The weather man wasn't too far off today: we got some rain, some clouds, and a few fantastic but oh-so-short minutes of blistering sunshine. Joe played chef and made us all some egg and bacon sandwiches for breakfast while I pried myself from bed. Getting up before 9AM on vacation just feels wrong but peer pressure is a powerful thing. By the time I'd finished my sandwich everyone else was ready to go so they ventured out in pursuit of a pineapple while I took my first shower of the trip. I think the world may have heaved a collective sigh of relief as I stepped into the water... By the time I was all cleaned up Kim, Joe and Brittany came in beaming with smiles. They ran into a large group of Witnesses doing street work in the nearby park, found out where the local Hall is, and got us all set up for a meeting tomorrow. It's in some kind of creole language that we can't figure out how to spell but the brothers tell us we'll be able to follow along fairly well. We're excited! Isn't it great having friends on every square mile of the planet??? We were still pretty set on visiting the surf competition today so Joe helped flag down a taxi and settle on a fair price to get us to Playa Paunch. Our driver was a really nice guy so we arranged for him to pick us up later that day. The surfing was fun to watch (despite having to sit on a beach consisting of nothing but rocks) and they had some neat sponsor booths set up. I think we all just assumed the competitors were adults until some of them started rolling in and we realized there were kids that couldn't have been more than six or seven out there in 8 foot tall swells, riding tubes. How cool is that? Xbox just doesn't cut it for these kids. We shared some beers for about an hour, discovering that Red Stripe tastes COMPLETELY different here than at home (meaning it's actually drinkable haha) and then started walking towards a 4-kilometer stretch of sand called Playa Bluff. You can't swim there because of the rip currents but the guidebook said it was a beautiful place. It took a good forty minutes for us to reach it on foot. We could have been a little quicker but we kept stopping to take in the scenery. About half way through we saw a young couple looking up a hill pretty intently. We had been passing some really amazing houses so I thought they must just be checking one out, but when we got up to them we discovered that they were watching a family of at least 20 monkeys jumping around in a tree. There were tiny babies, too, which made it even more fun. It was a great "we're not in Florida anymore" kind of moment :) The sand on the beach was a deep burnt orange that reminded us of pictures of Australia. The water was a cool, light blue, and waves thunderously broke on the shore. We followed the beach-side trail all the way to the Playa Bluff Lounge, which was basically just a nice bar and an outdoor grill (i.e. campfire) where locals cooked up some island fare. Lunch was fantastic: steak, chicken, chorizo and salad cooked fresh on the BBQ and piled high. We ate and watched the waves from our plastic patio table, kicking away the overly friendly dogs that swarmed around us. We still had a good hour until our taxi driver showed up, so we took turns reading, napping, and staring blankly into the sea. It kind of felt like looking at an aquarium; you can stare for hours without actually looking at or seeing anything. You hear the waves, see a blur of blues, and think. No one wanted to be the person to ruin the silence so we sat quietly until our driver appeared, occasionally cracking a smile at the realization of where we were. The drive back was pretty rough. This isn't a road for a humdrum taxi and we were glad to be in a pickup truck. I really can't even say we were on a road because big chunks of the trek was right on the sand. At one point we actually had to drive through a large swathe of water going out with the tide, and we got a workout just trying to stay upright in the back while we bounced over mound after mound (without seat belts of course, because this is Panama). Back at the house we gathered around our iPads to have family worship and study our Watchtowers for tomorrow's meeting. It took me a while to get over the "I like paper" thing, but I'm finally coming around to the awesomeness that is EPUB. Afterward, Kim and Joe went to pay Rudy a visit before dinner. A drink sounded great but Brittany and I were just too full and tired to go. A couple of hours later we picked up some cheap pizzas for down the street, where Brittany's and Kim's internal cat magnets combined to suck in a kitten that they both desperately wished to keep. Narrowly escaping Brittany's demands to smuggle a cat onto a plane (though still being berated for not being sufficiently ecstatic at the sight of it) we walked in the door to be greeted by the excruciating squeal of a woman at the restaurant next door. A third-string karaoke singer, she was hired to "entertain" the clientele (who must've been dead drunk to applaud the way they did). I'll bet she has dreams of making it big on Panama's Got Talent, and I would be happy to squash them...I never would've imagined someone could slaughter Dean Martin and Bob Barley in the span of four minutes. Ugh. In case you can't tell, she is REALLY bad! Anyhoo we've got meeting at 9:30AM tomorrow. Rain drops are pattering on our rusty tin roof and the screeching siren has finally decided I've been tortured enough for one evening. I should try to get to sleep now before her adoring (and shockingly inebriated) audience requests an encore.