Out of the Jar and into the...washing machine?

Freedom! Sweet sweet freedom! For a weekend at least. At the end of tech week we had one free night to spend however we wished, so a few of us...*ahem*...all 50 of us decided to stay at these cabañas at a beach near our tech week called Las Lajas. It turned out to be pretty incredible. The beach was lined with coconut palms and sea grapes. The tide brought the ocean to our porches at high tide and left a quarter-mile expanse at low tide to reach the water. The night was clear enough to see the milky way and the day was warm enough to promote swimming in the strong surf. A quarter mile walk down the beach took you to a restaurant American enough to serve bacon cheeseburgers and blueberry waffles. It was all a welcome relief from the contsant grind of day-in and day-out classes. Now my title is a reference to the strength of the surf. I may or may not have gone for a swim with a couple of friends out into the waves. Maybe I ended up getting out to where I couldn't touch, about 8 ft deep, amd then getting caught in the rough wake of a double wave crashing over me. I will say that things definitely got scary and I almost swallowed some sea water. I'm alright though and that's what really counts in the end, right? It really was a great weekend though filled with great food, tons of fun in the sun, and 49 amazing friends to spend it with. Here are some photos to show why Peace Corps Panama is probably the best country to serve in.

                        Our cabañas

               One view of the beach

                    The other view