A friend of my moms, Craig, whos dog Shadow just had her operation so she would not have any babies offered to take us in his truck. My mom was so excited. I just was not sure when he pulled up to the house and we approached the vehicle.

Shadow was happy and jumping all over. She made me nervous. I do not ride in cars that much and having this dog, the owner of the truck, claiming the back seat, I just did not want to go there.

They finally let me sit in the front seat on moms lap even though I was shedding badly and getting her all hair covered she didn’t mind.

We finally got to the beach and we all jumped out of the truck. It was wonderful!

Shadow had been there before and was acting crazy digging around in the sand. I just could not understand what she was doing and why was she digging when there was nothing there. To each their own I guess.

Mom, Craig and Shadow headed to the water. There were small waves rolling onto the shore. They frightened me. I so wanted to join them playing in the water. I kept trying to go into the water but as soon as it touched my toes I ran away. Mom was calling me and Craig and Shadow looked like they were having such fun. I so wanted to join in.

Mom kept calling and I know she wanted me to join her so I decided to make her happy. I stepped back a few steps, closed my eyes and ran! I felt the water on my toes and leaped into the air. I hit the water past the wave and swam to mom. As she reached out to grab me I dodged her hand and went toward Craig and Shadow for a few strokes. Then I saw Shadow splashing and I decided that this was enough for 1 day and headed back to the safety of dry land. Mom was laughing as she came out of the water. I made her happy. I am such a good girl!

I spent the rest of the day relaxing and just watching Shadow playing in the water or digging a hole non stop. Where does she get all that energy?

We ate some yummy fried fish, some lambi and some clams then it was time to go home. I really did not eat the clams. I didn’t like them but the other stuff was good.

I did get into the back seat for the ride home. Shadow let me as long as I stayed on my own side. I was looking out the window and enjoying the breeze on my nose. Shadow fell asleep right away. No wonder with all the playing she was doing. She wore herself out.

We drove past the Plaza de la Bandera on the ride home.

When we got home first thing we did was take a shower. That cool water felt so good rinsing the salt and sand off my body. Mom did not even use the towel on me. I just shook off and went to the sofa to rest after my great day at Playa Palenque. I hope we can do it again soon.

Thank you Shadow and Craig for taking us to the beach!

We went through the Plaza at the statue of Monticino and mom said they really cleaned it up. She said we will take pictures of it another day. The beach is in front of the big statue. Mom is not sure of the name so she just calls it Playa at Montecino.

When we got there there were a few people there. There were a few nuns in their blue dresses looking at the water. There were 2 unformed guard type men in the parking lot. You could look up the coastline and see the big buildings and I even saw a ship in the Caribbean Sea.


A group of kids came and started talking to mom about me. A few did not smell good, I thought they were looking for trouble. But there were two that were very nice and talked to me. I let one pat my head for a second. Then they took off their clothes and went swimming. Two of the kids went into the water naked! Thank goodness mom said the pictures came out blurry so we could not see those boys bare butts.

The waves were a little rough and the noise of the crashing water frightened me a little. I was brave and did not run away and enjoyed sniffing the sand and the trees and buses around the area. I did not want to get near the water. Maybe another day when I get braver.

Then mom and I walked around a little bit. We stopped to talk to friends at Parque San Jose where mom used to live. We then continued on with the walk.

It started raining really hard. I never got stuck in hard rain before. I was afraid and the big umbrella mom had did not do much good. We ran for a doorway. I was shaking. The other people in the door thought I was cold but I was just shaking because I was afraid. But mom hugged me and told me all was OK. Finally the rain stopped and we walked some more.

We ended up in Parque Duarte (the good picture is in the other post about Duarte Day). I liked smelling the flower wreaths that were in front of the statue of Duarte. Everything was wet and fresh and clean, including mom and I.

After this we headed home. It was a good walk-about.