Beach!

We spent a while Sunday night after returning to the condo trying to figure out where to beach the next day.  The beach everyone is raving about, Flamenco, proved tricky since
1) It's on a different island
2) Said island is accessible only by ferry or by plane
3) Plane tickets to the island run ~$300
4) The ferry is so popular, we were told that we needed to be at the dock to claim a spot by 4:30 AM.

Nope.

After a lot of research, we decided to head to Conado beach, near the place we had dinner Saturday night.  We packed our towels (which, happily, the condo included for us as well as beach tote bags), donned our swimsuits, lotioned up (which I swear I did thoroughly!  I am just cursed with the skin of the Scottish unlike my nicely-tanned olive-toned comrades from Wales), grabbed some cold bottles of water and the Lunchables we'd purchased the day before, and hailed a cab.

We decided to give the Marriott section of the beach a go.

View of the beach, courtesy of Justin

Look!  A rainbow!

Technically the beach there is open to the public, but the chairs are reserved for guests at the Marriott.  We walked around a bit, then decided that with so many open chairs, it was worth the risk.  We claimed three together in the sun and settled in to look the part of Marriott guests who totally belong in those chairs and who are using brightly colored towels instead of the white ones every other Marriott guest is using because... because of my hair dye!  Yes, that's it.  I just didn't want to dye the hotel towels purple.

That was my prepared excuse at least.  I don't know what the boys had in mind should the Invisible Authority Figures suddenly appear.

This is the look of a man smugly enjoying a pilfered chair.

Beach selfie!

Second beach selfie!  The trio of designer sunlasses and the blindingly white skin of the gringa on the right might just be the reasons why we passed as hotel guests.

Selfies accomplished and no Marriott guards sweeping in to shoo us away, we settled in.  Jason donned his headphones to listen to his audio book; Justin alternated between reading "The Martian" on his Kindle, strolling the beach, and perfecting his tan; and I read Sarah Ruhl's excellent book of essays (thanks, Mom and Dad!), then frolicked in the warm ocean, then dozed in the sun.

An excellent day in December

The clouds rolled across the sky, occasionally obscuring the sun.  It rained just a little, but overall we had marvelous weather for a day at the beach.  I especially liked the wind that kept things comfortably cool.  At least it did for me.  Monsieur Davis, on the other end of the row, wrapped up in his beach towel at one point, so he may have a different opinion.

Ever a Boy Scout, Justin came prepared for rain.