Here's the beach we went to a few weeks ago at Santa Clara. As I mentioned we stayed at a place called Las Sirenas for a night and spent the day at the beach. Although in this shot the beach looks fairly undeveloped, in the other direction there are lots of beach houses - some more like mansions - that wealthy Panamanians use on the weekends and/or during verano.
We've been trying to keep Connor from getting sunburned which means sitting in the shade. He didn't seem to mind too much. It does mean taking turns going into the water for the most part.
We introduced Connor to the Pacific Ocean - he wasn't too sure about it at first but seemed to have a good time.
We had some ceviche in a nearby restaurant and met three current Peace Corps volunteers - two were leaving within a few weeks, one coincidentally going back home to Seattle. Just to show how time flies (and/or how long I was in grad school), she started college while I was a graduate student, graduated, worked for a year, and did half her Peace Corps service, all before I finished.It was fun to hear a little bit about their experiences. We invited the volunteer that's still in-country to stay with us in Gamboa if she has to come in to the Peace Corps office. When we were volunteers we had several people with whom we could stay, so it would be nice to fulfill the same function now that we have the extra bedroom.
