Bienvenidos!

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Wooo! We're going to Taboga...

I got very sunburned today. I have a lovely white dress-shaped patch on my chest and the rest of my shoulders, back and arms are bright pink. And this with factor 60! I was just not made to be in the sun...

Today we went to the island of Taboga off the coast of Panama city. It took about an hour on the boat and I think this is where I got the most sun as I mistakenly chose the side with no shade. I didn't know the boat was going to do a U-turn! We arrived at Taboga at about 9:30am and had a walk through the town to see what was there. Lots of pretty houses and expensive apartments. We were going to walk all the way up to Cerro de la Cruz but were beaten into submission when the path turned into mud lined with reeds. Maybe if I had been wearing trousers and closed shoes instead of a summer dress and sandals... We saw a fair few lizards on the way though, which was cool. We walked back, and by this time it was about 11, so we decided to look for somewhere to have lunch. I didn't like the look of the little beachside cafe so we went back to a slightly more expensive hotel restaurant. We waited until it opened at midday and were the first ones in. We sat on the terrace (in the shade) and I first noticed that my shoulders were turning pink. (At this point the rest of me was fairly pale still but by the time we'd finished eating we could both see the full extent of the damage. I looked like a lobster!) Mario ordered whole fried sea bass with criolli sauce and I ordered red snapper with coconut sauce. They mixed the orders up though, so Mario got my red snapper in his sauce and I got the sea bass with coconut. It was good though. I was kind of surprised when they brought out the whole fish, including head, tail and fins, but I had a good go at it. My fish ended up a lot messier than Mario's, but then again, he didn't take the skin off like I did. His roast potatoes were better than my rice; I ended up wishing I'd ordered those...

After lunch we went to the beach. I reapplied my sunscreen before we left the restaurant but I don't know how much good it did. We hired a beach mat and umbrella and lazed about for a bit. I put Mario's T shirt on over my swimming gear and we waded in the sea for a bit, looked at hermit crabs and chased fish that swam into the shallows. I was worried about my legs burning so went and hid under the umbrella after that. I stayed there for about an hour before going to look at the other side of the beach where the water was a lot clearer than the other side. We paddled a bit more then had to head back to catch the ferry home.

We bought some aftersun when we got back. Definitely going to need it.

8:16 p.m. - 2006-07-18

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