Birthday trip to San Rafael, Bola and GN

Whew, it was a whirlwind birthday trip...first night we took the road to El Arco to San Rafael...a very long, rough in many spots road...after more than 3 hours we finally made it to Franciscos place but it was totally socked in with a freezing cold fog. But Juan did a quick dive to get dinner which we shared with Don Pancho. Luckily at sunset it cleard up for about half an hour so I could take some photos and warm up a bit. It is a beautiful beach with a stunning laguna but too many stingrays for our liking and the water was still VERY cold...so no bikinis or thongs that day.

Pancho has a couple of palapas to camp in...bring beer and smokes to him as he is WAY out there man...halibut fishing off the beach is supposed to be pretty good. Great spot if ya like remote camps! and you can lauch your boat there too...I would definately enter from Bola though, not el arco.

Because of the chilly fog, we pushed on to BOLA in the wee hours to have breakfast with Juan's relatives there...the road from San Rafael to Bola is very good, they are working on it more too...it was about hours. We arrived in GN to find Los Caracoles full...they are also building a big store/restaurant/disco complex next door to be completed very soon. So some amigos stayed at Posada Don Vicente where we help our predinner warmup party at which we marveled at his little chuparosa right in the middle of our deck party.

She was the hit of the party for sure...great birdwatching indeed ....what a crazy place to make a nest though eh

As it was very cold and windy we chose to remain in GN to party with our buddies instead of camping in the lagoon. So we got a very nice room for $15 at the Minimotel Asuncion which is located on the next street past the hospital. It is a lovely small hotelito...very clean with a wonderful courtyard.

Zoe loved all the flowers outside her room and it was a nice quiet place...they have a BBQ there too...great party spot.

We went to pick up Sirena who was at a rehearsal and her church group sang me Las Mananitas birthday song...very sweet bunch of teens.

then it was on to the main event...a fabulous dinner at Las Cazuelas where we enjoyed my favorite meal...lions paw scallops in garlic butter and 2 cakes!!! Here is the gang after a few pitchers of margaritas....thank you everyone for making this yet another fabulous birthday with great amigos.

GN logging