NRES 285/ 499

Hello there, Steph here (for those of you who don't want to flip back to the first few pages). Week 1 comes to a close with a plethora of awkward "caught at the wrong time" comments, Spanglish and other interesting facts (apparently guys just should drown when they get married--don't ever try and second guess your wife). But, I digress-and like to make extremely compound sentences so don't plan on taking many breaths for this passage.



Sleeping on cots has been better than expected this week--more comfortable, but I still get nervous about waking up with a scorpion or spider in my bed. As ironic as it is, I am disappointed at the lack of seeing a tarantula, but I have seen some ridiculous spiders on this trip!

Today was our first free day filled with tejido-ing and palm roofing, river/ canyon swimming, hiking, birding, eating (always so much eating!), horseback riding, and your general outdoor merriment activities. I was disappointed I missed out on the birding, but I didn't realize the coffee top didn't stay on and spilled an entire new pot of coffee ALL OVER THE FRESHLY WASHED PLATES AND TABLE. Well done! I assume Maria and Juana were thinking "stupid gringa," but were very nice about it--better the plates than the food right?



Tejido-ing was an interesting experience-it was really cool to be part of the process (shaving the spines off the palm leaf, tying two palms together, and then realizing that our palms were getting untied and retied to the roof anyways) and it was much more difficult than anticipated. I'm also convinced that about two minutes after we're gone tomorrow, all of the one row of completed roof will be redone. At least we tried? I feel another "silly gringos" (Trix is for kids!) coming on.

Zack, Arun, Jeff (kind of, he was a speed mountain walker), Nick and I walked up the mountain which was a harder hike than I anticipated, but it was beautiful and it was nice not getting picked and prodded by the hookers of the woods. We met Felix, Alejandro, Tony, Bryan, Christa, Robert and his family, Nathan, and Stephanie at the top of our viewpoint. Crystal enjoyed a frigid lake swim, and las aras chicas (Kaitlynn, Lenna, Corrin, and Julie) headed to the canyon for just as cold of a bath. Joe also joined the girls....he brought the nail polish and enjoyed the girl talk (I actually have no idea--except he did have some serious cuts on his arms coming back--girls are vicious).

Ramon, Nathan, and I had the opportunity to ride horses and mules back down the mountain, and my mule was sassy--he was slow! It turned out that slow was better for the rocks we were going up and down though--I am in no mood for a broken leg. As I'm sure Zack can contest--speaking Spanish has its advantages when you are speaking about another person, much like Ramon and I were doing for a brief moment about Nathan.

The rest of the evening was filled with appetizers and a full 3-course meal as per usual--and it was all delicious! I've enjoyed getting thrown into our NRES version of MTV's the Real World with meeting and getting to know all of my classmates (teary-eyed yet?) and know that what happens in Mexico best not stay in Mexico because I expect a reunion at las casas de Lenna y Crystal in Champaign on Feb. 2nd for tortillas--and I will definitely be sharing stories from this trip with my friends! And I'm spent.


P.S. I have to send a shout out to Julie for an absolutely lovely walk to our Lady of Guadalupe this morning--a lovely view with a lovely lady! (It's called a sistance (which we later modified to womance after conferring with Corrin) and it rivals the bromance.

P.S.S. An extra special anecdote from Joe who loves the fact that the bathrooms have no roof, so he can star gaze at night or bird watch during the day. Charming.--Stephanie L.

photos from Stephanie L., Nathan S., and Bryan E.

video from Bryan E.