Morning routines start with the deck to remove the blown in leaves from the tree above where the noisy chacalaca birds hang out and the droppings from the poop of the bats that fly around all night and eat the figs from the nearby tree. These droppings will stick to the deck and discolor the cement so must be removed from the floor, chairs and maybe the counter if.

On the beach below, every morning, a young guy digs little holes to put in and up the umbrellas for the people staying at the next door rentals. He then brings out the lounge chairs to go under the umbrellas. Where he puts all this changes as the path the lagoon takes to empty changes so he has to find beach space that will allow for those needs.

Then there are the restaurants on the beach. They sweep the sand in front, bring out the lounge chairs and their cushions and get ready for the hopefully abundant tourists. All this I watch from my deck each morning.

Digging a trench so the full lagoon can open n release its swollen accumulation the result of the tide from the night before. At this time of the year, it’s still a daily need. Usually two guys get shovels and widen and deepen the already existing flow until it bursts open and a powerful surge of water starts to rush out of the lagoon. When this happens you can’t cross and have to wait about an hour until the lagoon is emptier or risk being dragged out into the ocean in its turbulence. Timing is everything.

My bedtime routine consists of making sure my flashlight, shoes, glasses, book, iPad, eye mask are all in place in the bed. Since the scorpion, I decided to put shoes on at night when getting up to pee, so keep them in bed with me on a plastic bag. Safe than sorry is my motto.

Refilling my cup with purified water to brush my teeth.

Morning routine is oil pulling, lime juice, tea, papaya, banana with lime juice. Email if the Internet is working. It’s sketchy. So far I’ve had things to do and get to, so plan my days around that, going into the village for my food -the buying and preparing of, and then time and energy management if there us something going on at night.

My next project is to go to potential retreat places here to take pics of their accommodations and property and get their info. Thinking about doing a retreat here based on my book next year. Why not this is the birth of the inspiration for my book. Must be part of the Divine Guidance that has gotten me this far on that path. That’s the plan anyway.

Other routines are to walk upriver to get my eggs, arranging to have coconuts delivered to where I live, go to the water place to order another garafon of water, soak my vegetables in micro dyne to kill bacteria that causes tourista, hand was my cloths before the pile is too big! Since we don’t get sun on this deck, I have to plan for things to take 2 days to dry so don’t want to run out of undies!

It’s like riding a bike. These routines are second nature. I know who to contact for what, where to go when needed or what I need to do be ok. It’s like recovering a list disc, I just press some place in my brain and it all comes back to me!