I was in the 2nd horse-riding group and figured out really quickly that I could not take my camera on the ride, which was sad. That is why there aren’t a lot of pictures in this post. My horse was named Chile and looked very displeased to have a 280lb man sitting on it’s back. I was a little nervous at first but quickly figured out how to balance and that I had to be assertive with the horse. We went on a long trail down to the San Luis River (which was beautiful). There was one stretch of trail that was somewhat flat and straight where the horses decided to take off and gallop. I figured out really quickly that I liked galloping better than trotting. Trotting hurt. My horse decided to be lazy along the way and would always go off on the side of the road and grab food as it walked. Chile also stopped in the river for a drink; I figured he must be thirsty from carrying me so I let him drink. We crossed the river on horseback and basically went back the way we came. I kind of like horse riding and would definitely do it again.
Doug told us last night that we had to pack today, before we went to our home stays, but since lunch wasn’t far away I decided I would wait until after lunch to pack. Oh, I forgot to mention that there were eggs with breakfast today. They were quite yummy. Lunch was nothing special. I went to pack afterward. We put all of our stuff in Doug and Linda’s room and Cameron took us off on the hour walk down to our home stays. An hour down hill sucks, I would almost rather go up hill because the downhill was hard on my knees.
Luckily, we got to go to our home stays in groups and I was in the group of three (Chris, Henry and I). I talked to Cameron a lot on the way there about all sorts of random stuff. He is a really nice guy; I wish I had gotten his email or something so that I could keep in touch with him.
On the way to our home stays I snapped this picture.
Chris, Henry and I were assigned to stay with Lelo and his family. Apparently Lelo and his brothers owned all of the land on this side of the mountain, which was pretty cool I guess. We got to the house and only the mother, daughter and cousin were there. I never found out what the mother’s name was, but the daughter was Natalia and the cousin was Emily. It was awkward at first but that quickly dissolved when we kind of figured out how to communicate. The mother told us that we were going to go to where they milk cows at four, when Lelo came home.
Eventually four rolled around, Lelo came home (he ended up being the same guy who took us on the horse ride), and we went to the area where they milked cows.
After we walked through the gate we saw the tilapia farm and everyone else in our group standing on a hill (well, except for Hudson and Jason).
The tilapia farm was a neat series of ponds.
We mostly hung out, played with the kids and some of us watched Lelo tend to the cows. James, Caitlin and I went into the milking station where Lelo was feeding all of the calves. James made a friend.
Caitlin saw James petting the calf and she came over to join. The calf started sucking on her fingers.
A while later we had had enough of the calves, we went back outside where everyone in the group was playing with the kids.
Lelo decided that he was going to talk us on a little tour of everyone’s farm. We started walking and eventually ended up at a barn with a big ring in the middle and a bunch of roosters in cages on the side. Lelo was trying to explain something to James when it hit me; this ring was for cock fighting. Apparently Lelo and his brothers liked it a lot. I explained that to everyone else and we went on. The group stopped at a large tree where Lelo grabbed a big stick and started knocking fruit out of the tree. Apparently they were mangos, but they didn’t look or taste like any mangos I had ever eaten.
They tasted kind of like sour apples that were really crunchy. They were good, just different.
After that everyone parted ways and we went back to Lelo’s house. I got this picture of the sunset before we went inside.
Chris, Henry and I followed Lelo around as he showed his house and that he had his own network of tilapia ponds. His house and property were really beautiful. His son Ocksan came home (Chris insists that his names was Yocksan, but I stayed in his room and Ocksan was hanging on the wall) and we started fishing. Ocksan was a really stock, muscular guy, unlike his father who was tall and skinny. We started fishing for dinner and I caught one right off the bat. I pulled it in and Lelo handed it to me to take up to the house. The second Lelo let go the fish started fluttering around and I dropped it and we chased it as it flopped back into the pond. I told Lelo I was really sorry, he said it was no big deal and I went back to fishing. I didn’t catch another fish, but somehow we ended up with 3 fish. That wasn’t enough so Lelo broke out the net and caught a few more fish pretty easily.
Chris, Henry and I waited around a bit and then they started cooking. We could tell that the dinner was going to be awesome because all they were doing to the fish was gutting them, battering and then frying them. I was totally right. The fish were awesome.
After dinner we all just kind of hung out and talked. It was mostly Chris, Henry, Ocksan, Emily and the daughter Beatriz hanging out. The parents came in and out but they went to be pretty early. Natalia, as far as I can tell, went to bed right after dinner. Here is a picture of Chris posing with Ocksan.
Here is the family, except for Natalia because she was in bed.
A little later Chris and I discovered that Beatriz was a big fan of Ska, which is one of our (Chris and I) favorite genres of music. We all sat around and traded off Ska for a while.
Eventually the party died down. We were all tired and had to get up early, so we all went to bed.
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