Last weekend we celebrated Teacher's Day with a half day of school on Friday, so a group of seven of us took of right as school ended for the Pacific Coast. I have been to the coast several times before, but only to kayak, so this was a different experience.
After a three hour ride to Buenaventura, we hopped a boat to the coastal towns of Juanchaco & Ladrilleros and settled in at Hotel Palma Real for the weekend. This part of Colombia is extremely rustic, with very little infrastructure, so the fact that our hotel included a swimming pool, meals provided and air conditioning was a miracle. And one I was very thankful for more than once during the weekend!
Throughout the weekend we spent some quality time at the beach, playing games and hanging out together since most of the people on the trip are friends who will not be here next year. The beach, La Barra, was mostly deserted on Saturday, so we enjoyed spreading out on the sand, reading, playing lots of frisbee, having a few beers, and playing in the ocean.
Of course Tara, Hana and I got a Coco Loco to accompany the 30 minute walk to the beach.
We arrived to the beach to find Caleb & Angie had constructed this lovely beach shelter!
Enjoying some beers oceanside :)
The weekend was not all fun and games, however, as I returned back to the hotel that night with more sand flea bites than I could possibly count. Upon arrival back in Cali I ended up doing some Google research on sand fleas and discovered the following in the first paragraph:
"You're sitting there reminiscing about your day at the beach. The water was perfect, the sand was bright and powdery...and now your legs are itching like crazy for some reason. Upon closer inspection, you notice a series of red welts decorating your skin. You have just been the unlucky main course at the sand flea buffet. These bites are rarely dangerous, but can cause discomfort for days."
NO KIDDING.
So now I have two different anti-histamines to keep me from constantly itching. Supposedly the marks will go away in two weeks or so, at which time I can stop constantly wearing pants and looking like I just had a bad case of shingles.
Despite the nasty bites, I enjoyed the weekend of relaxation before the craziness of the next four weeks. Why is the end of the school year always so stressful??? I feel like there is so much to do between now and the blissful days of summer...yet all I seem to be doing with my free time is creating new blog pages, watching the Minnesota Twins stink it up, and making adult decisions like eating oatmeal for dinner two nights in a row.
Is it June 17th yet?
2 comments:
Thanks for reading Meredith! Brazil sounds lovely! I have only just stepped inside the borders when we went to the Amazon, but it was lovely all the same :) Happy travels!
Ouchie. Poor you :(
Well, the beach shelters look cool and you can't go wrong with a coco loco! :) x
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