Chaco Tan

First, more African travel: 3 hours delay for a 15 minute flight....should have thought twice before putting the snacks in the checked bags!

So I have this pair of chacos (a kind of sandal) that I wear about 6 days a week. They are the most practical for desert living and comfortable and match just about everything. The straps are adjustable which comes in very handy since it's so hot and my feet are always swelling up...kind of weird but a fact of life in the Sandbox. After wearing them all the time for over a year my feet have developed this sort of permanent chaco tan. When I take off my black sandals my feet look like I put on a pair of white ones b/c there are white stripes all over my tanned and permanently dirty feet.

At the beach this week I knew that I would have to use extra sunscreen since it's been a long time since things like my knees have seen the sun. I reapplied every hour just to be sure that I didn't fry. We spent the whole day at the beach and then showered and went out to dinner. I noticed that my chacos were hurting my feet a little but just figured that maybe the sun made them swell or something, no big deal. I didn't really think twice about it until the next morning when my friend was like 'what is wrong with your feet?!?!?' Turns out it didn't matter how much sunscreen I had put on, my white chaco lines are now bright red!!! Apparantly a year is too long to keep parts of your feet out of the sun. I didn't get sunburned anywhere else, just the red lines criss-crossing all over my feet....lovely!