The Great Adventures of Adrian.

Just as I thought despite waking up to another beautiful view, we were already a bit bored of the island. Plus the last two days of hiking had left me with aching jelly legs. Today I just wanted to enjoy the sun and read.

Jonas and the rest of the guests left after breakfast leaving Adrian and I alone with the manageress, her little boy, and her younger sister. Adrian soon got a little stir crazy but luckily for me, she was in the mood to entertain him. She had gathered up the donkeys and loaded them with empty plastic containers and invited Adrian to join her as she went down to the shore to fill up them up at the tap.

Adrian followed her down and I was amused to note that she was about twice as fast as him. I lost sight of them as they went down the hill and stuck my nose in the book wondering how Adrian was going to communicate with her with his non-existent Spanish. About two hours later I could hear them returning. Well, I could hear Adrian before I could see them. He was using his sh-sh-sh sound effect and 10 word Spanish vocabulary to interrogate the woman. As she left him to continue up the hill with the donkeys to empty the water containers into the big water tank, Adrian joined me to fill me in on his adventure.

I was impressed. He had managed to find out her name – Estancia, and her son’s name – Christian. Estancia’s boyfriend (not husband, shocking) was the actual owner but he was in La Paz working and came back to the island about once a month. Estancia was only 20, her son 2, and her sister 16. Wow, the women, I mean, girls looked older than that but at the same time looked ageless, if that makes any sense. Adrian was pretty pleased with his conversation and claimed that hanging out with just a regular local person was one of the highlights of the trip so far. It sounded like fun and I wish I had joined him but I needed to save my legs for the trek into town for lunch.

We headed down the path to Yumani and once again we were stopped at the entrance to the community but we flashed yesterday’s receipt and they let us pass. Last night Jonas had told us about a good restaurant in town he’d eaten lunch at and we set off to find it. With no roads and directions that were – at the top of the hill in the woods, the restaurant wasn’t easy to find. But we eventually found it – closed that is. Oh well, it was back into town to try some of the other places we’d seen. The first place only had one piece of trout which Adrian quickly claimed for himself (always the gentleman), until I told him we’d try somewhere else. We found another place and they had two pieces of trout for us. I think they may have gone out to catch it because it took about an hour to get our lunch. But it was worth it. It was tasty and filling and not the same eggs and chicken that we’d had for the last two days.

With full tummies we walked slowly back to the hostel – after all we had plenty of time to kill. Once there we took our seats on the hostel patio and watched the day’s boatload come over the hill. Today, Estancia managed to tempt Siggy and Evelyn from Alsace to stay the night which provided us with new dining partners. Unfortunately for them, the weather was not as clear as the night before so the sunset wasn’t as dramatic and the stars were hidden behind clouds. But today hadn’t been about the amazing sights; it had been about Adrian hanging out with amazing people.