Woohoo! I have enough internet (albeit very slow) to post again!
The week went by very quickly filled with hw, relaxing on the beach, LOTS of swimming, and the like. It was also week two of my salsa class which I was taking 3x/week for 2 weeks. That's been very fun and I've actually managed to hold my own when dancing. Of course, it's somewhat easier since the guys have to lead :)
Action shot of me showing off my salsa skills with our instructor Oscar
Our creation -- sooo delicious!! We were all craving pizza!
Christina and I with our machetes at the Hacienda -- we didn't really
get to use them but it was fun to carry them around! Amy and other
volunteers use them chop down mora (blackberry) so they were actually
quite sharp.
We spent a while cleaning up around the school after pizza and then
hiked up to a view point to look at the ocean - that dot way out on the
right hand side is Leon Dormido where we went snorkeling!
Sarah picking oranges with style!
Then on Friday we had another service event! Jacquie leads
an after-school project in the highlands at the library. They've been
working really hard to put together an event that included a play in
Spanish, games, face painting, and more! Starburst and Pixie Stix did
make a brief debut along with some new clowns. Together we twisted 275+
balloon animals for some VERY excited kids!
We also made some sweet balloon hats! This is Devin and I - Devin is an
undergrad student and was volunteering at the library with Jacquie!
That night Sara and I were invited to have dinner with Shelby's host Mom
Dorys. Sara and I are both tutoring and we start each session by having
both our tutees (Dorys and Jose Luis) come together for some fun games
and warmups. She made a delicious dinner complete with an amazing quinoa
cake dessert that was surprisingly really really good!
On Saturday there were international sailboats that were coming into the
harbor from a sailing competition. GAIAS students made some signs to
welcome them and we were told to come to the dock around 6:15am so we
could get on the boats.
However, when we arrived there was not much going on. We sat around
until about 7:30am - then we were informed that the boat drivers that
were going to take up to the sailboats were not coming. Ecuador won a
MAJOR soccer game on Friday night against Venezula that ensured their
place in the World Cup. This pretty much meant the entire island,
including the boat drivers, were chuchaqui (or hungover) and we were out
of luck.
No matter! Saturday was still a day of partying to welcome the sailors
and there was lots going on starting around 9:30am. After a quick trip
home for breakfast we all came back to enjoy the day!
(Everyone who saw this picture asks why I wasn't closer - I realize I
may look far away in the picture but it felt a LOT closer when the sea
lion looked back and barked to make sure I knew this was her bench!)
At 10am they starting serving the "Galapagos's biggest cheviche". For a
while we were hearing "world's biggest" but that honor stays with a
cheviche that over 7tons of fish.
World's biggest or not it was still absolutely delicious with lots and lots of fish!
The music starting going and lots and lots of people were out and about!
Then we found out that, to our surprise, a bartending school needed to
practice making mixed drinks. This meant that there were 4 stands set up
(rum, tequila, whiskey, and beer) that were tossing drinks from
10:30-2pm for free! You walked up, sampled what they had out,
told them what you like, and poof - a free drink! It was too early to have much to drink but it was fine to try different creations.
On Saturday afternoon we went up to the highlands to the Hacienda again.
We were there for the "festival of the sun" - however the sun didn't
really feel like making an appearance. It poured and was chilly instead
but still lots of fun. We watched some of our GAIAS friends play soccer
against a local team and enjoyed listening to music and walking around.
That night we celebrated Amy's birthday (which is actually today) with desserts and dancing!
While we were hanging out on the malecon around 8:30pm a school of rays
appeared! They are attracted to the lights that are near the dock (the
lights are blue/green why the picture looks green). They spent several
minutes just swimming around the dock as we watched - VERY neat!
Sunday was spent working on hw, doing laundry, shopping for lunch food, and snorkeling for about an hour.
Overall a really great week! Today started class, "Political Ecology",
which will be from 9-12pm everyday. I'm still working on my service work
at GAIAS as well as tutoring (which takes quite a bit of prep work). I
think I'm going to be pretty busy for the next three weeks!!
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