Orange Sky

 This weekend turned out good although we didn't attempt to do too much. Deb's class is still down here from the University and they were going up to a place called El Clato. It's a bit like a National Park, where large land tortoises can roam around with minor disturbances from people. It's located really close to Santa Rosa up past Bellavista in the western highlands.It is a huge place with freshwater lagoons that sit stagnat with bogs. All of us guys decided to get up and go to the market Saturday morning which took a bit longer than expected so we missed a free ride with Deb and her class. But we were able to get fifty cent cheese empanada's and fresh fruit for the week so not to much of a loss there. We have another rack of 50 or so bananas which are now riponing faster than we can eat them...




We grabbed a cab ourselves and Marcel our driver had a lead foot to get there. We didn't think Deb's group had even came because there was no one in sight along the 3 mile dirt road we were crusing along. Before allowing our day turn into another Los Gemelos day, we asked him to wait but instead of being a bum in the car he wanted to come with for a hike. He later proved the fact you can hike in mud with dress up loafers on...This place was like some Garden of Eden place with passion fruit growing along the trail as well as invasive, yet yummy orange/limes. We didn't expect to see much because the forest was extremely thick. Now I can see how the Chiliean guy got lost for 6 days about a two weeks ago. As the trails opened up we started stumbling upon massive tortoises. These had to of weighed over 450 pounds. As we pass by them at a respectable distance they were not to fond of our visit. As they compress their lungs to fit in their heaping shells they make this extremely distinct noise that I swear producers mimicked for the role of Darth Vader. They sound like their about to chase you and rip your head off but 450 pounds of intimidation is all talk. We ended up hiking through the thick of it past tortoises, through giant mud holes, over bogs, and the whole works. Not quite what we expected but thats the fun part.

Afterwards Marcel had no problem with us sitting in the back of his truck. So as we are driving through this grown over tree tunnel as were picking limes from over hanging trees...epic moment. Then we came upon some random lady who was picking oranges, she insisted we each pay three dollars for looking at the tortoises...Definitely a scam but we didn't argue to cause an issue and she ended up giving us 15 oranges which was probably worth the money anyways.

Didn't do too much else except watch community for a few hours to feel normal again. Then went over to kioskos to grab some grub.

Sunday funday consisted of a whole lot of relaxation. It was heavily based on episodes of community and eating chocolate buns. Our internet and electricity have been shotty lately...not sure why but the whole towns electricity went out on Saturday mid-convo with Rach. Not cool. and then both the stations and what im now calling internet cafe #1 didn't work either...so again this place has a case of the hiccups. But Sunday night turned out good it was great chatting with Rachel. big day. I'll leave it with that. Sadly, I was sleeping by the time a man in his 70's should be in bed...

Back at work here I am anticipating some things from Henry tomorrow. He said he has alot of maps to be made which would be great. On top of that Chema and myself were asked to create a workshop for other people at the station on the freeware GIS program QuantumGIS.