We started out the day with a hike out from Fisherman’s beach up the side of a mountain. All of us agreed that the previous hike on Tuesday better prepared us for the steep incline at the beginning of our hike, but we had to take three breaks on the way uphill to regain our strength. These stops were definitely an opportunity to take many pictures on the side of the cliffs overlooking the waters. Our lead instructor Bernardo gave many interesting facts about the local wildlife and the consequences of the local industrialization of the area. However, the majority of the landscape remained untouched and strewn with agave and cacti. After about two hours and two hills, Grace, Maddy, and Eryn had drank so much water they were all in need of a “nature pee” as Kellie would say. After the girls had their moment with nature, all of us were at the beach and ready to cool off in the water. Our Eco-Adventure counselors brought us a fantastic picnic lunch on the black-sanded beach with guacamole, tostadas, taquitos and melons before some of us started walking into the water. Once we all piled back into the vans, we met up at the Community Center one last time before splitting up into our volunteer groups. One group helped Julio finish building a greenhouse at a local family’s home by digging planting beds under the structure. The lady we built the greenhouse for was very sweet and generous, providing us with both lemonade and guacamole with chips. The other half of our group worked at a local school, building an outdoor couch and helping repair the outdoor kitchen. As resources were limited, they started to build the couch out of tires, recycled bottles, wire, cement, and clay. Because the kitchen was ruined from a previous hurricane, the group made clay to put on and assemble the walls of it. Afterwards, Brenna, Eryn, Talia, Kellie, Caroline, Maasai, and Christie all decided to buy shirts to help support Inez and her wonderful organization. Between both of these activities, the girls learned a lot about what it meant to work hard and be resourceful with what you have. Once we all reconvened at the hotel for a little while, we headed back into town to have a delicious dinner at a local restaurant for our last night on the mainland. After Bernardo gave us the run-down for tomorrow’s trip to Island Espiritu Santo, we talked and bonded before turning in for the night.
Fantastic Day Four!
Bienvenidos! Today, the Baja crew endured a lot of driving. We started off the day by leaving at 9 and driving for 1.5 hours along a rural dirt road that was very bumpy (and ended with many people feeling carsick.) After driving through a beautiful canyon, we finally arrived at our destination: POTTERY! Our host, Dona Ramona, is a skilled maker who has been working on pottery for 48 years after she received a clay oven as a wedding present. She has made many beautiful clay animals and bowls, and as we all got our own clay, many modeled their creations after hers. This included Brenna making a swan, Caroline making a spoon, and Kellie making a dragon. Mr. Calmeyer even made a surfer man, complete with a wave! After we washed the clay off our hands, we lined up to learn how to make tortillas from the pro, Grita. We learned how to stretch out the dough and throw it on the oven, and afterwards enjoyed our delicious creations. Lunch was soon after, with tamales, rice, beans, and more tortillas. After lunch we packed up the vans and headed to volunteering. Half of the group went to the school, and the other half helped build a greenhouse in the orchard. At the school, we found many scorpions, continued building the couch of tires, and played with the kids. However, the highlight of the trip was Rachel and Natalie making clay with their feet. The clay was made of clay deposit from the river, sand, and you guessed it… horse poop. After this fun experience, we washed up at the hotel and headed to dinner, where we cooked our own food. We had homemade chips and guacamole, fresh veggies, and fish and rice. While eating our delicious meal, Mariachis showed up! We quickly ate and proceeded to have a dance party for an hour. After wearing ourselves out, we drove back to the hotel. Now everyone is exhausted and heading for bed as we prepare for a 3.5 hour hike tomorrow. Adios! WE’RE ALIVE! After 15 hours of travelling, we began our first day with a delicious breakfast provided by our bed & breakfast. With an assortment of fruits, cereals, Mexican style breakfast foods, pancakes, and waffles we filled up ready for our morning surf lesson. Maasai had Chilequilles, a Mexican style breakfast nacho, while Nicole had Belgian waffles. After breakfast, we packed into 3 vans and headed to Cerritos for our surfing adventure. Ashley, Kelsey, Nicole, Talia, Grace, Maddy, Lydia, Christie, Brenna, Eryn, and Aron were the brave first group of surfers. With a little help of some local professionals, they successfully caught their first wave within a few tries. At the same time, Rachel, Olivia, Iris, Caroline, Charlotte, Natalie, Maasai, Chris, and Kellie went with our tour guide Stephanie to check out some tide pools and take pictures with the high tide. After what felt like 4 hours, the two groups switched. We ate another yummy lunch on the beach which consisted of pasta, potatoes, Ceviche, chips, chicken, and of course hibiscus water, and relaxed on the beach for another hour. Side note: baby powder is great to bring to the beach because it takes off sand. Following our beach trip, we began our volunteer work with a local community. For the next three hours, we were split into two groups to help dig holes. One group of 10 went to a local school where we began our project of building an outdoor couch made out of recycled tires and plastic bottles. Our next mission is to restore a kitchen for the school, which had been destroyed by a hurricane in the recent years. Both groups dug holes, as the other half of the Baja crew were digging in the dirt for irrigation systems in an orchard. After a full day of outdoors, we returned to our hotel ready to shower, food, and sleep. Fortunately, since it was only 6 o’clock, once we ate hot dogs, chips, salad, and s’mores by the campfire, we revived for card games and laughing about on our first day in Baja. Signing off, we are getting ready to climb to the top of the waterfall during our three hour hike in the morning!
Uh oh...we're having too much fun. The plane ride was interesting, to say the very least. Rachel and Olivia had the honor of sitting next to a woman, vomiting into a plastic bag for almost the entire duration of the flight. Fortunately, all of the San Diego crew had seats in the front of the plane and avoided the rowdiness of college spring breakers. The San Francisco crew was not as lucky. Spread throughout the plane, students were stuck between the spring breakers or other random people looking forward to their trip to Cabo. Ashley described how she sat next to a man wearing the exact same thing as her (black skinny jeans with holes, black wash t-shirt, black watch, black beads) but couldn't bring herself to mention the coincidence. Almost everyone immediately fell asleep on the plane, making the short flight even shorter! Everyone breezed through customs and had a safe bus ride to our new casa. While the San Diego plane was slightly delayed, Maasai, Charlotte, Natalie, Iris, Chris, Ashley and Nicole got to lounge around by the pool and have first dibs on their rooms. Beautiful rooms with hand painted tiles, a deep blue pool and Jacuzzi and a view of the ocean are only a few of the amazing amenities at this casa. Dinner at the Hotel California was delicious and couldn't be better topped off than with the rich chocolate cake. Stephanie, Bernardo, Leo, Alan are among the staff that will be helping us along our Baja journey. Now we're off to sleep with the sound of waves in our ears. Can't wait for surfing tomorrow morning! Signing off from our first great day.
And so it begins!! Though we have all been awake since 3 am, we are feeling grrreat! Nothing an iced coffee and some Parmesan goldfish can't fix. Sleep deprived, Eryn unfortunately sat in the wrong terminal for roughly 15 minutes before realizing she was sitting alone, but she finally found us and we departed LAX. Around 7 AM, the San Diego crew said goodbye to the crew traveling to San Francisco. The San Diego crew chilled in the airport for 30 minutes and boarded the plane. Our flight went off without a hitch. The entire cabin was silent, expect for the 13 students traveling to San Diego. Many students, curled up in their sweatshirts, took a quick 25 minute snooze. Caroline had to be shaken awake as she hid her face inside a puffy vest. Getting off the plane was quite a struggle. Maddie's large Jansport would not budge from the overhead bin. When reflecting on the flight, Grace says "This weird man sitting next to me whipped out raw ginger root and began to gnaw on it." Rachel left her water bottle on the plane and had to run back to the gate with Olivia. Rachel and Olivia dealt with an extremely rude man working for American Airlines (they could not catch his name but are hoping to fire him). Overall, we have all safely landed in San Diego and San Francisco. Lydia, Kelly and Christie scarfed down burgers during the four hour lay over. Eryn, Kelsey, Brenna, Grace, and Aron had loads of fun over multiple "uno" games.
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