Before we arrived, Karl had already warned us that maybe we didn’t want to get out of our car when we got to the apartment. Instead, he suggested, we should honk and he would come out to help us because “there are a couple of dogs that may menace you.” OK. Mandy, the maybe part pit bull, seems fine. She hasn’t bothered us at all, except to sniff my hand and turn up her nose.

Next warning was about shaking out our towels, clothes and shoes to make sure scorpions didn’t attack. Karl was stung by a scorpion that had crawled into the apartment and settled next to his foot. When he moved, bam, scorpion sting! Very painful, but not dangerous. With his quick wits, Karl grabbed the chair he had been sitting on and crushed that scorpion. Don’t mess with Karl! Or at least, don’t sting him in his own home.

Third, after we had walked along the side of the road (no, there aren’t any sidewalks, don’t be silly), Karl said, “You have to watch out for snakes by the sides of the road.” OK, well, at least there was no story about poisonous snake bites and so far, we haven’t seen scorpion nor snake.

Finally, Karl warned us that if we wanted to go into the ocean, we should drag our feet across the ocean floor. Walking in the ocean is dangerous! Muy peligroso! If we picked up our feet, we might step on a sting ray, and uh oh. Another big ouchie.

The one thing Karl neglected to warn us about was body-slamming waves. Karl!

Now on to the fun stuff:

The good news is that Steven is feeling better (with the aid of painkillers). He can move around as well as an aged grandpa (which is almost is) and he smells like menthol, too. It’s probably because his lovely wife has given him several massages. I swear, his back muscles are like fossilized rope. Yucky.

Today, we went on an outing for lunch in Potrero. There is a brewery, Cerveceria Independiente, with a kind of outdoor food court next door.  Steven treated himself to two cervezas (don’t tell Dr. Oscar). We both had burritos and we shared yucca fries. Those things are good! Way better than papas fritas. It was a hotbed of English. The couple who own the brewery are a Californian and a Texan, the customers all seemed to be English. Hey, I am trying to learn Spanish! I mean: Estoy entendando aprender español.