15 Mexican Minutes

So today was my last day at the clinic in La Barra.  The doctor said to me, oh, you should go with the nurse to go see the lagoon.  I was like, cool, how far is it.  She said, 15 minutes.  Well, it turns out 15 minutes in Mexican means 2.5 hours there and back.  I thought I was going to die.  It was so far, and so hot, and I had nothing - no sunscreen, no water, no money, NOTHING.  I had to walk there over a bridge that had a median like a foot wide (with buses flying by me), and the way back he told me was shorter to walk THROUGH the river, so I was like, yes please.  I doubt it was shorter.  But I got to walk through a river so that was cool.  I'm totally sunburnt now, and started crying out of despair on the bus ride back from the clinic, but now it seems funny and totally like an adventure.  My photos from the 15 minute walk are here...you can see the bridge I had to cross and the river (which, ok, admittedly only had like five inches of water in it and was really pretty), and my beautiful sun burn.

I'm writing this blog from my favorite little cafe (CasaChoc - Andy was here :), sitting in the shade and drinking an iced coffee.  I come here most afternoons before my Spanish class to catch up on email, etc.  A couple new observations: we have a mango tree in our yard that's literally dropping fresh mangos to the ground all the time.  I asked my house dad about it and he showed me where a long stick thing is to pick my own if I ever want to.  So that's cool - fresh mangos in my yard.  Speaking of my house dad, it is so funny, because his uniform everyday is 'shirtless with board shorts'.  I've never seen him in anything else.  What a life, seriously.  Every morning I watch my house mom leave to go to the beach for an hour from 7 AM to 8 to go get her surfing in for the day.  The entire family compound is all about SURF.  There are boards everywhere, the uncle even has a surfboard repair shop right next door.  Pretty awesome really.

K, off to Spanish class now, and then going to watch the Puesta del Sol (sunset :) with my aussie friend, Jade.  Hopefully some good photos to load from that.  Tomorrow morning I'm trying my hand at surfing again, so I can fit in with mi familia :).  I told my family today at lunch how happy I am to be staying with them.  I was like totally dorking out with tears in my eyes, all sentimental and probably really just completely fried and dehydrated from my 'walk', but it was sweet nonetheless.  They said they were really happy to have me too. :)