Playa Santa Clara

Our latest beach adventure was Playa Santa Clara last weekend.  We headed out along the Pacific Coast with some friends on Saturday morning and didn't really know where we would end up.  We drove for about an hour and a half and after passing many options, decided to turn off and found Santa Clara.  It turned out to be a great spot!  We asked if they had any rooms available and they took us up to the little cabins.  We were able to rent a 6 person cabin for $86 for the night....not too bad! We unpacked the car and headed to the beach. 

The boats were covered with pelicans.  We watched them fly over the water and dive in for sardines.  Very cool!

 

 

 

These cabanas cost $10 to rent for the day and comes with chairs and the hammocks.  On Sundays, though, they cost $20.  Seems like a total rip off, but it's better than sitting on the super hot sand and getting fried by the sun. 

 

 

 

 

Everyone started packing up and leaving right when the sun started setting.  We didn't understand because it was so beautiful!  We hung out for a bit then decided to grab some dinner at the little restaurant on the beach.  We went back to the beach after dinner and joined in on a bon fire full of Panamanians.  Only one of them spoke English and it was very limited, so we just sat down and started enjoying their fire.  We had also met a big group of Peace Corps people earlier that day, so they came over and joined us as well.  All was great until we ran out of beverages.  It was getting pretty late anyway, so we all decided to go for a night swim and then headed in to bed.  Once we got into our cabin and had some light, we realized we had all been eaten alive by sandflies.  Of course, I was the one who got it the worst, and I mean EATEN alive.  I took a picture but it doesn't even come close to showing the severity of the bites.  My feet and ankles got it the worst, but then also had them all over my legs and arms as well.  You don't ever even seen the little bastards but they live in the sand and come out at night (hence, the reason why all the locals packed up at sunset).  I was pretty miserable the first couple nights when I was trying to sleep, but they are starting to go away now.  Alex had a totally of 5 bites....lame. Definitely a lesson learned!