Life's a Beach, but not in miamiii! (5/16-17/25)

    our day in miami was pretty simple but relaxing and fun :) we ended up getting to the hotel at about 2PM, we hung out by the pool for a bit and then met in the lobby at 3PM, where we decided we would go to Nikki beach. 

                     

    Us girls headed to target before going since we didn’t have our luggage. we had to buy extra clothes and toiletries. There was no way I was about to sleep in the same clothes i had been wearing since wednesday and dragging across the country floors and don't even get me started on the condition of my chonies 😀, those had to go too! We got to target and found bathing suits, went to get pajamas, and when we finally made our way over to the underwear, the section with single pairs was basically bare, which is what I was about to be too if I couldn't find a pair. There was no way I could buy and fit a ten pack in my carry on either since I only had my backpack. Thankfully after searching I found a pair. Then, we all split up to grab things we needed and I, of course, ended up in the makeup section. Did i need anything from that section? no, but i'm just a girl... and it's target, you never leave with just what you went for. But for this trip let's just call it a coping mechanism. yeah. my total was $80, and my card got locked after because why wouldn't that happen right? anyways, we changed in the target restrooms, ordered an uber and headed to the beach!

                                                     Beach Hair, Don't Care

    

    When we got to the beach we met up with the others, the beach was awesome! the sand was toasty and the water was sooo warm ❤️ this definitely helped destress after all the traveling. we hung out in the water for awhile while also singing "let's go the beach-each let's go get away" from the song starships by nicki minaj sporadically 😂 

    

     after the beach we headed back to the hotel and munched on some chips, the best snack to have after being in the water! Virginia and Valeria fell asleep on the way to the hotel, there is apparently no concern there for them, but I get it. If i had a me around i'd fall asleep too. 

   

    We got washed up and then headed downstairs again to see what we could grab for dinner. They had a cool giant chess board by the pool that we played around with for a bit. we ate at the restaurant in the lobby. i had a sandwich, it was good. When we got back to the room i brushed my teeth and crawled into bed. I was so excited to just relax and do my nightly routine of tiktok scrolling, haha yeah right. after getting halfway through my first video I passed out.  

"what do you mean no?" 

    In the morning, i rolled out of bed, brushed my teeth, grabbed my stuff and headed out the door to check out. we shuttled back over to the airport and decided on a breakfast plan. We were only going to move in the direction of our gate since we were two hours from boarding. I needed coffee, a ice cold coffee. it wasn't a want, it was a need. I remembered our mentor Juan had went to a coffee shop nearby when we were there the day before so I asked him where it was. "Just around the corner" he answered. awesome sauce. I asked Dr. Black if I could head over there since most people were still waiting on their vouchers. "noooooooo, we are not going that way" she replied. My eye started twitching, I was debating buying a flight home, or staying in miami, both were options that had coffee. Before I decided, Jake spoke up and said "it's not that far, its just at that line of people you can see." She let me go. thank. God. I waited in line for about ten minutes, already savoring my coffee. I get up the the front only to realize that all the coffee they sold was h o t. I  gave up. I asked the worker what she recommended and said " ok give it to me". I'm walking through the miami airport, sweaty and drinking my freaken coffee, on my way to meet up with everyone. when out of the corner of my eye I see one of my favorite tiktok influencers, Louie Castro. again, OF FREAKEN COURSE, this happens while I'm wearing the same clothes for several days and sweaty. anyways, he was so nice and we took a picture together. seeing him made me a little bit sad because it reminded me of my best friend Yulissa. We always send his videos to each other. This definitely made up for everything. I joined everyone at the gate and soon we boarded together. 

"you're going to panama? like, the hunger games?" - my friend Erik

   

 our flight to panama was smooth. we left the airport quickly and headed to the hotel. on the way there we caught a glimpse of boats lined up waiting to go into the panama canal, it was pretty neat. 

    we were finally united with everyone at the hotel. we went out to explore the parts of the city nearby. there were so many cute stores and shops and I started thinking about what kind of couvenirs to i'll be taking back home with me. There were a lot of police everywhere as well. I ate a chicken and cheese arepa for the first time, i didn’t like it at all, it was very sweet. i shared with robert and had him eat most of it. 

  

in the evening we went to this place named el chante. I ate a cesar salad since my stomach hasn’t been feeling so good :/ while we’re were there a little mariachi type of group came in and started performing. They knew a lot of mexican songs which was surprisingly comforting :) after this we headed to the hotel and called it a night. that was pretty much all we did on our first day in the city!

Here some more pictures i took if you care, but if you don't see you next time!

xoxo, sara

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