| Tuesday, June 10, 2003 |
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yup, i rock the casbah. i finished a case study on a honey co-op, revised the one on the organic coffee growers, and wrote up a work plan to submit to the powers that be over here. yay me! good thing i had a weekend off at the beach to slough off some of the work bitterness i'd been feeling. i'm back on the horse! YEEHAW!
so, the beach. me, J, and Cynthia, the kickass chick from Montreal (who's leaving!! UG!!) left friday morning. due to mountainage, it sorta takes half the day to get to the coast from here, even tho it's prolly about 100km. it makes for this wonderful, winding, meandering trek through dusty, scrubby, cactus dotted scenery which i absolutely love. we had a quick stop in Melaque, which is a more touristy beach town, had something to eat, and caught a bus to la Manzanilla, which is much smaller and less gringo-filled. we get off the bus, walk about half a block and are faced with a rickety wire fence and a sign warning us to watch out for 'caimanes'. ALLIGATORS!! just our luck, not only do we spot one right away (seems they often like to hide out in the water), but at least a dozen are beached in the little alcove below the fence. even a few with mouths wide open!! it was awesome! they're *so* beautiful. once we were able to tear ourselves away from the sight (and the smell!! people like to throw them all sorts of fish so stinky bits get left all over the shore :P ) we kept walking over to the 'ecological campground' which sits right on the beach. it's really small and is run by Don George, who's this awesome old dude greets everyone with a 'Welcome to Paradise!' turns out he came down here for a vacation some twenty years ago and just plum decided to stay. he's got himself a trailer, a little campground, a chunk of beach and an admirable posse of strays, including the friendliest dogs ever and this psycho little kitten with fur that's a swirl of white and orange marmalade. and chickens!! sand chickens!! they just wander around on the shore, it's great :)
on friday we had the beach to ourselves, which was amazing, and on saturday we got a busload of mexicans on a day trip. but they left by late afternoon and the beach was ours again. Mario, who goes to school with us and who met us down there took me out in a kayak to check out this coral reef that was about 40min away, near one of the mountains. all i can say is beautiful. absolutely beautiful. i'm not the strongest swimmer and since there was a bit of a current i stayed closer to the shore, so i missed the little octopus that Mario saw (DAMMIT!) but the coral and all the little brightly coloured fish were frightfully exciting. we definitely have to get out there again, if we can only find someone else to lend us a tent, as Cynthia procured the one we had this time.
and yes, there was some definite tannage :) i'm kicking myself for not taking pics of Jamie impersonating a lobster....ha! luckily i only got a little burnt and don't think i'll be peeling. yay!! which means i'm looking that much more mexican. i get really excited when people think i'm mexican :) cuz i'm a big geek. now that i've gotten over that newly-arrived-starry-eyed look, even when i'm out with J, who they always assume is not from here, they sometimes ask if i'm mexi or not. now if i can just find me a mexican man i'll be set ;) |
posted by tatjana @ 11:33 p.m.   |
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