Didn’t sleep very well last night. I have loved everything else about the Manglar Lodge, but the beds are hard and springy. It hurt my hip bones within a minute of laying down. Oh well, maybe I’ll squeeze in a nap on the beach today. Sounds lovely…
After getting on our beach clothes, we headed down for breakfast. Breakfast is not included here, but the food is very reasonably priced and you get a nice variety to choose from. I think we were all craving something fresh because we all ordered the yogurt parfait which came mixed with granola and fresh pineapple and papaya. It looked like dessert and tasted amazing!
beach breakfast
That and some fresh coffee made me feel like I was in heaven, even though I had to work (catch up on the blog) during breakfast.
beach coffee
As soon as we were done, Kristian took the boys to the beach while I stayed in the restaurant (the only place with internet access) to continue working on the blog. A couple of hours passed before they returned and said that the tide was still receding from last night (it had receded far and fast last night which freaked me out as I kept playing the footage from “Tsunami” over and over in my mind.) Below is the picture of the half receded beach. It continued to go out another 100 feet at least (past where you can see that big branch in the distance.)
el palmar beach
By morning, it was out so far that Kristian said it was a “long walk” to get to the water! I’ve never heard of the tide going out like that, but apparently it’s normal for these parts.
To the beach, to the beach, to the beach, beach, beach!
I wanted to see this happening, so I quickly rubbed on some sunscreen and headed for the water. We walked the entire length of El Palmar Beach, beachcombing the whole way. We laughed about how strange we must look, with our heads down the whole time, snatching up each and every different kind of shell we could find. We didn’t see anyone else who even noticed the shells. Again, we found pocketsful of amazing shells and stashed them up away from the tide for safe-keeping. We planned on returning to them on our way back to the lodge.
beach shells
There were lots of people out today, but the beach still wasn’t crowded. Many nationalities were represented, out enjoying the sunshine and waves! Surfers, too! Lots of them.
By the time we reached the south end of the beach, I was hungry, so we headed back. The tide was now coming in as quickly as it had receded, and by the time we got to our shell stash, it had been washed away by the tide. So sad! We found some really cool
ones, too. The ones pictured above are from yesterday.
We all ordered Caesar salad for lunch and shared some pineapple and strawberry smoothies. Our energy is up and we’re ready to hit the beach again!
beach smoothies
Beach Tide
This time, the tide was so high that there was barely any sand left to stand on near our accommodations! The river, that yesterday was obviously a separate body of water, now looked like an extended part of the ocean. The picture below is the river that, all the way up to the concrete. In the picture below that, you can see that the boys are standing where the water shown here is now.
beach tide
beach tide comparison
Here you can see the difference in the tide. Where the boys are standing on the left is now completely covered in water on the right.
Unfortunately, with the tide, came the trash.
beach trash
Playing at El Palmar Beach!
seawall beach
The waves were ferocious, crashing against the seawalls and pounding the beach.
Kole and Kristian had an absolute ball getting tossed about while Karter and I played it safe on the sand, digging and sculpting sand mounds. Granted, I was wearing our SLR camera around my neck and didn’t want to take any chances. 😉
Beach fun!
El Palmar Beach
El Palmar Beach 2
beach karter
Karter is standing on a large piece of bamboo.
After hours in the sun and getting pounded by waves, we had all had our fill of the ocean… for today. We showered, which was a long process due to the fact that that black sand does NOT want to come off! Did I mention that there’s a good amount of black
sand here? It’s SO black… and powdery. Cool stuff.
black beach sand
beach shower
Outdoor shower first. Then inside for some soap.
I headed down to the restaurant for internet access with Kole, while Kristian and Karter relaxed in the room. I was looking for another restaurant that we might want to eat at, when all of the sudden, the sky opened up and we got hammered with our first rain storm since our arrival! Yahoo! We were really hoping to see some real rain. Afterall, it is the rainy season! As we had heard it would, it rained hard for about 15 minutes and that was it! Because of the rain, we decided to just hang out at the lodge and order dinner here. We haven’t been disappointed yet, so why not?
Dinner was yet another beautiful presentation: garlic shrimp on a bed of roasted peppers and onions over shredded lettuce (sounds strange, but it was delish!) and boiled seasoned potatoes. Perfect.
El final de otro día maravilloso! (The end of another wonderful day!)
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