Gripe (gree-pee)

La gripa, or a gripe, or the flu, or whatever language you want to say it in, I have it right now. Lots of sinus junk and a really sore throat. I can't talk without pain right now. So, I'm writing.

I have been to the beach twice in the past couple of weeks. Neither time was with my board. I was there Friday night, with some youth guys from our church, playing futebol. I played for about 10 minutes until one of them kicke me in the shin, and man it hurt. They are good at kicking these guys, been doing it all their lives. Anyway, I was out for the rest of the game. It still hurts to walk a bit, not that I'm complaining. After that, we sat around a while and sange along with one of the guys playing guitar. He played some Beatles, Queen, Extreme, and some other stuff that you may be familiar with. It was a fun time, and guitars on the beach are staple of the surf scene. So, I still feel like I was in the right mode.

The second was with my wife and our friend Thomas, visiting from Greenville, AL. He has been in South America for a couple of months now. He was here for about two weeks with us. We got to take him to the Ilha de Itaparica in the Bay of All Saints on Monday. We rode a Catamaran over to the Island and took a short taxi ride to what they said was the prettiest beach on the island. It was really pretty, and we pretty much just relaxed on the beach. I went in the water about knee deep. I was already sick, so I didn't feel like going out and swimming, although the water was really calm. There is a beach on the island that has waves and is good for surfing; big surprise to me since I didn't think there was any good place to surf in the bay. Although, now I think I will find there are good places on a few of the islands out there. I'm going to have to try them out eventually.