Tropical black sand beaches and assorted other stuff

So, I went to Champerico on Saturday. It is a black sand beach on the pacific with huge waves and warm water. If I stop there it sounds pretty nice. However, here´s the rest of the story:
I had to ride a chicken bus for 4 hours to get there, the water was murky with floating black sand chunks, the waves and undertow were so strong I could barely wade into the water without getting knocked on my butt and drug through the sand (I still have black sand grains coming out of my ears), there were large trash eating pigs walking around town, and did I mention the 4 hours one way on the chicken bus. I really shouldn´t whine. If it had been a shorter trip (we were told it was two hours max) it totally would have been worth it, and I did get a picture of one of the pigs!

Speaking of pics, I am way behind, but I uploaded some more on flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/13525016@N03/

Sunday we hiked up La Muela again. It was nice and it didn´t start raining until we got back into town. The red cross was up there practicing rescue drills, and I heard my host dad´s voice over the walkie talkie. The guy with the walkie talkie was really nice and let me say a few words to my host dad over the radio!

Really early Monday morning there was a small earthquake. No damage and no problems. It just woke me up and lasted about 5 seconds. Judith had warned me that they have frequent harmless tremors here, and that they will shout my name and tell me to go outside with them if it is anything serious. I should probably add for my mom that I do remember Taiwan and that from now on in the event of an earthquake, I will proceed immediately to the nearest door frame.

Oh yeah, last week we got to visit an older couple who make traditional chocolate for a living. We got to help pat it into the forms and I was nice enough to provide additional help by sampling the product!