We had a bit of a later start to the day and headed down stairs to the cafe on the ground floor to have a coffee. We then set off towards the old town in hopes of going to a breakfast place I had seen online. We walked 19 minutes or so to the old city walls, along the water. Jives got splashed by a big wave, but honestly the cool water was nice as it was already 30 degrees celsius (and 40 later on). We walked up on the city walls via a dark and very narrow tunnel, which was pretty neat. We took quite a few photos of the views from the top of the wall and then continued on our way to breakfast. We wandered through the narrow colourful streets of old town, collecting photos of the variety of door knockers you can find in the city. My favourite was definitely an octopus knocker where one tentacle was on a hinge. Each type of knocker represents an occupation ie. Lion for the military. All the buildings were decorated so differently and many were covered in plants, I could have wandered and looked at buildings all day.

We eventually made it to breakfast, but the place we wanted to go to had a huge lineup, so we found somewhere else less busy and it honestly ended up being for the best. We walked by a little cafe in a courtyard and the owner beckoned us to sit, so we did. The owner was super friendly, an immigrant from Venezuela who  looked like Gustavo Fring from Breaking Bad. We ordered two Americanos, humus and pita and a margarita pizza, the breakfast of champions. Many vendors came over to sell hats, bracelets etc. but it was easy enough to smile and say “no gracias”. 

After our delicious breakfast we walked slowly back to our hotel and changed into our swimsuits and headed to the rooftop pool. It was much less windy then it had been the day previous, but it was still super windy. We went in the pool with the jets, it was a bit colder than the air and refreshing. We then went in the non jet pool which was much warmer but very very shallow. 

After our brief dip in the pool we headed across the street to Marabella beach. We brought our towels and three beers in a beach bag. At the beach you can just put your stuff on the sand and swim or you can rent an umbrella and chair combo. This particular section of beach was 35,000 pesos for two chairs and an umbrella. We paid and sat on our chairs. Jives went in the water first and brought the go pro with him to film jumping in the waves. I was a bit nervous as the undertow was so strong, but he didn’t go out too far and seemed safe. Next it was my turn. The water was so warm and the waves were huge, but not unsafe. The undertow was so strong that at times it pulled the sand out from under my feet. It was lovely playing around in the waves. Afterwards we sat in our chairs and enjoyed our beers we had brought. Many vendors came by selling nuts, shaved ice, sand pails etc. Again if you say “no gracias” people do not push too hard at all! 

We enjoyed the beach for a while before heading back to the room to wash off some sand before heading to get dinner. It seems that this hotel does not clean your room which is problematic as the hotel is right on a windy beach and everything is covered in sand. It was really hard to not get sand in the bed as the hallways and elevators were covered in sand and so was the floor of our room. 

About one hour before sunset he headed to a restaurant nearby called “Magic”. The restaurant must have been new as it was on google maps… too bad as they double charged us and the food was some of the worst I have ever had in my life. It was the most expensive meal of our entire trip at $45 Canadian! My food was so weird that I only had one bite (and usually I force myself to eat food regardless). The view from the seats looked out over the sea, which was lovely, but I didn’t appreciate being taken advantage of. The “Gringo tax” is not going to encourage tourists, just saying. Maybe they don’t want more tourists, which is fair. 

We then walked back to our hotel and called it a night.