On Sunday we went to the beach. We were having our driver pick us up at 8 am to drive us because the beach was about 2 and a half hours away. Cindy and I both set our alarms for 7 so we would have time to wake up and make sandwiches, pack the cooler, eat breakfast, etc. At approximately 7:40, Keith knocks on our door. Cindy and I were both still asleep. Clever Keith set his alarm on our Panama phone. Cindy and I set our alarms on our tablets, both of which we had changed to Central Time to match with Panamanian time (Panama is in the Eastern Time Zone but does not follow daylight savings, therefore was an hour behind). Well, lovely daylight savings occurred and our tablets set themselves back an hour... So Cindy and I ran around like two crazy ladies trying to change and pack for the beach. Once we were dressed, we decided to divide and conquer. I threw my things in a bag and Keith and I headed down to the Dunkin Donuts to grab everyone some breakfast while Cindy and Mario finished packing the cooler. The plan was to meet our driver downstairs and go! Keith and I are well adapted to the Dunkin Donuts on campus were the line is a million miles long but those ladies know what they are doing and they move that line as quickly as possible. Well... Keith and I walked into this Dunkins and we were the only people there. Somehow, it still took about 10 minutes to get our orders. Granted we ordered two breakfast sandwiches and two toasted bagels, but WOW. Cindy came to look for us (cause it was taking so long!) and informed us that as they were leaving the apartment, our well packed cooler broke. Therefore, everything was in the van in bags of ice. Upon returning to the car, we had our driver bring us to the grocery store before heading to the beach and we bought another cooler and filled it with the ice, a 6-pack and the ice coffee that we had made that morning. We then all proceeded to fall asleep in the van. None of us really slept because the 2.5 hour drive to the beach was all on narrow windy roads so it was hard to actually fall asleep, but we rested :) About an hour into the drive, we hit WICKED thunder storms... like our van was shaking because of the thunder... so we were pretty disappointed but tried to hold on to the hope that 1.5 hours and some mileage would free us from the storm. As we pulled up to the beach area, it was still over cast and drizzling, but the storms had passed. We were going to Isla Grande (on the Caribbean Coast) which is an island a couple hundred meters off shore so we had to take a little boat. Then we had the option of staying right on the shore or paying $3 to go onto the property of the Isla Grande hotel which had grass, a lot more space and bathrooms. We decided to pay the $3 :) We set down our stuff, applied sunscreen and made a bee line for the water. IT WAS PERFECT. It was just that right temperature that it was cool and refreshing, but not frigid like at home. Even after our bodies acclimated, it was still a nice temperature, not like sometimes when you go to the beach and even the water is warm and it isn't refreshing. We basically did approximately 1 hour sessions of in the water and then lying on the beach. We brought a small football with us so we did a lot of throwing the football around in the water which was a workout :)
I FORGOT TO MENTION SOMETHING ABOUT FRIDAY!!! While we were on our pool deck, I had the misfortune of discovering that many women down here wear thong bikinis. I saw way more butts then I ever wanted to see... so I was kind of nervous about the beach trip...
LUCKILY, most of the women at the beach were wearing "normal" bathing suits. I say "normal" because as at any beach, there were people wearing suits that they shouldn't have been, but that is life. I only had the misfortune of seeing one butt so I was happy about that.
Anyways, I brought my kindle and my camera so I enjoyed the time on the beach reading, taking pictures and drinking beers.
Cindy and Mario chillaxing by the seaside.
Keith and Cindy on the beach
This family brought two ADORABLE puppies, and this blanket thing was theres :) The people all had chairs and the puppies rolled around on this blanket thingy and it was adorable!
Catamaran!!!
View down the beach
A little ant on my blanket trying to get the crumbs from my Golden oreos. You can do it little ant!
He made it!
Red string on my white towel
Cool texture contrast between my white terrycloth towel and the gravel, shelly sand
Shells and rocks with a fish eye lens :)
My iced coffee resting in the sand :)
This was taken with the "Vivid Colors" setting on my camera. I kind of like it!
A blossom fell down from the tree above me and landed in the sand. This photo was taken while playing with manual focus.
Fish-eye lens
I think this setting was called "Old Timey" or something like that cause it mutes the colors and fuzzes the corners to make it look old?
Black and white
My beeyah on our cooler, gatorade, sunscreen and flippy floppies
Waiting for our boat to come and pick us back up. This setting is called "Poster". It looks brighter but not sure why it is called poster...
Here comes one of the boats. This is a fish eye lens.
This is a ship wreck right off of the island
View of the dock from inside the boat. I think this shot is pretty nice :)
Sign for Isla Grande
This is Nicholas, our wonderful driver :) He played football with us in the water and is super friendly.
YAY FOR THE BEACH!
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