Via our little morning broadcast for the four WARC boats at Gamboa, I find out that most people are going to have a day on the beach here after they have done their boat jobs.
I dither through the morning. I am not actually keen on lolling around on beaches, getting hot and sandy and sticky, and I like to be able to get into the shade when I want to. As Mike is going to scrub the waterline of the boat to remove her lovely, full, green beard, and has no intention of going to the beach, I continue to dither so that by the time I decide I will actually go with them they have all gone. I then have to disturb Mike from his scrubbing and get him to run me over in the dinghy.
As we come in to the beach, Matt comes to meet me, arms outstretched for a cuddle of welcome. As he is covered in a thick coating of pink and yellow chalky mud like the two girls yesterday, the offer of a cuddle is not particularly inviting and I scoot away from him quickly before he can cover my white linen shirt in goo!
Everyone has been in the gloop except Eline, so abandoning my bags into the communal care, I walk up the beach with her to the spot where yesterday you could just roll in it. It’s still there. Still as soft and pink so we both get down and roll around like two little piggies in a mud bath, then walk back down to the beach bar to wait for it to dry off. I weigh a good few pounds heavier as loads of it is inside my bikini and starts to dry in great big clumps.
Photo: All glooped up!
Once it’s dried off I go into the sea which is unbelievably warm and rinse it all off. Matt helps get it off my back. It’s rather nice to be rubbed down by a rather beautiful 27-year old even if he is doing it as his bit for ‘Help the Aged’!
Given that the gloop is meant to promote youth as well as health, I skip out of the water looking and feeling 10 years younger (in my dreams) and buy myself a caipirinha and sit and talk to the group of young girls next to me. These five beautiful women are enjoying the last day of their holiday and heading back home to Argentina tomorrow. They are really friendly and interested in what Rosemary and I tell them about our circumnavigation. Then it’s time for the photos.
Photo: Rosemary and I with Victoria, Gabriela, Daniela, Camila and Daniela (yes, there are two of them)
Photo: A bevy of Argentinean beauty
Photo: Our lively bar owners who mix very generous caipirinhas for me
Funnily enough, as Matt walks past, the girls eyes light up and he is invited to pose with them. Always the gentleman, and always photogenic, he agrees.
Photo: Matt and the babes
Taking our leave of the lovely ladies, we all walk along the beach to a restaurant and have a light lunch Not being over hungry, Rosemary and I share a wok meal, a sort of Indonesian mix of noodles and shrimp. It’s good.
A beautiful dragonfly lands on one of our chopsticks – and just stays there. For a while I think its little legs are stuck to the sauce but then I see them moving. He even lets me stroke his wings!
Photo: A friendly dragonfly comes to visit
It’s not long before Matt finds another friend on the beach – a lovely boxer mix of dog – and they play together on the beach digging holes. Boys!
Photo: Matt makes a friend
After our lunch we walk back down to the original bar and just laze around enjoying the late afternoon sun (or shade). I have quite a laugh with the owner as she keeps taking the piss out of me because I cannot pronounce the word ‘caipirinha’ without actually seeing it written down. Bringing some over, she makes me say it without looking at the drinks board and I bodge it again!
Photo: One more for the dinghy
By 5 pm Rosemary and I have had enough of the great outdoors and decide to join our husbands back on our respective boats. Matt takes us back with instructions to board Chessie in an hour or so for sundowners. Having left Mike to fend for himself two days in a row I start to prepare an evening meal and get it ready to cook when we get back.
On board Chessie, everyone discusses when we are going to leave but most of us keep putting the evil moment off as it’s so lovely and laid back here. Chessie may leave tomorrow but Mike and I are in no real hurry to get to Recife and may well leave it until Monday or beyond and no decision is made tonight.
We are good. We stay on Chessie for just two drinks, one more than we intend of course, then head back for our garlic sardine dinner.
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