Gardening, and Beach Camping!

Howdy Parents,

We began the day by making sure all of our clothes were packed for beach camping so we could leave right after our work day. We then resumed our normal routine with a delicious breakfast cooked by Don Carlos, who lives down the street from our hostel. He cooked us eggs, bread, and a slice of cheese on the side. Today’s flavor of juice was papaya (which some were not a huge fan of, but it was good for our stomachs).

After we finished eating our breakfast, we hopped onto the bus and headed to Acuarela 1. Acuarela 1 is a small park that the government doesn’t maintain on the outskirts of Bahía. The group split up into teams where we focused on different tasks, with the goal of restoring the soon to be beautiful park. By the time we were finished, the park had new garbage cans, a bunch of newly planted trees with colorful tires placed around them to help the tree grow, as well as newly painted benches and an in-progress garden.

After we finished up at the park, we headed back to Don Carlos’ for a hot soup and pasta lunch. From there we took the bus to Fanny, the local high school. While we were there we had a workshop about the difference between soil and compost. After that we split up into smaller groups where we helped with various jobs like working with the Eco-Club kids to clean up and rearrange their greenhouse. Everyone was exhausted, but we still managed to accomplish a bunch.

Afterwards we walked towards a local artist who paints and sells shirts and other clothing items (don’t be surprised if we come back broke!)💸 While some bought “Pan de Yuca” from the local vendors, others bought a “ Choco-banana.” After the snacks, we took to the bus to a beautiful beach house with an amazing view of the ocean. Once we all set up the tents, we went for a quick swim in the ocean at sunset. After the swim we ate dinner at the restaurant in the beach house where we enjoyed rice, beans and fish. To finish off the day, we had our closing discussion where we shared our goals for the rest of the trip and how to accomplish them. We are now playing one last round of UNO until lights out.