Have you ever gone out having absolutely no idea what the day will bring? Going out, getting out simply to be out? We began yesterday morning like that, simply walking towards the road, having no doubt that we would indeed find something interesting to do. And God blessed that. On our way out, we met a group of people going to the top of the famous volcanic mountain, La Montania Tiede. They had enough spots, so we went. It was so fun and exciting and refreshing. We went 3/4ths of the way up the mountain and waited for the others. The cable cars to the top were rather expensive. Thus we squandered away two perfectly good hours, having heaps of fun and taking lots of crazy roommate pictures. We climbed on top of the Land Rover and posed on rocks and by plants, all the while those jagged Mountains staring down at us...thoroughly and unashamedly being tourists. The landscape was filled with winding roads and cacti and sand and layers of red and yellow rock that reminded me of Arizona.

We sat and chatted in the open cafe, enjoying the sun and the stunning view. The rest of the group came back down, panting and red cheeks and grinning. They dropped us off in town. We wondered around taking in all the sights. And went to a huge shopping center overwhelmed with choices and colors and posing to take crazy hat pictures. It was like a scene from one of those horrendously blond movies with all the giggling girls having fun shopping...except ten times better.

After that we found an open air restaurant and all of us ordered salads. It was such a luxury to have real, fresh, greens and we enjoyed it thoroughly. Each of us are trying to enjoy every moment with each other before, Ellen and Chelsea leave (tomorrow) and Dorothy leaves Tuesday. :(



Today I went to the "La Supermercado de la senora de Africa." They call it the African market, but it is basically like a huge garage sail. There were many Africans and native Americans there, selling jewelry and carvings along side the Spanish natives. It was so fun just to go to be out and wonder around and practice a bit of Spanish with Dorothy.

We got back to the ship around 1pm. I sat on deck 8 to get away from our now sana-like room and did another chapter in Re-entry. I had that amazing "now" feeling. Like I was supposed to be reading it and taking notes and being there at that moment. It made me happy. I'm happy here. I realized that every place in the world is beautiful, in it's own unique way, you just have to find that beauty and hold on to it.



Tonight we had dinner out for Ellen and Chelsea. It was good just to be with them all laughing and talking about our wonderful and crazy families and freezing as the temperature dropped. Tomorrow I work. With a whole new team. So goodbye mis amigos, and God bless!