surfy days and sweaty nights!

We arrived in El Tunco (after several alexis "moments" on the chicken buses inclusing her being convinved that the bus driver was trying toi get us killed when he was in fact just reolying to my question of where the bus left from!) to find that all the accomodations seemed to be either totally full or ridiculously expensive. (they use the US doilar here and we thought 30 for a room was a bit much for el salvador!)

We ended up spending the first night in what was supposed to be a cabana but was more like a treehouse in that it was completely open to the elements on one side! Before going to bed we met up with Alexis`Swedish friends Felicia and Maria and went out for dinner and drinks. They seemed like fun girls and alexis arranged to give them a surf lesson the next day. I had caught a look at the surf and it looked WAY advanced for me- the waves breaking a few metres off the shore were HUGE and there was a massive current so i decided to give it a miss!

That night we hardly slept a wink. The nights in El Tunco are as hot as the days which is saying something as the days are scorchio! I ended up sleeping in the treehouse hammock just so i could get some breeze by swinging in it as it was sooooo hot!

The following day Alexis and the girls went surfing whilst i stayed and chilled out (although i got into trouble for not being in the exact spot where she`s left me when she wanted the key later in the day- another alexis tantrum!) When they tried to return the surf boards later the guy at the surf shop wasn`t happy as one of them had pressure dents all over it. Of course, Alexis lost it and screamed at him until he gave their ID`s back but it was a totally cringeworthy situation that coiuld have been solved by speaking calmly as really the fault was 50-50 (they did break the board but he shouldn`t have given a brand new board to beginners!) I was beginnig to get tired of alexis`s rants at this stage but hoped they might subside over time... big mistake!!

that night was  highly eventful one! We went out to Roots, the bar where our treeohuse was for "ladies Night" which involved us getting free drinks for 2 hours. Now, normally at these things you get watered down punch, but her the rum was flowing freely and soon everyone was feeling tipsy and happy. I met some lovely people and we all went back to a nearby hostel for an afterparty when the bar shut at 11. It soon became apparent that Felicia wasn`t her normal self when she jumped into the dirty horrible river that runs behin the beach and by the hostels. she got fished out by a lovely Swedish girl twice before we even realised what was going on and then disappeared which worried us no end. People were saying that she hgad jumped back into the river and we were all realy worried in case she came to some harm so ended up spending ages looking for her. We eventually found her (after -alexis had yet again lost it and punched a guy who wouldn`t help us!) and tried to put her to bed. She was sobbing hyserically and talking about wanting to kill herself which was very worrying but Alexis went off to bed anyhow, but not before screaming at some poor little 18 year old canadian boys in our hostel for no apparent reason! I stayed with Felicia but took one minute to check on maria and during this time Felicia ran off with only a tiny thong on and nothing on top! We couldn`t find her anywhere and Maria and I became quite hysterical with worry, eventually getting the police involved to help us (they were lovely- had this been Guatemala we`d have had to pay them!) We eventually found her trying to drown herself in the sea and she made a break for it, trying to get down the alley at the side of our hostel and back into the river. Whilst chasing her, I fell down in the dark and took all the skin off my arma dn a big chunk off the bottom of my toe- not amused!! However, this finally seemed to stop her running and we were able to return her to bed with me, the light sleeper, as the guard to prevent further incidences!

The next morning she weas mortified and it has since come out taht she was talking to some jerk who was trying to sell peyote (highly halucenogenic cactus powder) and he may have put some in her drink! I hear that she had to go to hospital yesterday so I sincerely hope she`s ok!

The following day was pretty much spent in bed as i couldn`t get in the water with my toe and I was too tired anyhow! The following day I tried bodyboarding but the waves were so big and rough I just got slammed around so gave up! Whilst i cooked us lunch, Alexis decided to come in and criticise my cooking to the extent that i left the kitchen (it was only pasta and sauce for gods sake- how hard can it be??!!) which wa snearing the last straw for me with her controlling obnoxious behaviour. When she came out with lunch she yelled at me in front of everyone and said i was critical of everyone all the time so why couldn`t i take it? I aksed what she meant as i was genuinely puzzled and the example she gave me didn`t even make sense- it was when i said i was too old to be cool about the music i listened to- and she said i was criticising her for not being the same! er.... hello miss paranoia!!! Allt his happened just before our friend Tom joined us so the poor boy arrived into a war zone and I felt bad so i went to pacify the psychotic one. I was really near the end of my tether with her now though as i felt all her attacks on everyone were entirely unjustified!

That night, after i`d been for a walk on the beach to clear my head and decided i didn`t want to travel with her anymore, she started on me again on the restaurant for an innocent comment i made. i`d had enough so calmly told her she was a pycho and i felt sorry for her and didn`t ever want to see her again. It was very upsetting as i didn`t want a scene but of course she caused one and tried to get everyone to take sides, but it felt SO good to leave the next day for the mountains and know i wouldn`t have to see her again!

I was however feeling really low from the experience and was beginning to doubt the good in people so what happened next was really a great faith restorer!.....