46 Days

The Most Beautiful Beach: Manzanillo!

Everyone was sitting under the shade!

My Favorite Day! 

Wednesday: Another good nights sleep and relaxing morning.  I went out on the balcony and read for a while and then went down for breakfast.  It was shaping up to be a beautiful day.  The sun was shining and the air was crisp.

We got ready for the beach, but Jess and I had the "great idea" of not putting on sunscreen before we went.  We thought we would get a "little" sun and then put it on after an hour or two at the beach.  Instead of getting in the car to go to the beach, we walked down the road a bit and rented bikes for the day: Beach cruisers with baskets and all!  We loaded up our bags and towels in the baskets and headed out.  The road that goes along the beach is partly paved, partly dirt and rock, and mostly flat.  It was a wonderful ride as we cruised along in the warm morning sun.  We were headed to the farthest beach, Manzanillo, which ended up being about a 45 minute bike ride.  Once we arrived in the quaint little town, we immediately spotted an ice-cream shop that served gelatos!  Definitely a treat for later!

We made it to Manzanillo!

Parked our bikes by a palm tree and locked them up while we were at the beach.

We kept biking a few minutes to get past the hustle and bustle in the little town and the road turned to sand.  We eventually had to get off of our bikes and push them up on the beach.  Manzanillo was a beautiful, calm beach that gave you the feel of laying on the Caribbean Beach before tourists came and made everything commercialized.  There were hardly any waves, and the water was clear blue.  We just sat in the shallow water and soaked in the hot sun for a while.  Kristi had a couple of snorkles so we took turns swimming out to the coral reef a little ways off shore and saw a bunch of cool fish and other creatures.  My favorite was a fish that was bright orange on one half and bright blue on the other.  It was pretty wild.

When Jess and I went out snorkeling, the others decided to ride back into town and grab lunch.  They took all of our stuff, including sunscreen with them so that it wouldn't get stolen since no one was on the beach to watch it.  When Jess and I got in, we thought it was definitely time to lather up with the sunscreen.....only we couldn't because we no longer had anything.  So, we sat in the ocean for another hour and waited for the others to return.  We both knew we were burning, but we didn't know what else to do.  Once they got back, we immediately took our stuff and headed into town to get in a shaded area.  We found a cute little soda to eat lunch and dry off.  After we ate, we both put tons of lotion on.  I could feel my skin already getting warm, but I couldn't tell how burnt I was yet.

This is where we ate lunch

We headed back out to the beach, but once the sun hit my skin, I knew it wasn't good so I found a palm tree and sat underneath the rest of the afternoon and read.  We decided to head back around 3pm, so we packed up our bikes and started on our way back.  We didn't make it far without stopping....of course when we got to the ice-cream shop we couldn't resist.  I had a delicious vanilla with chocolate chunks gelato in a cone.  I love ice-cream!

The ride back was just as pleasant as the way there.  We stopped at another beach before we got home because we had heard that the waves were really big.  (Actually, we heard that the under-toe was deadly....but we thought we would at least check it out)  Dan, Jess and I had the most amazing time riding those waves.  They turned out to be great and we didn't feel any under-toe.  Dad, I know you would be proud of me, because I was riding those waves like a pro.  Start swimming, hands out, head down, and straight body....just like you taught me:)  I wish you could have been there. (We'll ride some together this summer!)

After about an hour, the sun was starting to set so we packed up again and  made our way back to the bike rental place.  We returned the bikes, walked home and showered up.  The guys were exhausted so Krist, Jess and I went out to dinner by ourselves.  We found a cool restaurant down the road that was under a big hut and had a sand floor.  The food was delicious.  I had a veggie sandwich, which had every vegetable I could think of on it....super delicious!

We found the boys still asleep when we got back home, so we followed suit.  Read a bit, tried to lay still on my sheets so I wouldn't rub my burn, and then fell asleep!