Sunday, March 10th, 2013

Today we were going to go to Sabaneta.  Reina asked me if Dylan and his girlfriend could come.  I told her no because money is tight and 2 additional people just complicates everything.  I also mentioned we would then need 2 taxis.  She said we wouldn’t need any taxis.  Just before leaving I noticed Reina putting on long socks and boots.  I asked if it was going to be cold in Sabaneta.  She said we weren’t going to Sabaneta today we were going to the water park and seemed surprised I didn’t remember.  I don’t know when this decision was made but it hadn’t been shared with me.  Luckily I brought a swimming suit with me from the States.

We stopped at Exito and Jim bought a couple bottles of wine and some shrimp that he would make tonight while Angela was making dinner for us at her house.  We took a taxi to Angela’s, dropped off the food and headed downtown.  We then got on a bus that was a little nicer than your usual city bus.  I commented to Reina that I thought we weren’t going to be taking any taxis today.  I guess she took exception to that because she stared out the window and didn’t talk to me the rest of the way.  It was about a 45 minute trip and cost about 3 mil each.

At the waterpark we found out the entrance fee is free for foreigners if we show our passport.  Neither my brother or I had our passports with us but they accepted my paper copy and his Illinois Driver’s License.  Next we found out that our swimming suits were not acceptable and we had to buy one of theirs for 10 Mil each.  Also we had to buy “skull caps” to cover our hair.   

On our way to the wave pool we saw a good sized iguana scurrying around..  BTW, I asked Angela what the name of the water park is and she told me Parque de las Agua (Park of Water) or Water Park.  Good name!  lol.  I imagine this is the only one they have.

View of hills from park entrance

Park entrance.

Walking into the park.

Almost there!

A look back towards where the bus dropped us off.

Is this the park?

Inside the ladies locker room.  No, I didn't take this picture!

Wave pool.

Would you believe they had a marching band?

Jim, Angela, and I at lunch.

Lazy river - and a long one!

Children's play area.

Gazebo - is that the right term?

Tube slides.

Body slides.

Where we had lunch.

That's me in the hat!

Crispetas means popcorn!

I saw some medium sized black birds flying overhead.  Later I saw them much closer on the ground.  If I was in the States I would swear they were vultures.  They hopped around on the ground looking for food and being a general nuisance much like a sea gull.  

We had a little lunch there.  I had a special hot dog but it was a lot of bun and not much hot dog and it had mustard and ketchup and mayo on top along with a small bird’s egg.  It was too messy to eat with my moustache so I’ll be careful about ordering that again.  Next we went on their lazy river.  It seemed to be quite long and the sky became covered with clouds and it got a little cool being in the water so we dried off, packed up, and left.  (I could see they also had other things like water slides and tube slides there.)

After we got home Reina and I had a little discussion via Google Translate and ironed out our problem.