hello pacific ocean :)

again-this might be long. it's okay, you'll wanna hear allll about it!
FRIDAY:
woke up, had my favorite meal ever for breakfast: tostados (crunchy tortillas) with salsa and cheese on them, and warm sweet tea! ahhh i was so excited about it. it just set the stage for such a glorious day! Patricia was out of the school for the morning on Friday, so Rachael and I got to teach all of her classes! Talk about being thrown in blind! We taught 5 classes that morning, each of them very different from the last! All the girls are reviewing for their exams next week, so we just sort of sat in the classroom IF they needed help. They're not very motivated, so we did some of that as well. By noon, we were off, and sweet Carlos gave us a little ride down to San Lucas where we were supposed to meet our taxi at 12:15. Well, so we got dropped off, and we looked for our little cab driver, Daniel, and his red wagon. So, we see the red wagon, but unfortunately none of us can actually remember what Daniel looks like-so we asked the man in the car if his name was Daniel-1st time: NO. Once he found out we were going to Antigua, then SUDDENLY he was Daniel. So, because we were already running late, and didn't have other options, we just got in. Guess what. Wasn't Daniel. Luckily, he took us to Antigua safely to meet our shuttle, and we actually ended up there a little early. We sat down under Shelter Tree, and ate our pre-made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches we'd packed to save money. 2 sandwiches and a bathroom pit stop later, we boarded our shuttle! We were on there with 2 girls from Iowa, a man from New York, and a couple from the Netherlands. We became great friends with the two girls, Lindsay and Erin, and we enjoyed spending most of the weekend with them! The shuttle ride was about 2 hours long, and we reeeeally loved seeing all the little coastal towns along the way! We reached the beach around 4, and then went and found a hotel to stay in. We ended up at this really cute one (with all the other people from our shuttle) that had a little restaurant and pool! Our rooms were pretty spacious, and had these really cute little mosquito canopies hanging from the ceiling. Apparently the bugs are bad near the coast? After we paid the money for the room and put our stuff down, we decided to go for a little walk on the beach and find somewhere cute to eat supper! I was jumping up and down all excited when i saw sand and saltwater! I must admit, the Pacific Ocean is much more threatening than the Atlantic. We walked along these black sand beaches for about an hour, and then saw a little hotel/restaurant called Johnny's Place. We thought it looked native, so we stopped for supper. Everything was SO GOOD! I got a ham panini, and a couple of the other girls got burritos! Yuuummm! We sat there sipping little fruit drinks until sunset, when we decided it would be smart to walk back before it was completely dark! Once we got back, we immediately put on our swimsuits and jumped in the pool! Sooooo refreshing!! It was really nice to just relax, cool off, and swim around until we were ready for bed! After the pool time, we had a group lice-check-session and all sat in a line and checked each other. EVERYONE was in the clear! Including myself! Apparently the mayonnaise mixture, along with the lice shampoo got 'em all out and runnin! Needless to say, I was thrilled. After this check, we were all sooo exhausted that we decided to call it a night at about 8:30 and were very impressed with our sleeping skills.
SATURDAY:
We woke up around 8, and after being huddled in 100 degree weather with an oscillating fan, 1 sheet, and mosquito netting all night, were MORE than ready to get out of bed and get rollin'. Once we got up and dressed, we dragged the plastic chairs from our room onto our porch, and ate the muffins and pastries that we'd bought at the bakery for our breakfast! SUCH a good choice. Although the eggs and beans smelled appealing from the restaurant, we were more than happy with our almost free muffins and granola bars! We set off for the beach around 9:15 am. This is what we did all day. Ahem-
-lay on towel
-sweat
-get off towel and walk to water to cool off
-play in really strong ocean til we were exhausted
-lay on towel
-sweat
(overandoverandover)
it really was the best day i could have ever asked for! I just wanted to scream with joy! At around 12:30, we walked back up to the hotel. All of our stuff had to be out by 1, so we decided to eat our lunch there. We came back, jumped in the pool for a little refreshment, and then made our FREE peanut butter sandwiches! Again-YUM. We swam around the pool and layed out for about another hour, and then at 1, stashed our stuff in our new friends room, and went on an ice cream hunt. We walked all over the town of Monterrico and couldn't find one! I'm thinking of moving there and opening one, because tourists LOVE ice cream and the beach is just a tourist TRAP. (as well we all know) So, we walked back to the hotel, grabbed a little more money, and picked up Erin and Lindsay, and began walking towards Johnny's Place. (I have the feeling that if we'd stayed a few more days, we'd have become regulars) We also picked up our Netherlands couple from the shuttle and they joined us. I can't tell you their names because they're European and hard to say. We all sat and enjoyed fruit drinks, cokes, and waters, and shared 2 BIG plates of fries. Suchhh a delicious choice! It was almost time at this point to grab the shuttle back home, so we walked back to the hotel, got our bags, got some new facebook friends, and headed to the Tourism office where we were meeting our bus. The only people from our original shuttle that were going back today were our Netherlands friends, so we waited with them and their newly purchased giant coconut. Boarded the van at 4, and drove off towards Antigua. We were on the most comfortable shuttle we've taken so far. The seats were nice and plush, reclined, and had a great amount of legroom. Now, all day, we'd been thinking about the fact that we didn't have a ride home from Antigua (40 minutes from the Oasis) and it was going to be night time. So, we called just about everyone in the book that we knew, and no one could come get us. We resorted to calling our handy friend Daniel. Luckily, he didn't have anything going on, and was able to come grab us!
About 5 miles outside Antigua, our van driver pulled over, laughed, got out of the van, walked around back, got a bicycle pump, and began to put air in the tire that was now FLAT on our shuttle. We all got out and watched of course. This took about 10 minutes, then we all hopped back into the van and were on our way! We got to Antigua, and stood around for about 5 minutes before we heard our names shouted out from this little green taxi wagon. This was Daniel's father. He would be driving us back home. Seriously, we STILL haven't met this Daniel fellow. Wondering if he truly exists or is just an alias. Daniel's father talked to us the whole way back to San Lucas. As much as we love him, we were so tired that every bit of spanish the 4 of us ever knew went in one ear, and out the other.
Once we safely got back to the Oasis, 125Q later, all of us were ready for showers. We went to our respective houses, and asked the girls how their days were, and got some info about church for tomorrow morning. The FIRST thing out of their mouths when they saw the Gringa's little red face were gasps! They all just thought it was so funny to poke my sunburn and then ask if it hurt. Good thing it didn't! Luckily, my house had just sat down for supper, so I was able to join them and not have to waste an EasyMac! After I ate supper and got poked, I retreated for a much needed shower. I took a hot hot hot one, and although I am crispy red, I let the hot water soak in and take the sting out! I feel bad for the other 3 girls who aren't habitual beach dwellers and who don't handle the sting quiiiiite as well as my sun-tamed skin. They are all pretty tomato-y, and needing some aloe. I'm trying to give them a little bit of knowledge, so we'll see where this goes.
For now, I'm a little sore, and pink. Can't WAIT for it to go in and be all brrrronze tomorrow! I'm also exhausted, writing a blog, and trying to facebook chat in Spanish. (not an easy task)
Bedtime for me!

Goodnight from the stinging little chica rojo!