It is Tuesday and today I decided that this is Panama and I should attempt to spend some time outside enjoying all that Panama has to offer. So I figured out how to move out to and work from the balcony. There was a lot of sun coming down today, barely a cloud in the sky, which seems pretty crazy as not only the forecast was calling for it to be continuous thunderstorms but the weather app on my phone was telling me that it was thunderstorms currently all through the day even though there wasn’t the slightest hint of rain or a storm at any point.
Since the balcony is completely covered and everyone that we see is outside in bathing suits, I decided to just work without a shirt today and see if I could at least generate some Vitamin D or get a little colour from some reflected light or something. I was not out in the sun the entire day so I figured that I would not actually end up getting a tan or anything.
The heat index for where we are today was 44 degrees Celsius which is just over 111 degrees Fahrenheit. It was pretty warm out there. I was at least smart enough to keep my hat on all day long. In fact I was running it under water every time that I came inside so that I could keep my head cool, a trick that I learned while I was in Spain with all of the fuente everywhere.
By the end of the day, even though I never saw sunlight directly, I was pretty much completely burnt. Not good planning on my part.
This evening, once it got dark, we all went out for a walk and took the girls down to the Pacific ocean. It was a frustrating walk because there is no signage or obvious way to get to the beach and everything is owned by a hotel between us and the beach so we were unable to figure out where we were supposed to be going in order to get there. We had to walk all over, get stopped by security and eventually get the right directions, then someone corrected them with wrong directions but we finally got there. It is relatively easy if you know ahead of time where to go, but without any signs it is pretty much anyone’s guess.
Once we got to the beach it was pretty nice. Most of the sand was black and the Pacific water was warm. Both girls went out and played in the water. I went down to watch them and Dominica sat high up on the sand bank. The girls had a blast running down into the water and letting it chase them as they ran back. Luciana ended up getting knocked down by a wave and was soaked and dirty but she was happy and played a lot longer getting knocked down several times and possibly ruining her clothes.
It was a long walk back to the condo with very wet children. Liesl was only wet from the knees down but Ciana was soaked head to toe and covered in sand which made her very unhappy.
Once back to the condo we had to hose Luciana off. She hates (or hated) taking showers and was very upset that she had to take one. Both Liesl and I talked to her for a while trying to get her to relax about taking. She claims that she is afraid to get water in her eyes. Liesl tried to show her what to do in the shower but to no avail.
Finally I figured out to put a hand towel over Luciana’s head and she decided to just lay down in the shower. The shower in the girls’ bathroom is a nice, large tile one, very modern. Perfect for the girls. The one in the master bath is kind of awful, we hate it. But theirs is great. Luciana ended up taking a very odd shower laying down with the water hitting her back and her head under a tower but she loved it. She stayed in for a long time and is now demanding that she get to take a shower again tomorrow! Where did this kid come from? She is so funny.