Beaches and New Friends

 This was our first day on the beach.  As you can see it was very rocky with piles of smooth, well-worn rocks all over the place.  We walked up and down the secluded beaches just enjoying the beauty.  The water was absolutely warm and perfect.  The first day was really windy and cloudy but we still enjoyed it.

 We saw some huge round thing floating in the water and decided to inspect it....turned out to be a huge coconut rolling around in the waves.  Weird.  There are palm trees all over the place so I guess that's where it came from.

 This picture is looking back at our resort, the Marriott

 Stephen, of course, made friends with all the locals!  As soon as he started speaking Spanish to them they would just smile and they became instant friends....seriously.  I spent a lot of time just listening and waiting for Stephen.  He makes friends where ever he goes!  The beach had this group of Mexicans that would walk up and down the sand selling their wares.  The were selling silver jewelry, necklaces made of beads, cigars, tattoos, marble figurines/animals, Mexican dresses, t shirts, hats and massages on the beach.  We had fun haggling with them on the right price and ended up getting some silver jewelry and money clips, and a cool woven bracelet for Easton that had his name on it that they made in ten minutes after we picked out the colors and style.  These people were on the beach the entire just walking up and down in the intense sun hoping to sell their items.  I have a new respect for these people, so hard-working and humble.  We didn't have enough money with us one day and the Mexican vendor told us to just bring it to him tomorrow on the beach.  Weird.  So we did...I wonder how many times he says that to people and they never return with the money.

 Stephen is talking to his "friends".

We talked to a couple of locals one night who were fishing in the ocean.  They were missing a few teeth and were just as nice as can be.  They just lit up when Stephen started talking to them in their language.  They told us about the fishing and what they were catching.  They didn't fish with poles...just string wrapped around a soda bottle and a hook with shrimp attached to it.  They also threw nets out and pulled in fish.  They eat it for dinner.