We arrived at Playa Junquillal after a long bumpy ride.

The road was so bad that Al said he could no longer drive it. I agreed instantly; my seatbelt choked me as we drove over every bump and pothole, each one of which seemed like a potential (expensive) accident waiting to happen.

Junquillal beach was black volcanic sand and long, so we did our morning walk, up one way and then back, sandblasted by the strong winds.The only thing that caught my eye was this sign about ‘Junquillal y sus Tesoros Naturales’, the national treasure being this talking Leatherback Turtle.My camera battery died at one point but with all the blowing sand I didn’t want to open my camera to change it.

I spotted a little bar on the beach but it wasn’t open yet. However, since it was essentially open-air bar, with a padlock on the fridge full of ‘liquids’, and spotlessly clean, plus well-protected from the wind, I went in and carefully changed my camera battery.

Nothing was really happening at that beach so we decided to brave the vicious road again and carried on to Playa Negra. This was a much busier beach full of surfers and surfer wannabes.

Here a magpie-jay posed for some of our shots.A little boy from the next table was following the bird around the cafe. He stopped at our table and told me, “I can talk to birds – I even caught one in my hand once.”

The jay was very clever, hopping from palm frond to palm frond, coyly posing, the little boy following him, further and further away from his mom and the table where his lunch was waiting for him.

Eventually he lured a little boy far away from his table, and then swooped down and scooped the fish off his plate!

More of Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: BIrds.