the beach

Here is a direct quote from Liam the first day we spent at Miramar: "This is the best day of my life!" This place is so perfect for the kids. We are endlessly entertained by swimming, gathering shells, playing in the sand and on the rocks, looking for crabs, running from the waves and watching groups of pelicans diving simutaneously for fish. I haven't ventured in beyond my waist to go swimming as the water is pretty cold for me. I must be a wimp because other people are swimming in it. One thing we do have to watch out for are stingray. We made friends with a couple who are staying at the same hotel as us and told them about Miramar so they came the second day we were out and she was bitten (or stung...?) by a stingray on the bottom of her foot and had intense pain throughout her foot for quite a while. The pain can sometimes travel all the way up the leg and last for 24 hours. It is supposedly not a common occurance at this time of year but Rus saw one in the water when he was wading around too. Maybe it was the same one. He wasn't stung, fortunately. We have also seen a few sea slugs along the shoreline and on the rocks.
We arrived at the beach especially early this morning because we were told that dolphins and sometimes whales come quite close to the shore here. They are a little unpredictable though. This morning was one of the mornings that they didn't come. We are going to keep coming back early every morning until we see them. We have also made friends with a family who co-owns a house on the beach, which they also rent out. They have two boys about Liam's age and have offered to take us to see some white dolphins that are kept in a tank in the resort town a few kilometers north of here called San Carlos. Rus and I are having some moral dilemmas over keeping dolphins in a tank but it is something that Liam is very excited about so we might just go anyway. We can also swim with them if we want.