Today was the first morning all 7 of us were together at the Palacio! The beach was the first spot we hit after I made everyone omelets for breakfast. The ocean was a perfect shade of sea foam green today and very pleasant. It was hot outside today so the cool water was very refreshing. While swimming, we decided we wanted to go surfing. We loaded up the car with the surfboards and drove about 10 minutes down the dirt road to a surfing spot.
The surfing spot looked less than ideal as it was very shallow with a lot of rocks. However, there were quite a few people there including a big group of boys who had a full barbecue and a couple hydrofoils they were taking out. The hydrofoils looked very fun and the boys took them very far out to where it was deep enough. River was our surf instructor and walked us through a dry land demonstration of how to go from laying on the board to standing on it. Then, we got in the water and paddled on our tummies until we got farther away from the shore. My favorite moment was when we passed a man who was casually chilling on his surfboard and commented that we looked like newbies. He proceeded to warn us that it was a horrible day for surfing since the waves were small and we shouldn’t even bother attempting to stand up on our boards.
In my head, I was a professional surfer riding the biggest wave possible but, in reality, I never got the chance to stand up on my board since the waves were tiny. Nonetheless, I really enjoyed being able to catch the waves lying down on my board. Each time a big wave hit I would paddle with my arms and the wave would propel me closer to the shore. I stayed out for quite some time until I decided to go for a run along the beach.
Following surfing we returned to the palacio and as we put the surfboards away I caught sight of a kayak! The one thing I love about the palacio is how much water sports equipment they have. They have surfboards, paddleboards, kayaks, snorkel sets, boogie boards, and more. I convinced people to go kayaking with me and added air to the kayak and took it down to the beach. Kayaking is always a lot more work than it seems but it was so beautiful to be out on the open ocean. It was hard to gauge how far from the shore we were so we stayed relatively close to the shore. The waves kept dragging us in all sorts of directions as well. All in all it was a very relaxing and fun experience kayaking on the ocean. Good thing we did not have a destination in mind on the open ocean because quite frankly I am not sure we would have made it with our aimless paddling.
The pool always follows the beach no matter what so we hung out playing catch. I had accidently stepped on a dead puffer fish on the beach while running and not thought much about it initially but now I could see a cut in my foot that I could no longer ignore.
Overall, today was a very relaxing day. No concrete plans were ever made and we just did whatever people wanted whenever. Oftentimes I just curled up in a beach chair listening to the waves as I read.
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