i burned my, ahem, upper thighs

... and there is no picture to accompany that headline!  We surfed for a solid two hours today. A long sleeve rash guard did its thing for my top half, but the fact that I totally spaced on sunscreen for the bottom half has left me a little ... tender.  LOL. Board shorts tomorrow for sure.  And surfing pictures too, which we didn't bother with today.

The area we surfed is called Golfo Dulce, sweet gulf, because the fresh water from the river decreases the salinity of the ocean.  It's nice because your eyes don't sting after being in the water for a long time.  The waves were about 2-3 feet, which is perfect for me.  They are really gentle rollers with spaced out sets.  As the week progresses, they're expected to get bigger by about a foot a day. I'm glad we had the smaller ones to get started with.

We had lunch in downtown Pavones at a vegetarian restaurant called Cafe de la Suerte, which has Israeli owners.  Yum!

And that sign above the horse is for the local car rental company.  You might do better renting the horse!

Chillin back at the hotel, we did see macaws up close and personal.  They landed right on the hotel balcony and we fed them nuts and bananas.  Very cool.

The River Claro runs right by the hotel so we trekked over for a swim this afternoon.  Well, over isn't exactly the right word.  It was more like up, over a little and then doooown.

The water is crystal clear because the river is spring fed.

Taz and Grizzly accompanied up.  Taz has pretty much become our constant companion.  He lays right outside our door and follows us every time we leave the hotel.  I like to think it's because the dog recognizes our higher consciousness and zen nature but I really think he's figured out we're clueless and need as much help as possible.

Purely for my own amusement, I'll share this lovely picture of my husband's water shoes, the only water shoes uglier than mine.  He's like some cloven hoof jungle creature!

Dinner at the restaurant should be interesting this evening.  It's open to the "public" - but I'm not sure what that means.  Pavones has about 1,000 residents but 2/3 of that belongs to the local indigenous tribe of Guaymi Indians.  I hadn't heard about them prior to arriving so I'm interested to learn more and, maybe, visit the reservation while we're here.  

Surf pictures tomorrow morning!