The Rain in Spain...

Hi everyone,
I´m starting to think Sunday´s a good day for posting since I tend not to have too much else on so I´ll probably stick to this day to share my latest adventures with you - not that I´ve got that much longer left before I finish this job!

On Monday I had my normal work schedule followed by Spanish class. We had a couple of new students joining us including another German student and a lass from Japan - it´s great to get such a mix although it´s a little funny now hearing the Cypriats disscusing things in Greek on one side and the Germans on the other while the rest of us stick to English and Spanish.
After class I met up with the regular Friday night pintxos group for dinner since one of the girls was going back to the US. We had a nice evening and I had a good laugh watching most folk struggle through the giant burgers on offer at the bar we ate at - literally the burger was about the size of the dinner plate and stood a good five inches high! I kept to a plate of chips since there were no other veggies to share one of these giant sandwiches with but I was happy enough with that.

Waiting next to this guy outside the Guggenheim for the rest of our group

Not a whole lot happened on Tuesday as I spent the majority of my work time just trying to get Isa to speak/play with me but I got a good amount of studying done in the afternoon and spent some time getting a few more things organised for Uni this year. I also had to order a new pair of shoes since my 4 year old baseball boots decided to split right around the back of the heel - typical that they waited unitl I was away to do this,

It seems Isa decided she was happy playing on Wednesday and we spent a good part of the morning playing and blowing bubbles in the garden while the cats tried to catch them - it´s days like this when I really enjoy my summer job,
By early afternoon the weather had changed so it was a rather cool walk to the metro for class. It turned out the two Cypriat girls were finishing their lessons that day so we said our goodbyes at the end an extra interesting lesson where we got to look at some other Spanish speaking countries in South America.
In the evening I had a phone call from the other half which was great but as always left  me missing home a little more than usual.

Bubbles in the garden 

Rain and a cold wind on thursday meant swimming lessons weren´t an option but since it would have been the teacher´s last day before he went off to study in Chile he came by for a quick visit and to say goodbye which was pretty nice of him.
My afternoon was spent doing some online research and starting to plan things for getting work when I get back to the UK in just over a month.

Friday was still a bit cold and damp and it seemed Isa´s mood corresponded to the weather for most of the morning. My knees were also pretty stiff from the change in weather so it was pretty quiet on both sides.
I spent a fair bit of time in the afternoon trying to repair my shoes until the new ones arrive - sewing through the canvas was easy enough but stiching onto the rubber edging was something I´d want to do again anytime soon - stabbed by self with the needle far too many times - however it seems to be holding ok.
Later in the afternoon everyone piled in the car, Chinese teacher and her kid included, and went to get a meal out. As the teacher was heading off on holiday at the weekend it was sort of a ´have a nice summer´ meal which was a nice idea. Unfortunately the ´restaurant´ of choice was a rather well known American fast food chain which I won´t eat in so I sat and waited while the kids ate until it was time to go and meet my friends for pintxos.
We had a good night out and after spending some time with one of the new girls in my class and another new student from Norway I rejoined the usual group. Seeing a couple of lads who clearly weren´t Spanish standing nearby one of the lasses decided to bring them into the group and I had to laugh when we dicovered they were actually from Newcastle! They stuck with us for the rest of the evening but when everyone else decided to head off to a club in the same direction as my metro station myself and the two geordies were apparently walking too fast and ended up losing the rest of the group - oops. Instead I went home as planned and the two lads headed off for food.

Making paella - that pan´s about 2 foot wide!

On Saturday there was a big paella festival in Getxo that Emma was going to with her friends and I was invited to come along with them. It looked pretty grey once again and was apparently only 22 degrees so I went out with jeans and a shirt. Typically the weather had totally changed by the time I got there and although I had a vest top under the shirt I could wear I was stuck with the jeans.
Now, I assumed the festival would be a bit like a mini local fair and while the main focus would be the paella competition there would also be the Spanish equivelant of best jam and cake bakes - I was totally wrong. Instead it seemed that groups of people had pitches spreading all over the field where they would cook their paellas on campfires while loud, drunk fiesta-goers roamed around to the sound or various stereos blasting out the latest and greatest tunes from Spain, the UK and the USA - not a single jam jar or potted plant in sight.
We had a good time and although I still find it a little odd to be hanging out with 17 year old Spanish kids we had a good laugh and we all got a bit of launguage practice in too.
We ended up eating out with Emma and Adam´s dad instead of at the fiesta since Emma´s boyfriend was doing the first proper meet-the-dad-day. The food was great with prawns and salad and such, and allow I proved I´m still hopeless at fish it was a really good meal and a nice break away from the heat of the afternoon sun.
My friends from class had planned on meeting me at the fiesta in the afternoon but ended up not coming so after a little more time hanging out with Emma and her friends they split off to find the fluorescent paint everyone seemed to be covered in while I walked back to Sopelana. By this point I´d gotten a bit burnt, not having expected the change of weather but it was a nice walk back along the coastal path.
That evening I had a good long chat with my friend Courtney back home - talked a little about what we´d do when she came out to meet me in Barcelona and after that I had an early night.

Today´s been pretty quiet so far since I´ve mostly been studying and reading.

Well that seems to be all for now anyway - I´m off to read a little more of my book.
I´ll be writing again soon but in the meantime just a little reminder to check out my Facebook page where I sell all the knitwear I make back home. There´s a load of items still for sale and available while I¨m away and I´m taking orders for new items for when I get back to the UK in September. The page is:
 https://www.facebook.com/driftinggipsyswoolcraft

Some of the items I make over on my Drifting Gipsy page

Thanks guys.
Ciao for now!

Fiestas and Fieldtrips

Hi everyone,
So I´m little later than planned with this latest blog post but the back end of this week has been pretty busy!

I went to the pintxos night I mentioned in my last post and luckily some of the people who went last week were there again along with a few new faces. This week the food provided for us was a really tasty looking paella however I´m keeping to the veggie (pescatarian) food over here so instead I got some really good battered fish pieces with salad. After everyone had eaten we split into different groups to do a bit of exploring. Casco Viejo is the old part of Bilbao and has a lot of interesting bars with music and such. We explored and found the street I bought my super cheap hippy clothes from. Unfortunately one student had had a few too many and we had to cut the night short but we all had a good time and I think I´ve now started making a few friends here - guess that´s what happens when you actually get out and socialise!

After a late start on Saturday I ended up spending the majority of the day studying and getting some work done online. Sunday was much of the same. The family were down in Pamplona for San Fermin (watching the running with the bulls) so I was supposed to stay at home with the older daughter and help look after Isa. Funnily enough though the grandparents who´d stayed overnight never left and before I knew it the parents were home so I guess I wasn´t really needed after all.

Pre-class selfie showing off my dreads

There always seems to be one day a week were tantrums and tears are pretty much now stop - this week it was Monday. After refusing to talk to me for most of the morning and pretending to sleep instead of doing something fun, the serious tantrums started. After swimming I got Isa dressed and tried to put her shoes on. I tried unfastening her shoes to put them on - nope she wanted to keep them fastened and spent 5 minutes trying to do it herself. I tried to get her to put them on the right feet - refusal, tears and the rest of the day was spent with them on the wrong feet. Then she wanted her hair plaited - the problem being she told me in Spanish and didn´t know the English word while I didn´t know the Spanish word - she also wouldn´t mime like she often does in these situations. The crying and shouting ("TRENZA") began so I suggested we go speak to the housekeeper since I couldn´t understand and she would. This made it worse and as I tried to leave the room to find help I ended up with the door slammed repeatedly - sometimes while I was in the way - and almost ended up with a tear in my trousers as she tried to stop me leaving. Eventually I got out and got the housekeeper who sorted it out but what a carry on! She normally understands when I don´t know a word but not that day - however after lunch and some TV she settle and the Chinese teacher arrived so I could rush off to class.

Moving on - there are now four of us in my Spanish class - myself, two girls from Cyprus who are the same age, have the same name and same future work plans (cool coincidence!) and now we have a young German lad in class too. It´s sometimes a little complicated because to go from Spanish to English to German isn´t easy and I have to explain things to him again in clear English after the teacher has done so - her English is great but not always exact when it comes to explaining some things - at least helping teach is reiterating the facts for myself as I do it.

Tuesday was a pretty easy day since Isa was happy colouring her pictures or things I´d drawn for her for most of the morning. I got some studying done in the afternoon and in the evening Marie and I took Isa in her pushchair for a walk to the next town. The walk was about 10km there and back and some of it was pretty rough when we had to go round the steps but the views were pretty awesome and with the heat to contend with it was good exercise.

Great view walking back from Getxo

On Wednesday the swimming teacher was sick and after I made a comment to Marie about maybe taking Isa swimming myself if it was warm enough the housekeeper passed on the comment to Isa and I got stuck in the pool with her. I wouldn´t have minded except it definitely wasn´t warm enough but after it was mentioned to the lass I couldn´t exactly turn round and refuse - never mind.
I had class in the afternoon followed by a wine tasting lesson at the school. It was meant to be a reasonably serious lesson but we all had a good bit of fun and I was pretty happy to find I understood most of what was said considering it was all in Spanish and the guy spoke pretty fast. After the class one of the students said his friend´s band was playing a gig so a bunch of us tagged along much to the surprise and amusement of his friends. They´re called Hotzen and play Indie-Basque music and I think if they only changed their soundman they´d be awesome! Regardless of that though they still sounded great.

Hotzen playing on Wednesday

Thursday was fairly quiet with no swimming this time and after the Chinese teacher showed up in the afternoon I hung out in my room reading and studying before Marie, Isa and I went for another walk - to Sopelana centre this time. When we got back we woke Isa up for dinner but she wasn´t happy about getting up - the sulking and crying returned but after we left her to it I think she realised it wasn´t getting her anywhere so she settled, ate her dinner and went to bed properly.

The swimming teacher was well again by Friday so Isa had her normal lesson then and after lunch got a decent bit of studying done before heading out to the weekly Pintxos evening. This time it was tortilla on the menu (basically a thick omelete with either potato, meat or other ingrediants in it). once everyone had finished our group decided to head out of town to the fiestas in the nearby town of Santurtzi. Seemed like a good idea except it was on the opposite side of the river to where I stay and on a different metro line, however I was assured I could get across the transporter bridge at any time and walk to a station that joined with my metro line so off we went. There were a few complaints about how long it took but once we got there we met a couple of lasses who´d finished studying at the school and headed into the fiesta. There was some decent music in the beginning but then it changed to a young boyband who seemed very much like a rather annoying British one who´s name I´m sre will instantly spring to mind for a few of you and mostly as a band to avoid! A couple of other ones in the group had the same thoughts as me so I spent a good bit of time standing a little way off talking to them while the others danced and sung along when they knew the words. It´s how I got talking to a pretty cool Canadian guy called Sheldon who lived on the other side of the river too.
After a lot of partying from the majority and more spectating for a couple of us Sheldon and I finally gave up and headed home but after all the fuss with some of the group getting lost with another´s bag and people falling over and other people getting lost again I only got home around 6am - not something I have any intention of doing again any time soon. Since I´d really only had a couple of drinks I was pretty much dead on my feet while the others were fueled by drink and once I got home I only had about an hour to sleep.

Impressive old church tucked away in the corner

Saturday was the day I´d got bus tickets to go to San Sebastian! After a sleepy hour and a half on the bus I wandered around for a while trying to remember the sites I´d seen on my last brief visit. By 12.30 I was really hungry and found a great sandwhich shop in the old part of town so I could sit outside and eat looking out on the beach. In the afternoon I spent a little time with everyone else on the sand basking in the sun but it was pretty hot by this point and I decided to leave and find some shade instead. There was a pretty cool (apparently) Irish bar I found along the way and after a quick talk to the guy behind the bar - me in Spanish, him in English as is normal - I got some mint tea and a glass of ice so I could make iced tea. I chilled out there for a good part of the afternoon before wandering a little more and heading for the bus. I did think about walking up to either the viewing point on one side of the bay with the large Jesus statue or the one on the opposite side with the old fairground but at 32 degrees it was left for another time.  After helping a young Lithuanian lass get her ticket sorted and find her bus I caught my own and slept most of the way back.
In the evening I had a nap, then headed up for dinner before going back to sleep properly.

Hanging out at the beach

Today we´ve been out walking again. My normal shoes are almost completely dead so I was offered a pair of the older sisters trainers - unfortunately they were a bit too small and within 20 minutes on regular pavement I got the first blister I´ve had in I don´t know how many years! I finished the walk in flip flops in the finish even more determined to fix my converse!!

This afternoon I´ve mostly been reading and napping a little - think I´m still a little worn out from Friday´s galavanting!

Well that´s all I´ve got for you for now, time to add some pictures and get back to my book!
Ciao for now.

North East Spain or North East England???

Hi everyone,
I´ve been here in Spain just over a week now and am starting to settle into a decent routine. In the mornings I work looking after the child here (not sure the family would be ok with me using names so I´ll write new ones because saying ´the child´all the time doesn´t seem great - I´ll call her Isa). For anyone who´s interested here´s a rough outline of our schedule. If youre not interested just skip this next bit!

7.30 - get myself ready, breakfast etc and reading until Isa gets up.
9.30 - (approx) Isa gets up, breakfast, TV.
10.15 - drawing/ colouring/ anything else to keep her occupied for the morning.
12.30 - swimming lesson at home.
13.15 - Isa´s lunch usually with cartoons followed by play
14.30 - (approx) everyone else´s lunch
15.00 - Isa´s Chinese lessons (play)
18.00 - Isa´s mum returns, family time
20.00 - Making use of the gym equipment in the house and the pool.
21.00 - dinner

So normally I actually finish working by 15.00 because when the Chinese teacher is here she watches her and only talks to her in Chinese, so my English would just be a distraction.
On Monday´s and Wednesday´s I also have Spanish classes in the afternoon in the city centre so I get the train into Bilbao and back from the village - 15 minutes walk, 40 minute train.

Anyway, so for those who haven´t seen my facebook posts I´ve had a reasonably busy week. Thursday evening was spent with the older daughter (new name: Emma), her boyfriend (he can be Manuel) and one of her friends to take Isa to the park then we went out on their scooters to place out of town to eat nachos).

Looking across the cliffs in Sopelana

On friday I went with Emma and some of her friends to the fiestas in the village. I wanted to stay and have a good time but it takes a surprising amount of effort to try and follow conversation when it´s in a language you only understand a little, when people are all talking at teh same time, and when there´s loud music going too. In the finish I decided to get back but apparently I couldn´t go alone so Emma called her brother (new name: Adam) and he took us both home. It turns out Emma isn´t meant to walk home alone because it might be dangerous - although it doesn´t seem it - but she is only 17 and has bad knees so I guess it´s a good precaution.

Saturday started a little late as I only got up around 8.30 but after a quiet start to the day we went shopping for a birthday party Isa was invited to and I spent the afternoon enjoying the sun and catching up on some reading.

On Sunday I went with the parents (lets call them Marie and Jose) and Isa along with their friends from the South of Spain to explore a couple of places nearby. We went to check out the Puente Vizcaya (which looks a bit like the Transporter Bridge in Middlesbrough) the ate tapas in a couple of bars around the village. There was a football match on so there were quite a few folk out and about which I think made it a little more interesting. After that we drove through some of Bilboa, passing the Guggenheim, and a bridge that looked an awful lot like a minature version of the Millenium Bridge in Newcastle (can anyone spot a common theme here - take the two bridges and the industrial works all along the river and it´s like arriving into a strangley warm version of the North East)!
Anyway after that we went for lunch at the Sociedad Bilbaina. Now as far as I knew we were going to a men´s club which was only open to women on weekends so I figured it might be a little formal and opted for suitable attire - in other words a skirt instead of shorts or jeans. However I didn´t expect the ´grande foyer, the coat taking or the super fancy dining room - good thing my skirt hid my scruffy converse!! After a 3 course meal (which I would have photographed if the place weren´t so formal) we wandered around some of old Bilbao and got coffee at óne of the best places in town´.

Puente Vizcaya

It was back to work as usual on monday following the routine above and in the afternoon Emma took me to Bilbao. Since it was my first trip on the train and first class she showed me what to do and how to get there. Unfortunately we left the house a little late and even on the moto we had to get a slightly later train than planned making me about 10 minutes late for class. However due to a lucky coincidence the Spanish teacher was also late.
There are only two other girls in my spanish classes (both from Cyprus) and we´re all about the same age - even the teacher is only a couple of years older, so it´s pretty relaxed though we  still learn a lot - probably more than if it were a whole class with a teacher just reciting from a book or something like that. So the class went well and on the way back Emma showed me the quickest way to walk to the train so I could go myself on Wednesday.

New book ^_^

Tuesday was more of the same and pretty uneventful although in the evening I went for a walk myself to get some quiet time - who knew one 3 year old could make so much noise - and to explore a little. I wandered along the cliff and got a pretty decent view of the beach and sea below - surfers included. I haven´t actually gotten to the beach myself yet but it´s only cause it always looks too busy for me!

Yesterday we had a bit of a tantrum regarding the TV. It was pretty funny all things considered but the screaming was pretty crazy at the time. Isa had watched an episode of her favourite program - Princess Sofia - and once it had finished she put the same episode on again. Half way through it was decided that she could only have 5 more minutes of TV before she did something else - no problem so far. After the 5 minutes I turned the TV off and chaos ensued - apparently she was really mad at me because she wanted to know how the episode ended and no matter how many times I pointed out that she´d just seen how it ended she wouldn´t stop screaming and crying. Luckily her dad was home at the time so he gave her a good talking to and dealt with it while I kind of just sat there opting to wait until she calmed down, but for a full half hour after she´d stopped crying she just sat in the middle of the floor silently sulking. Now apparently this is perfectly normal especially at her age but I have had literally no experience with toddlers so it´s all new to me.
On another note, while watching the same TV show I did see something pretty funny. There was an episode with some knights entering a competion - it´s in Spanish but I got the basic idea. Now one of the knight was quite clearly Irish (and it´s funny enough hearing Spanish spoken with an Irish accent) but the Irish knight had the Guiness harp on his shield!! Not even something slightly similar - it was the exact image! I had a good little giggle about it anyway.

After class - rainy view of the Teatro Arriaga

After all that carry on I had my second Spanish class in the afternoon. I made it there and back with no problems and explored the area a little before it started. I thought about doing the same after but it started raining so I headed straight back instead.


Ok so today hasn´t been too bad I´m still not getting a lot of English out of Isa. The thing is at her school they only speak English and she understands the language perfectly but we´re trying to get her to speak it and unless you´re asking something simple like "what colour´s the pen" it´s no use. It also means that if she wants to do/play with/find anything instead of telling me she´ll run straight to the house keeper for it - which is a bit frustrating since I´m then left standing around like a spare part with no idea what´s going on. However I´ve not been here long and I´m sure it´ll get better.

Anyway - I´m off to go practice my Spanish some more while it´s quite.
Hasta luego! (see you later)

OOOPS!!

Hi everyone,

Firstly, sorry the text has a weird white highlight, I've spent about an hour trying to fix it but it won't go away! 

I know I'm late in posting again but the weather has made it pretty difficult to maintain power/internet around here all week. I'll be lucky if this even posts!

So Monday was just an ordinary day, went to collect a water sample from the River Pilcopata, worked on updating the VC bird species list and checking that all the latin names were correct, and started working on a VC notice board so everyone could be kept up to date with the going's on here. 

We also had a new volunteer show up from Australia (originally South Africa). 

Tuesday was a little less ordinary. Everything was going fine at the beginning of the morning, until it came to sampling. I was trying to transfer some Formal (formaldehyde solution) into a smaller container to use that day, but because it had one of those caps with only a tiny hole it was taking forever to get any into the other bottle. I had a bit of an impatient moment and tried squeezing the bottle harder, while holding it up to see how full the small bottle was getting. Next thing I know the cap bursts off, formal is spilling everywhere and I can't see. I manage to shout to Heather before the fumes start effecting my throat and in no time at all we piled into the truck and made a hasty dash to the hospital - luckily only a couple of minutes away and fairly quiet. After a lot of cleaning out, a shower and change (cause the stuff was so strong the doctor was starting to feel bad), an IV drip (anti-inflammatory since I got some in my throat) and a whole lot of water I finally got to go back to VC, with a cream thing to put on three time a day. So all in all no lasting damage but I'll definitely be being more careful next time I decided to play with the chemistry set!

Couldn't help but laugh at myself for managing to throw chemicals in my own face

Wednesday was mostly spent recovering quietly in my room and pointedly avoiding all chemicals/things I could fall over/ anything else I could injure myself with. One thing we did do was organise our VC secret santa game. I was meant to go out sampling to make up for missing it the day before but someone had taken the truck elsewhere and we couldn't find it until it was too late.

By the time thursday came around it was absolutely chucking it down but we finally managed to get the truck, and I was in super-careful mode so we finally got out to collect our water sample from the other river for the week. Normally it takes about 15-20 minutes because we're testing part of the sample on site but the weather was so bad we grabbed what we needed then dashed back to VC so I could do my titration experiment there instead. I got a fair bit of studying done in the afternoon and on the evening a small group of us went to the high school graduation party in Pilcopata, since we've done so much work with the community and kids there. It did mean we had to go formal but luckily I managed to borrow a dress and apparently didn't scrub up too badly. The celebration was pretty fun although it didn't finish until around 3am! I also got to try guinea pig there for the first time - I don't know what I expected but it didn't taste all that different to rabbit, just a lot stronger. 

One of the rivers where we go sampling

Friday morning was mostly spent studying/sleeping but on the afternoon we went down to town to buy our secret santa presents. I was given the name of one of the older locals here who works in agriculture. I don't know him that well but I think I got a useful - yet general - enough present that he should like it - we'll find out tomorrow when he gets it. 

I was also 'dragged' out for my first proper night out in the discos in Pilcopata. It actually wasn't really all that bad, we mostly all stuck together and danced in a group although the last hour or so was mostly spent with me trying not to step on any toes while being taught some proper latin dancing, including the cumbia. 

After yet another late night I pretty much did nothing on Saturday, but then again I think everyone else was equally as tired so we all had a rather quiet, sleepy day. Our newest volunteer also left today to go back to Cusco. It's a shame cause she had been planning on staying longer but things just didn't quite work out here. 

Yesterday got off to a pretty slow start but we did all take a trip out to Patria to visit a friend's restaurant which was fun, and the food was amazing. On the off chance any of you ever end up in that busy little village you have to eat at La Rustica! 

The team enjoying a great meal at La Rustica

 Well I guess I should get back to work now, went sampling (successfully) today and after a lot of time not doing much proper work the samples are starting to build up. 

Also next time I speak to you all it will probably be from Cusco, as I'm leaving VC on boxing day. Hopefully I'll have something different to talk about by then! 

Chat soon everyone!!

Festival Fun

Hi everyone,
A bit late once again I know but I just managed to get the next textbooks for my course and got a little distracted with that yesterday!

So in case any of you wondered about last weeks festival it was pretty cool, there was a lot of traditional dances all done in really elaborate costumes, plenty of music and, as you would expect at any festival, the alcohol was certainly flowing. Although I only stuck around for a little while it was really cool to see plus it gave us all an opportunity to snack on some great  Picarones (kind of like sweet potato doughnuts)!

Local dancing

On Tuesday our numbers were once again whittled down when Jimena, Rachel and Dan left. Jimena is coming back to continue her research in January but the others are either going back home or getting back on the road. So that brings our number (minus admin/management/'workers') down to 3. There is a new volunteer supposed to be showing up today but it's so quite around here now!

Rachel, Ricardo and Heather enjoying the festival

Unfortunately there's still very little to do around here. We were given a list of jobs we could work on but a lot of the things listed are just filler jobs which don't really have us jumping with excitment.

One thing we did do this week was go out to help clear a new trail on the other side of the river. We got the boat across early in the morning and a couple of us were quite looking forward to the expected slow pace that comes with hacking routes through the rainforest. However the route was actually pretty heavy going and the machete-ers weren't exactly hanging around. Although I thought it would be fine my knee started to protest pretty early on and, for once, i decided to do the sensible thing and turn back. This did leave me with the predicament of being stuck back on the river bank until they returned - 4 hours later - with no book/journal/other interesting thing to do but eventually, after gaining a good few dozen bug bites plus a burnt face, and losing an earring and


my water bottle (which decided to disappear down the river) the rest of the team finally showed up.

The little friend I made down by the river - got within 3 feet of me

The next mission was to actually get back over the river. The boat wasn't showing up and after about an hour and a half it was decided that we would have to use a different, less powerful boat, which meant getting further upriver so it could reach us and get back without struggling to get back upstream. So after a good half an hour of fast, difficult, trail-less scrambling we finally made it to where the boat could get us and we managed to get back to VC. Unfortunately my knee's still not great so I've been having to take it easy this last few days.

For the rest of my time in VC I'm going to be totally taking over with collecting and processing the water samples needed for the larvae project which is kinda cool, especially using a couple of little chemistry techniques I haven't used since high school. It's going well so far although it's only a couple of times a week.

In other news I got to work planning the rest of my time in Peru since I'll be leaving VC in under 20 days and leaving Peru in just over 40. So far I'm making sure to visit quite a few important sites between Cusco and Lima though I have a few days extra to either plan out or leave free to see what happens. I'm kind of disappointed as I was hoping to make the trip with a friend on his motorbike but with my knee being a cause for concern it wouldn't be a good idea - but maybe next time!

Well that's all I have for you guys this time, probably should get working on some of these water samples now!

Ciao 

Nature walk

Hi everyone,
so I know I'm late...again, but there hasn't been that much to write about lately.

I spent Monday/Tuesday helping process more water samples and looking for eggs and larvae.

On Wednesday the SFS students left. They've been here for an entire semester studying biodiversity and conservation in the Amazon but term finished so we all said our goodbyes and they left to go to Cusco before returning home. The rest of that day was pretty quiet -understandable with only about 6 people only at VC now.

Saying goodbye: Jimena, Rachel, Rachel (the SFS intern), me, Heather

This last few days it's been pretty hot here so we've been spending our afternoons hanging out down by the river trying to stay cool.

On Friday Rachel and I went out for a hike along the trails. We didn't see much but we did spot a few cool birds, and an interesting looking snake. 

This weekend there's an election going on in town, alongside a big festival for the town's patron saint. It was pretty interesting going down there yesterday to see the entire town out on the streets, people dancing, a parade and everyone out enjoying themselves. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures since I forgot to bring my camera along but if this sudden rainstorm moves on I'll go get some pictures later today.

yellow rumped cacique

Well since that's my weekly roundup all ready over here's a brief round up of some of the birds we've seen around here for those of you who are interested: 

- Yellow rumped cacique

- Black vulture

- Scarlet macaw

- Blue and yellow macaw

- Turkey Vulture

- White banded swallow

- Red capped cardinal

- Purple gallinule

- Cocoi heron

- Smooth billed ani

- Barn owl

- Haotzin

- Blue tailed emerald 

- Common poto

- Sunbittern

- Spix's guan

- Blue grey tangier

- Caped heron

- Black tailed trogon

- Cobalt winged parakeet

- Black faced Dacnis

and many, many more - some of which I haven't been able to identify yet. 

Blue grey tangier

So it sounds like the rain's stopped - think I'll go head down to the festival. 

Speak to you all again soon!