Entertaining was easy at Sun-Sand-Surf. The house gets sea breezes in the morning and land breezes in the afternoon. The sitting and dining areas face the lawn, infinity pool, a sandy beach, and a ridge of rocks. At high tide, the waves spray and surge over them like a fountain, leaving sandy pools at low tide, fascinating for my baby granddaughter.
While I used the house to host two families, consecutively, it is fine for a couple, sleeps four adults properly, and up to six if most are kids. You can get three small cars in the garage if you park them right. My reunion with a former colleague turned into a two-day party with his family. The house is pretty much baby-proofed.
Pochomil in the dry season is too hot even for the hammocks. Better to be in the surf near Pochomil, a km. down the beach, or taking a nap under an air conditioner. Except for horses trotting by or grazing the beach, little distracts from the ocean view.
The day after Christmas, the beach filled with people, pick-ups and horses. Kids and families sat in the tidepools when the surf was high, hearing it break on the other side and shrieking when a wave surged over and drenched them. The beach was empty again the next day.
After my guests left, the big house next door came to life. Boys and dogs explored the beach. A bartender arranged white chairs on the sand. Men talked at the barbeque. Women, shoulders bared or covered by scarves, settled in and toasted the sunset. It looked like a scene from the Kennedy estate in Hyannis.
Juana met my appetite and those of my son, his nursing wife and baby daughter with comida tipica, a dozen vegetables and tubers, twice as many fruit, and dozens of bananas for the baby. Each day we ate fish that had swum half a mile off the beach the previous night or that morning.
After an 8-hour layover in San Salvador, I slept to NYC, cleared Customs, rechecked my suitcase, and trekked through terminals with my Canada Air boarding pass issued by United on behalf of Avianca. Boarding the flight to Ottawa, I finished my book, passed Customs again, and left the terminal with the bus driver.
While unpacking, it started to snow. Grateful for the morning flight, I made another coffee, started the wash, and walked through slush to the grocery to find the longest lines of the year. The cashier explained, “Lots of specials today because we’re closed tomorrow. Happy New Year's.”
Hope to see you again in 2020.
