It has been a week since I have written on the blog. I tried doing it last week but the internet was down at school. I am sorry. Since the last time I wrote, I went on this thing called the Teleferrico. It is basically the world’s longest and highest cable car. At the top it was snowing, so that was pretty cool. It was about 15000 feet above sea level at the highest peak. It was pretty cool to see. All of us that went on the Teleferrico walked to a town that was about 6 hours away from the 3rd stop. It was a long hike through the Andes Mountains but a really beautiful hike. We saw a lot of gorgeous scenery. We saw waterfalls, rivers and beautiful vegetation. It was a blast. The town we stayed at was basically a town full of different places to sleep. We got there kind of late so we basically ate dinner and spent the night in the town. We woke up and rent a ride back to Merida. The ride was in a cramped jeep on a one lane road on the side of the mountain. It was pretty freaky at times but really amazing to see. That was basically Saturday, June 19th and Sunday, June 20th. When I came home I had to do my homework which was basically to write a paper about my trip. It was pretty easy. But once Monday hit, I had to go to class for 6 hours again. I know pretty awesome. But Monday night we were suppose to have a North American cooking night but it got postponed because they forgot to by the chicken wings. I was kind of bummed but they said they would do it Tuesday night instead. So Monday night, Kim, Hannah, Jill and I had some pretty expensive pizza from a local pizzeria. The bill cam e to about 50 dollars for 2 large pizzas. Some ordinary things here seem super expensive. It was pretty good pizza though.
Tuesday, I had to go to class once again. Another 6 hours, what a blast. Can you tell that I am kind of getting sick of classes? They are just so intense for such a long period of time but I will be grateful when I am done because I will be done with my foreign language requirement. Yay! After class, I hung around school for the North American cooking night. The guy that was grilling the chicken came over and asked me to come and check out the chicken to see if it was done. So I went over there to check and told him it looked done and I asked him if he needed any help since I love to grill out. He said sure and I basically grilled all the chicken for everyone that came to the thing. It was definitely a highlight of mine since one thing I really miss is grilling out. So, I was so excited for it. But then I had to go home and study for my exam. My exams are usually on Thursdays but this week we don’t have class on Thursday since it is a holiday. So my exam was on Wednesday. So I went home to study and actually woke up early to study as well. I went to class took my exam and sat through the rest of class. It wasn’t that bad because I figured that it was the last day of the week and then I get to go on my 4 day safari trip. Which I was super excited about. So after class, I basically hung out and just chilled around school. After school, I went home kind of early because I needed to pack and get ready for the weekend. Oh wait, I did go to a restaurant with some friends from school. It was a place I wanted to try. It was really good but pretty expensive so we share a couple of things since we all didn’t want to spend that much money but we were still hungry so we went to another place we all wanted to try called La Nota. It is basically the Venezuelan form of McDonalds. It was pretty good because they had 8 different kinds of sauces and one of them was blue. It was pretty good but I was way more excited for the real ketchup they had there. I know the little things that I miss from back home. I am so craving the food from back home. It is crazy. I am basically putting together a list of places that I want to go eat when I get home. I know kind of nerdy but I really miss a lot of things from back home.
Well after that night, I basically got up at 6:00 am Thursday morning to make breakfast for my host family and some of the people that were going on the trip. I was so craving North American food, I have to specify because I am in South America, and so I made some French toast with scrambled eggs. It was good and my host family actually had maple syrup. It was delicious but not as delicious as back home. It definitely was not as good as the French toast my girlfriend makes but it was still good for what I had to work with here. After we ate breakfast we had to leave for the place we were going. We had to meet all the other people that were going on the trip at the Extreme Adventures place at 8 am. The people I know on the trip were Kim, Hannah, another Hannah and Melissa from the school I go to. Some other people that went on the trip that we met where a guy named Andy that was travelling around South America for the last 8 months, a Belgium couple and a couple from Norway that didn’t speak any Spanish. It was really fun to meet all of them.
So the first night we were there, the guide took us out on a walking safari and told us he would catch caimans and snakes for us that night since it was a good time to catch them. Caimans are smaller crocodiles for all you people that might not know what they are. He caught one and brought it to us to touch and see. It was really cool and interesting. I also think he caught a couple of snakes and possibly some other animals that night. It was a lot of fun. The next day we went on a boat safari to go find other animals. On this trip, we saw iguanas, anacondas, other snakes, lots of turtles, pink dolphins, lots of different birds and some red monkeys. The guide actually caught an anaconda that I spotted in a tree. It was a small female but he caught it and brought it into the boat for all of us to touch. He also tried to catch anther snake and an iguana but the fell into the boat and got away right away. It was funny because everyone basically jumped and he kind of laughed at us because we could have tipped over the boat. After that, we went on another safari by jeep. We saw the largest rodent in the world. I don’t remember what it was called but we saw a ton of them, other snakes, more birds and actual crocodiles. He actually caught a crocodile and a really huge anaconda that day. I will try and get pictures up but that might take me awhile. I will for surely have them on facebook by the end of the week. We got to touch the croc and the anaconda. It was cool. The next day was Saturday and it was raining pretty hard that day and we were supposed to go horseback riding in the morning but instead we went piranha fishing. It was pretty cool but super tough. Those little fish are smart and hard to catch. The whole group caught 6. I didn’t catch any. I was kind of bummed but it was a fun experience. After that we went back and had lunch and they cooked up the piranhas for us. They were pretty good but tough to eat because they had a lot of bones in them. Oh well, it was fun to try something new. The next day, Sunday, July 29, we went to another camp where they offered whitewater rafting. Oh my, that was so much fun. The camp we went to was beautiful in itself but I loved whitewater rafting. I might just do it as much as I can, that is how much fun it was. We almost didn’t get to go rafting because our guide said that the lady at the booking place said that we didn’t want to do it but we told her specifically we did. So he hooked us up with going and it was the best time of the trip.
Every day we were on the safari, in the area called Los Llanos, we had amazing food for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Also every night we listened to the local folklore music. It was so much fun. We slept in hammocks in a building that basically looked like a circus tent inside. It was a great time except the bugs/mosquitoes were pretty bad every night around 7 pm so we didn’t stay up too late. I am glad that I went on it. Everybody that went on it said they had an amazing time.
We arrived back in Merida around 7 or 8 pm Sunday night. I was so beat and sore from the horseback riding and the whitewater rafting that I basically had some dinner and went straight to bed. I woke up early the next morning to do my homework. I was still sore Monday night from all of it but it was so worth it. But Monday, I had to go back to class. Oh well, that means that means that there is less class days left for me. I am kind of excited for my 6 hour class to be done with. I am having a pretty fun time here but I am ready to be done with the class. After my class, I went to get coffee with some friends here. It was basically going to get an iced coffee because I miss having some coffee from home and some others wanted to go try it as well. So we went to do that and after that we went back to school to figure out the plans for the night. A few of us decided to have a homework party so we could get our homework done so we don’t have to worry about it any more. Basically for me it is writing a 2 page paper in Spanish about the culture and my trip to South Africa and put a presentation together about the culture there as well. They are both due next week so if I can get them done this week then I don’t have to worry about them. So, I thought that was a good idea. I basically got about a page done on my paper but I will finish that tomorrow and start working on my presentation tomorrow. I only have those 2 things left and one more test. Wow, I am almost done with it. Ok well, I believe that is the most important stuff from the last week. If you have any questions, feel free to post on my blog and I will try and respond as soon as possible. Hope all is well for everyone. I will be home soon. I miss you all.
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