Tuesday, February 24: Hike to Playa Naranja

Today was quite a day.  Another “free day” with a hike, only this time it was 26K round trip.  We walked on this really rocky “road” to Playa Naranja.  The walk there wasn’t bad at all, it wasn’t hot and it was downhill the whole way.  We left at 8 and got there at 10:20.  The beach was absolutely beautiful.  It was the beach where the movie “Endless Summer 2” was filmed.  I’ve never seen the movie though.  It’s supposed to be a really big surf spot, famous for the witch’s rock.  Kit, Laura and I walked almost the whole beach, it was a couple miles.  We found a ton of shells, and I found a conch!  It was so windy, and the sand blowing on our bodies felt like sandpaper.  Then the sand stuck to our sunscreen so we all looked really funny.  The water was super cold!  It felt really good after walking in the hot sun, but still was a bit of shock when you first get in.  I wasn’t in the water long because there was a strong rip current.  I mostly just chilled out in the shade for the afternoon.  It was just too hot to be in the sun.  Sarah Stas and I headed back around 2:30.  It was uphill, and super hot.  I got burned on one side of my body on the walk back.  We stopped at the mirador to watch the sunset, but we got there super early. It was such a beautiful view though, we could see all the way down to Play Naranja, and could see the entire stretch of beach.  More and more of the group also came to watch the sunset.  It was so gorgeous.  After sunset we had about 4k left to walk in the dark.  Our headlamps weren’t too helpful.  It took an hour to get back, and it felt like forever because the whole way we had no idea how much we had to left to go.  AT least the stars were beautiful.  I only had a few bites of dinner and now I’m going to bed.  Kit is in the hospital, she was on the hike back and suddenly had terrible kidney pains.  I hope she’s ok.