Another beach trip... this time to an island just off Luanda

So, another weekend, another excuse to go to the beach! This time, instead of heading to the surf beach which is a couple hours drive, a group was organized to go to an island visible just off the shore of Luanda. Even though we heard the name of the island said a million times, neither one of us can figure out what it is, or how to spell it now. :) So, just know, we were close to home. It took us 15 minutes by car to get to the drop off point, and then 10 minutes by motor boat to get to the island.

Here L and I are sitting in the boat, ready to go. But of course, getting to this point was not so easy, because....

When you arrive at the drop off point, you're faced with lots of people, lots of boats, etc. And of course, they all want your business! Before we had even parked the car, we had at least 6 or 7 men clamoring around the car. We put L's husband P in charge of getting us a good boat for a good price (he has the most Portuguese out of all of us).

So we were in the boat and off we went...

Here's a shot of the shore again as we pull away. (Joel was taking all these pictures, so...I can just tell you what's there...)

There's the police.

When we got to the island we settled in, got our books out, etc. Eventually though, Joel was getting really restless, so we went for a walk. This is just a shot from our walk along the beach.

And this is a shot of where we were actually sitting while we were on the island. It's just a little set up that has all these permanent umbrella things up, as well as little sun beds to lie on. There is also a bar and restaurant, and one little toilet for everyone to use. Nice enough.

One of the highlights is that girls come around selling sarongs, sun dresses, bikinis, tunics and more all in beautiful bright colors- some African prints, some just beachy. So, one of our teachers decided to go ahead and have a look. As you can see, all of the girls came to show what they had.

We were all watching from afar and L decided that she needed to have a look at one little dress that was being thrown around. She got it in the end. :)

I restrained from shopping- I'm holding out for Australia in December. :)

I didn't actually go in the water today- the weather was nice enough, it was cloudy, but sunny at times. Joel went in and said the water was nice. I just laid on my lounger and lounged...I read quite a bit and also had a pretty long nap. :) Ahhh...

We did order lunch there, Joel got a bacon cheeseburger, and I tried to order a sandwich that didn't have any meat on it. The guy pointed to the one and swore several times, no meat, no meat, just eggs. I was happy. Then it came and had several greasy pieces of bacon on it. Oh well. Joel got more bacon for his burger, and I pretended it wasn't ever on my sandwich. It was a good lunch.

The whole day, including rental of the loungers, lunch, and boat rides back and forth cost us $80, which believe it or not, just seems normal to us now. We are slowly adjusting to the fact that things are just plain expensive here, life is expensive here. But, there aren't many things to spend money on- food and fun like we had today are about it, so you spend it!

The really nice thing about today was that it was beautiful enough and quiet enough that we felt worlds away from Luanda. We're not actually desperate to get away yet really, but I can see how a few months from now, this place will feel like a much looked forward to get away. The only thing is that Joel was a little bored there because there was no surf- there were boats, and people were water skiing and wake boarding- but they were private boats, and we weren't invited. So anyway... Joel probably won't want to go there lots, but for us girls that need no more than a good book, a comfy bed, the opportunity to go on a walk and sun - well, we found our place! :)