Sand-rash and sun-burn

Yesterday was a relaxing day with not much to do - my sister drove into Panama City for some business banking, so Mom and I were left at home until they got back.

As part of our ongoing experiment to determine when the best times to surf are, we found this helpful chart that shows the tides. At 2pm, which was low tide, we went down to the beach to see how the waves were. Nothing to write home about (even tho I am doing that here! LOL), mostly because there are strong offshore breezes that don't make the waves bigger.

Nevertheless, we did manage to find a spot where there were waves long enough to get a fun ride into shore - maybe about 50 feet. Once you get to shore, of course, the unprotected lower parts of our bodies scrape along the pebbles and shells until you stop. Nothing too serious in terms of injury but something we later tried to avoid.

Once we were worn out, we lent our boogie boards to 5 teen/twenty aged Panamanian kids who were playing next to us. They were happy to accept our offer and played with them for about 1/2 hour then brought our boards back to us with gratitude.

That meant that my sister and I were in the sun for a couple of hours. Even though my previous exposures to the sun hadn't really changed my colouration, by the time we were playing Dominoes after dinner, my upper torso was glowing with a lovely Papaya red.

Our family has long believed that putting vinegar (white or apple cider) on sunburn takes some of the heat out of it and turns it to a tan faster. So, my sister was delighted to be able to pull the white vinegar OUT OF THE FRIDGE and douse me in it! The towel over my mouth muffled my screams of, "It's COLD!" and I was soon smelling like a yum-yum pickle (others might suggest more dill, but it's my blog!).

Later today, we are taking a drive down the coast to see a new "Super Resort" called "The Breezes" - a destination for many of the people who were on our flight down here. We think it might be a good place for future visitors to my sister - esp. those who want 4.5-star luxury when they travel.

After that we are going out for Margaritas at a local establishment called Cholos (REVIEW) with a couple of my sister's friends. I will let you know how that goes!

Here is a link to some high-quality maps on Panama.