniela had a tamale.  We had coffee and juice to go along.  When we finished eating we got back to the hotel and tried to get checked out.  Unfortunately we were 10 past 11 and the door was already locked so I went down and got in the giant check-out line and Daniela got the key turned back on and got the bags. Since the line was massive it took a while to get out.  Eventually I did get through. We got the car from valet and drove out to a couple of different malls to kill time since we were well ahead of the time for the plane which was departing at 7:50pm.  We killed time till eventually we got to the airport, filled the rental with gas and turned it in.

We checked into the airport with little problem then made our way to a gate area where we could charge phones. Daniela walked around a little bit and I and just waited. After a bit we had lunch at Shula's where I had a burger and beer and Daniela had tea because she was only hungry for a snack. So she found a bakery and bought a couple things. Not much longer and we were on the plane which took off on time and landed on time after an uneventful flight that both of us mostly slept through.  The Flightline van was there and waiting and we were home before long. Still it was near midnight when we got home and I needed to get sleep to get to work the next morning.

Miami 2015 Day 7

This was supposed to be an easy day to relax but instead we started off by me canceling the corporate card I forgot to cancel then night before then walking over to the police station to try to file a report. We were given the number to the Port Everglades police dispatch who took information and gave us the number to the ferry terminal which we had already called with little luck.  So we got the rental car and then drove to the port to speak to people directly.  Of course just as you might expect the people at the ferry terminal were not really much help. We found out they don't have any security cameras in the terminal especially where the security line goes. They called up other people who said they didn't have any turned in wallets.  It was a few minutes of basically finding out as much as we could have already figured out. That the wallet was gone and there would be no finding it at all.  So from there we took a turn at the port police. We were able to find an officer directing traffic at an exit to one terminal and he explained how to get to the local area police station and that he would call another officer to meet us there.

We drove to the police station and officer S. Jackson did meet us there and he wrote out a report of our incident to be submitted to the police report.  He was definitely a bit older and you could see he was fighting with using the computer a bit but still he managed to get it done. I realized still that this process would just put it in the books but no police work would go beyond that report. I am not surprised by it but mostly disappointed with the lack of security cameras in the terminal.  

After this couple of hours had passed we drove back to the hotel and after getting the car parked walked over and had lunch at El Tropico which was a Cuban restaurant. I had the churasco and Daniela had a liver dish which I cannot remember the name of at the moment. She had some fresh juice and I had a Presidente or two.  The food was very good and I was unable to have dessert at the amount I ate.

After we got back to the hotel I asked permission to turn on the AC and crash for a bit, which is what I did. I was exhausted and rather annoyed still and the cooler air with the AC gave me the first respite I had from the temperatures of Miami for sleeping and I slept well.  Daniela took a long walk along the beach and was on her way back when I finally woke up a few hours later. 

When she got back we sat out on the balcony and watched the end of a wedding reception from a wedding that was held on the beach at the hotel.  Then we started to watch the movie Good Will Hunting. The surf was sort of loud for the speakers of the laptop and we ended up moving inside to hear better. After the movie it was bed.

Miami 2015 Day 6

We had to get up really early because we were going to take a day trip to the Bahamas and the pick up was at 5:45am. This trip is done through a ferry ride to Grand Bahamas. The ferry ride takes about 3 hours. The ride to the ferry terminal in Fort Lauderdale area took maybe half an hour and then we went through check-in at the ferry port. That was quick but very low tech. I have to say this now though we didn’t discover it until much later. I think either the security people or the couple in front of us stole my wallet and credit cards during the security line while the man in front of us took forever to go through the metal detector. It was something I didn’t discover then but after we got to the restaurant on the other side of the ferry ride. It is also possible they were stolen from our bag while we were sleeping on the ferry but that would be unusual based on where we placed the bags.  I am quite pissed about it but there isn’t much we can do but cancel the cards and such. My license was already expired and I was working with a temporary until I got home. Will hit the remainder of the saga for day 7.

The terminal wait was like 1 and half hours which begs the question why we had such and early arrival but it was uneventful. We bought some bad instant coffee stuff from a machine while we waited. We boarded and found a spot on the boat that allowed for us to stretch out and as I said mainly slept the whole ride. I bought a ham and cheese sandwich and a muffin and some coffee and orange juice which we ate quickly before we departed though. The ferry was enclosed and there wasn’t really much to see so we slept the whole trip through really.

When we arrived we disembarked and were checked for our passports again and then it was pretty much through to the parking lot where our shuttle to the beach area had not yet arrived. We waited for them for about 10 to 15 minutes which I think is kind of sad.  They know what time the boat is going to arrive so they have little excuse for being late. Still the driver was funny and explained a small amount about the Bahamas and the island.  The ride was maybe 15 minutes or so.  He dropped us off and said he would take folks to a great restaurant he suggests called the Afterdeck. We needed rest rooms to change and such so we followed him to the restaurant. We got changed in their bathrooms and then decided to eat there anyway.

I had to two of their Kalik beers which is local Bahamas and the fish and chips. Daniela had grilled grouper which she really liked. The fish and chips were nice too. This was where I figured out my stuff was missing.  Still we were in the Bahamas and there was not much we could do about it there. We had not time for it to happen in the Bahamas so it had to happen at the terminal. I have no doubt it happened in the security line.  In any event after lunch we walked around and did quick souvenir shopping then headed to the beach and spent the rest of the afternoon basically in the water in front of a hotel that let us use their beach chairs.  It was a nice afternoon. The water was just cool enough to counteract the heat out. We saw a ray and some other fish in the water. It was amazing how crystal clear the water was. Honestly I couldn’t believe how easy it was to see to the bottom even at a depth where I was standing in shoulder deep water.  We finished up and got back to the restaurant where we changed in their bathrooms again. The power was out so it was interesting. Apparently the power was down in the whole town of Lucaya which is where we were.  We met the really drunk Brazilian at this point. From San Pablo he was very loud. He had limited English but it was funny. He was rather loud the whole shuttle ride back to the ferry. I do not think it was obvious to everyone he was gay though because he appeared to be hitting on the German girls that were on the trip.  Still it was funny all the same though maybe it got a little bit old by the end.  Boarding the ferry back was a lot quicker. They had no power so the security lines were quicker and they just had us go right out and get on the boat from the car entrance (I suspect because they couldn’t work the gate stuff.  We waited only a little while before we got going and then bought some snacks from the duty free shop (nuts, chips, cookies, candy) then fell asleep for a large part of the return trip.  When we returned we had a quick shuttle ride and were the first stop back.  We stopped at the quick mart in the gas station across the street to get some water and food then we headed to the room.  That was where I started canceling all my credit cards before we went to bed.  It was a long day when all was said and done.

Miami 2015 Day 5

We woke up and got prepared to drive to around the Fort Lauderdale area. Today was the day for the Bruins hockey game at the BB&T Arena in Sunrise, FL but also Daniela had a friend from her high school now living around the Sunrise area so we were going to meet her for a little while at the Sawgrass Mills Mall near where she lived. She had to pick up her husband airport so it would be maybe an hour or so. Not long enough to have lunch but at least a snack.  Her name is Pamela. I met her and they started to talk about old times in Spanish so I wandered the mall for a little while, mostly looking in the bookstore near the food court.  After maybe an hour or so I came back and Pamela was ready to leave so we said goodbye and Daniela and I went in search of lunch.  I didn’t want to eat food court food so we found the Cheesecake Factory and ate there. I had chicken and biscuits and Daniela had a fish dish.  The food was decent but not spectacular and I felt like I had a huge bubble in my stomach for the rest of the afternoon. I did have 2 Sam Adams Octoberfest beers but I don’t think that is enough to cause that. 

When we were done eating we did some actual shopping through the mall which is quite large. We did buy a couple things at the outlet stores they have. At the Nautica store we found out the Arena was literally across the street from the mall. Pamela said it was close but not that close.  It turns out when I checked that the distance was about 10 minutes by walking. The guy said a lot of people park at the mall to go there and security doesn’t do anything about it. We did a bit more shopping until it was getting close to the time to go to the game. When we were done we went to the car and I put on my Bruins jersey and Daniela changed to warmer clothes. 

The walk really was only about 10 minutes, but the first road leading out of the mall had a lot of trees that had spiders that were black and yellow striped and no word of a lie at least 4 inches and probably more like 6 inches on the leg spread.  I was horrified and so was Daniela. Not willing to get too close and the light starting to fail we took some pictures from a distance away that I am not sure will do them justice.   Still we had to press forward and get through to the arena. It was not a pleasant part of the day but we did make it uninjured somehow. I suppose the spiders took pity on us.

We got to the arena and they had a bunch of kids’ activities out front that you would rarely see at an everyday game in Boston. I suspect that they are trying to drum up more interest in the sport with the youngsters because they don’t have the already decades long history that the Boston area has. We got inside and found the seats really quickly. Daniela went for food while I watched the warm up skate.  We got popcorn and a hot dog and a couple of cokes for the game.

The bruins scored first on the power play and again on the power play both were goals by Brad Marchand.  They got one more goal by Zdeno Chara and then the Panthers scored one goal and that was it. The Bruins had a couple of 5 on 3 penalty kills and failed on the first one but that was it for the rest of their PK time. They ejected Marchand from the game for a boarding penalty with 2 minutes to go. 5 minute major and game misconduct.  I didn’t really get to see the play.  The Bruins killed those penalties too but even with the free icings did not manage to score an empty netter. But they did win 3 to 1.  The fans overall were quiet in comparison to Boston fans. We had some folks near us in section 324 that had cowbells and did small chants but there appeared to be more Bs fans than there were Panthers fans.  There was one obnoxious guy in the back but as it became apparent the Panthers were going to lose he sort of quieted down.

We walked back through a similar area that had the spiders we walked out of but this one appeared to not have any or at least as many.  We got back to the car and drove back with a limited amount of traffic trying to get on to 95 south that probably took us an extra 10 minutes beyond what it should have.  We got in an pretty much crashed soon after.

Miami 2015 Day 4

We woke up a bit earlier than other days because we needed to get cleaned up and ready for a city tour. A small tour van came to pick us up at 8:30am and we were taken to the main office of the tour company. There we had a few minutes then were picked up by a double decker open topped bus for the first part of the tours we were taking which was a city tour.

On the city tour they explained a little about the city. That the name Miami was from an Indian word meaning sweet water. The guide was funny and told a lot of jokes.  The tour showed us South Beach for the Art Deco architecture.  The day included a lot of celebrity chasing by mentioning the houses that belonged to so and so and where certain TV show and movie scenes were shot as much as anything else. After South Beach it was on to the Coral Gables where we saw houses adorned with coral or even made with coral because the area was filled with it from prehistoric times as the location was once completely under water a few million years ago. It was neat to see it all.  After the Coral Gables it was on to Little Havana which had the primary aim of getting us into a Cuban cigar shop. Don’t smoke so didn’t buy any cigars (blech) but did get to taste and chose to buy some Cuban coffee.  After the cigar shop a bit more about Little Havana which was the primary stopping point for Cuban immigrants but is now the major location for a lot of Central and South Americans who come to the US because they don’t have to learn English to be there.

The city tour brought us to Biscayne Bay where we were told to get lunch at the Tradewinds restaurant which we did. They said the restaurant could get us food in time and reasonably priced. I had a Cuban sandwich which was nice and Daniela had a salad with shrimp on it. I had a couple Sam Adams and Daniela had a couple of lemonade type drinks. Nothing was spectacular or terrible in the restaurant but it was pricey due to the lemonade drinks which were $10 each which is kind of scary considering they were non-alcoholic.

From there the tour put us on a cruise ship that sailed around Biscayne Bay.  The tour was about an hour or so. There was a guide who first explained a little bit about the history of the islands in the bay which are almost all man made except for one.  That was the early part of the tour. The remainder and main focus of the ride was to show off mansions from rich people which was probably about 40 minutes of the ride. I am not a celebrity chaser so much. Also many were formerly owned by and not right now.  So while I guess it could be neat it was mainly lost on me.

After the boat tour we had to wait probably another 15 minutes at the port when we were picked up by a different bus who drove us out to the Everglades National Park at a place called Coopertown. At Coopertown we took an air boat ride into the Everglades where we did indeed see several alligators during the tour. The guide was very funny and we had a good time. It was neat the way the boat turns like a drift. I think we saw about 6 alligators out in the wild.  When we got back we were given the chance to hold a gator that was about 3 feet long or so. Then we got to do a small wildlife show which included a baby alligator and boa snake mainly. In all it was a good part of the tour and what I enjoyed the most.  The alligators’ skin is much softer than you think it would be.  They drove us back to the tour office and were then given a ride back to the hotel so it was fairly late by the time we got back. 

We got cleaned up and headed across the street to Pacha Mamma again. This time Daniela had anticuchos and I had aji de gallina.  Hers was better as the chicken was not really shredded for my dish. I liked the flavor of the sauce but the chicken was just cooked and chopped for mine.  We had a couple of Cuscenas as well.  The waiter there suggested we go to “Dassy’s” for the Patriots game and we were able to look it up and find it was only about 15 minutes walking so we decided to visit Duffy’s Sports Grill.  Walking there was a bit treacherous as google maps had us hit the wrong side of the road and we had to cross a highway, but we did make it.

At the bar we had to wait a while to be seated but they had tons of TVs so we could see the game fairly easily.  The game was already started by the time we got there. Apparently Gronk already scored a touchdown just before we arrived.  Obviously there were tons of Dolphins fans there but there were no small number of Patriots fans as well. We ended up getting seated in an area with a lot of Pats fans so it was safer. Still I think the Miami fans are very fair weather and the support for their team seemed limited at best, especially as the game went on and it was obvious the Pats were going to win.  Daniela got the place to sing me happy birthday while we had dessert after the game was over. Since we had eaten at Pacha Mamma it was basically just beers while we were watching the game.

We safely walked back to the hotel on the correct sides of the road.

Miami 2015 Day 3

We woke up later and the weather still wasn’t fully cooperative. It was very windy and cloudy apparently due to a tropical depression hanging around the area. Still we had to basically get ready because we were going to drive to the Sandals home office where we would meet with Silvio and Arlenes who were reps from Sandals we met on the trip to Jamaica.  They offered to take us out to lunch for Cuban food one of our days in Miami. We got ready and then Daniela had to do some work so we basically had breakfast of sorts and then I killed time until it was time to go.

We got the car from the valet and the drive was probably about 50 minutes to just beyond the airport a bit to the south. There was of course traffic but we made it unscathed.  The office was a little difficult to find but we were able to get there. They do not have enough parking spaces for the companies that work in that location it is quite obvious.  We got inside and Silvio took us to a conference room and we chatted about different things until Arlenes was done with her phone meeting. She joined us and Silvio drove us to La Carreta which is a famous Cuban restaurant a few minutes away from their office.

La Carreta has about 5 locations Silvio said. The staff all spoke Spanish as a first language. I had the ropa vieja and Daniela had something called vaca frita de pollo which if translated literally means fried cow of chicken.  It means that it was a shredded chicken dish done in the way of a shredded beef dish that is popular for Cubans.  I had mine with black beans and rice. The food was excellent.  Silvio and Alrenes both immigrated from Cuba to the US some years back. They explained a little bit of their thoughts on the island and the potential for it to open back up. It sounds like it is opening but still there is a long way to go. They believe it will happen though because it will benefit everyone.  They explained a bit about working as a travel agent in the US to Daniela and gave her some ideas and some contacts. They were very nice and very helpful too. We tried to pay but they wouldn’t let us.

After we finished lunch we got back in the car and drove to the malls near the airport.  There was the Dolphin Mall and the International Mall. The Dolphin Mall was definitely the better of the two and much larger. Daniela sends a lot of passengers there so she wished to make sure she knew more about them.  After that we headed back to the hotel.

We again had a bit of traffic but not as bad as say the day we got into Miami.  We got in and got cleaned up and changed and then went down to the hotel restaurant, which is Kitchen 305 (the area code of the region).  It was all you can eat lobster night which meant it was very crowded and busy but neither of us wanted lobster. The initial step of getting seated was quick but it took a long time for a server to visit us. They also took a while to get us drinks and food. I had a beer and Daniela had white sangria. I had a grilled swordfish dish with polenta and Daniela had a whole fish fried snapper.  Both fish were fresh but overcooked and hers was on the dryish side. I didn’t care for the fact the fish was dropped right on the polenta for me because it didn’t allow for the separation of flavors.  It took a long time get served through every step and it was very noisy in there.  The good news was that we had the $100 credit from our time served with the sales pitch so it didn’t really cost us any money. I would advise don’t go to this place on one of their all you can eat nights unless you are going for that promotion.

Daniela wanted to go dancing so we took the bus to South Beach which was $2 per person and maybe about half an hour for as long as we went. We then walked around the South Beach area along Ocean Boulevard and Collins Avenue.  We looked at all the restaurants and found that there were a couple of clubs and mostly restaurants. I got the impression from other people it was mostly clubs and only couple restaurants but it didn’t seem that way to us. The most famous club is Mango’s but when we got to it Daniela didn’t seem to like it so we ended up walking down to mostly the end then turning back and getting a drink at one of the restaurants to take a rest because it was a lot of walking and basically very close to midnight at that point. 

When we finished we decided to take a taxi back to the room and call it a night because it was very close to too late for the bus and we didn’t know where to get a stop.

Miami 2015 Day 2

We woke up early enough to get ready for a sales pitch we had signed up for at the time we arrived to the hotel.  The reason we signed up for it was to get a $100 credit at the hotel restaurant and two free breakfast vouchers.  The lady at the concierge said that it would take 90 minutes or so and we were not obligated to buy anything.  I assumed it was the standard time share type sales pitch and I know I have no need for a time share, so it would be 90 minutes for basically $130 or so.

Before the pitch we went to the breakfast restaurant and ate. They have a buffet for $17 a person not including tax and tip. Like most people I cannot eat $17 worth of breakfast food nor can Daniela so we ordered off the menu more reasonably.  I assume the vouchers will be for the buffet.  I had a bagel and bacon and Daniela had the all American. She had orange juice and I had coffee (hers came with coffee too).  We took maybe about 20 minutes and that got us just in time for the appointment.

We had to fill out some paperwork then we were brought upstairs to the penthouse where we received a different sales pitch than I was expecting. Instead of trying to sell a time share they were selling something called Eccentry Holidays. The idea is that you pay a membership cost and then $200 a year and get vastly discounted prices on 4 and 5 star accommodations around the world.  When I say vastly discounted they were showing things like $300 a week or so for many of the places. It would be required to rent for 7 nights/8 days. They have their own deals with lots of properties and it all in all sounds like a great deal. The sales guy was very personable. Former golf pro on Carnival cruise ships.  The pitch also brought a short tour of the property but not much really. A quick look at a renovated condo style room at the Newport Beachside which is an older hotel.  In the end it actually took about 3 hours to get through everything and we did not buy in.  The suggested startup price for 3 weeks as he presented it to us was a bit over $10000 because of Daniela’s student idea (said it was supposed to be for 2 weeks but he could toss another one in). By the way it was the manager that did the offering and not the sales person.  I think 3 weeks typical would be $20000 when I looked at the charts he was pushing around.  We didn’t do it because first it is insane to commit to something like that. Second we will be doing more Peru travel than anything else. Third there is a limitation to the dates of availability of a property it appeared. In any event we earned our dinner and breakfast credits through it all.

After the pitch we walked out to find lunch and went to a Colombian restaurant named Meg Chuzo which is apparently a slang term for Colombian shish kebab. I had something called a maicito which was a mixed bowl of grilled chicken with yellow corn, cheese and a few other things and was quite tasty. I had one Presidente and one Aguila beer each because the Presidente on draft ran out.  Daniela got a soup and an arepa which is meat on a corn tortilla.  However the soup was so filling we took the arepa home.  She had a passion fruit juice too.

After lunch we walked to the supermarket and bought some water, fruit and cheese then headed back to the hotel.  We got changed and headed down to the ocean.

It was still very very windy out so we tested the water which was warm but ended up in the outdoors Jacuzzi for a little while then in the regular pool for a while as well.  They both were heated as far as I could tell.  After a long while in the pool we got back to the room and showered and dressed and got a quick dinner at the restaurant bar at the pier because we were trying to be quick so Daniela could Skype with her sister. Unfortunately her sister got detained and we rushed for little reason. We sat out on the pier area at first but it was too windy and moved to a place protected by the building. There I had a bacon cheeseburger and Daniela had a grilled chicken panini.  I had an iced tea and Daniela had a hot tea.  They had a guy playing guitar and girl signing which was nice.  The food was ok but nothing spectacular. They did serve me rare like I asked though. One thing to notice in Miami is that every restaurant includes tip in their totals so far. So if you come down here make sure you read the receipts and don’t double tip the staff. 

After dinner we went back to the hotel. Daniela had to do some work on the laptop and I decided to head to bed.

Miami 2015 Day 1

We woke up and packed in the morning because we were being picked up by Flightline at 8:45am. I was able to get my keys to David to keep an eye on the apartment during the week. It is nice to live so close to work.  The car came to pick us up just a couple minutes ahead of schedule. The driver wasn’t really a talker at all but that was fine.  It would be directly part of the commute hours to get there but at least I was not driving.  The ride to the airport had traffic mainly getting on 95 from 3 then from about 28 down to the HOV lane on 93. The driver used the HOV lane which I am sure saved us about 15 minutes or maybe more on this drive rather than taking the regular lanes.  The airport was not crazy busy and we used the automatic check-in kiosk with no issues and dropped off our bag quickly. Because I bought both tickets this time we got TSA Pre and the security line was quick and easy with no shoe or laptop removals.  Inside we found the Cisco Brewery restaurant was serving breakfast and decided to eat there. They were not fast but the food was ok. I had a bacon melt and Daniela had a full breakfast. Coffee for both and a banana and orange smoothie for Daniela.  By the time we finished and settled it was already boarding time and in moments we were on the plane.

The plane departed on time. It was a 737 that was of course full. There were a few bumps but both of us basically slept through almost all of the flight. It was uneventful is the easiest way to put it.

This was my first attempt getting out of Miami airport in all the times I have been to it. We had to take a tram to baggage check then we had to figure out to go upstairs to the walk that was almost as long as the airport which brought us to another tram that took us to the rental car pickup.  Since I am an Avis Preferred we already had our Ford Fusion in space C8.  Getting out was quick. I was worried because my current license expires before we are done with this trip but I have a temporary with me (I also brought my passport).  The guy gave me no issues though. There was a crap ton of traffic getting from the airport to the hotel. I think we met into the start of commute time which kinda sucked.  I think it took about an hour to get what google maps GPS said would take about 30 minutes without traffic. Still we made it there and it was pretty direct. 

We chose to use the valet parking at the Newport Beachside Hotel which is $25 per day versus $20 for self parking.  I am not sure if renting was totally going to be a good idea for the whole trip. I did see that they have a rental booth for the hotel so might have been able to rent for the guaranteed drives we had to do anyway.  In any event, it took longer than it should have to check us in. They were apparently still cleaning rooms from previous checkout and the girl had a hard time finding us one with the ocean view like we reserved. Fortunately we got room 402.  By the time we got checked in Daniela had already gotten us into a tour of the facility for the next day (presumably to get us to come back again but including a $100 credit to the hotel restaurant and a free breakfast each if we did it by noon the next morning).

We got to the room which is nice but maybe a little run down (not bad just obviously not been redone in a few years).  It has a separate living room and large bathroom with a Jacuzzi tub.  We got changed and decided to walk around to find dinner. We managed to go maybe 10 minutes away where we fond Pacha Mamma (spelled with 2 Ms) which is a Peruvian restaurant and I knew we were eating there today on our anniversary day.  We sat outside. The waiter and chef were both Peruvian which was nice. We got a bottle of red wine and started with a trio of ceviches, plain, with rocotto and with yellow aji.  They were the best ceviche we had in the US. The waiter had us get the corvina which is a traditional ceviche fish in Peru.  He kept us down to only one main dish because he said two would be too much for us so we got the seco de cordero (braised lamb shank).  It was excellent. It was served with beans and rice and yukka along with a small salad of red onions and tomato.  We were very close to full by the time we finished this.  To finish out we tried their picarones which were not on the menu but they turned out to be standard wheat based fried dough with a sugar based sauce on them. They were good but not proper picarones.  Oh well, no place can be perfect.  So we finished with a coffee each then walked up strip to a point where it turns to a bridge then back down by the beach when we found a way in. I think the walk was an hour and a half or so.

When we got back to the room the front desk had given us a bottle of champagne for our anniversary so we opened that then we tried out the Jacuzzi then called it a night.