It is easy to get in a rut of daily activities and forget to enjoy the beauty and opportunities that are close by. Yesterday, our friends asked us to go to Las Lajas beach with them. That is an absolutely gorgeous beach and we hadn’t been in a long time, so this sounded like an excellent idea.

We got ourselves together and headed down the highway until we weren’t far from the turnoff, and encountered traffic at a standstill. There is no way to get from one point to another in Panama without taking this highway, so when it isn’t working it’s a big problem. We waited for over an hour. A few cars would come the other way, we would inch up a ways, wait some more, and the cycle would repeat every 10-15 minutes. Thank goodness we really enjoy these friends and the time passed quickly, but by the time it was approaching noon we thought it would be better to turn around.

Our replacement plan was to go to Boca Chica and get lunch at the Seagullcove lodge. I love that place so I definitely did not feel deprived. I have written about it in the past so click on the linked words, or search for “Boca Chica” in my blog to bring up a number of past posts about this area.

We had a wonderful lunch enjoying the view, the breeze, the good food, and the tranquility. Afterward we decided to go to Playa Hermosa. It’s just a small beach in the area but beautiful and calm, and the water felt warm and absolutely heavenly.

The sun is intense here so we didn’t stay long, but long enough to spend some time in the water and walk along the beach a bit. For me, going to the water or the beach is like a whole vacation for my head. I find it very calming and beautiful.

So, the bad luck of the highway shutdown turned into the good luck of a really nice day. I wasn’t smart enough about the tide coming in through, and left my little Canon camera in my shoes too close to the water line. By the time my husband rescued them they were covered with wet sand. I waited until the camera was thoroughly dry that evening, cleaned it carefully of any sand bits, and turned it back on. It seems to be absolutely fine. Whew! This is why there are very few photos of today, but I thought it better to totally dry out the camera that I use so much.

As I have mentioned before, I am planning a big bike trip and I need a few things. REI had a great sale going on and I found a handlebar bag and a rain jacket that looked like they would work well, but they were both sold out in the short time I took to think about it. I don’t know why I decided to log back on to the site, but that night there they were, restocked, and now they are on their way to my daughter’s house in Seattle!

We got home quite late and I was supposed to meet my Spanish teacher on line, but she was flexible and rescheduled for later and we had a great time talking about family, life in general, and various past tenses of verbs.

I also found out from one of the neighbors that the highway was shut down for a protest. People were upset that their school is in serious need of being fixed up. That’s very good that people are allowed to protest and speak out, but when they shut down the highway they cause a big problem for a lot of people who really have to get somewhere, or get their products somewhere. It’s too bad they don’t feel they can be heard another way but this sort of thing seems to go one quite a bit in Panama.

But, for us, it was a very good day – catching up with friends, a beautiful drive to some nice places, oh and can’t forget the delicious gelato from the new shop down the road on the way home, a camera that survived a soaking, things I needed for my trip bought at a good price, a nice time with my teacher, a visit to the injured dog who is doing really well, and it seems like I am forgetting something else but maybe one can only absorb so much goodness in one day.

It continues today. I took the bike to the shop and the guy understood right away what I wanted, and quoted me a good price for a whole list of replacement parts and work. I survived driving around downtown (though never found a parking place so I will return later on my bike), and while writing this I have been visited by the big boy iguana with the pink face, a cute green baby iguana, and a considerable variety of birds. Life is pretty darn good in the tropics 🙂