Fiesta!

As always it's been an interesting couple of weeks...

Willie had his first date:) He was the companion of Katrina at Karina's 15th birthday party. At first we thought it was a simple date but when we got there it turned out that he was there to take part in a ceremonial dance. Luckily it wasn't too complicated. They all lined up with their partners and stood in two lines across from each other, then Karina and here date went from person to person dancing with them. It's hard to describe, but it was very interesting. Anyway, the 15th year is an important event and it was great to be a part of it and check out some local culture.




















Mike has been working on his music and has put together a new version of his song "The Wind"
Check it out....



We've been seeing a lot of birds lately, we saw toucans twice last week. We've also seen some woodpeckers and various other birds. And as always there have been some other interested beasties around... Mojo went chasing after something the other night and when Mike went to get him he heard a loud and scary growl coming from the darkness. We think it was a cat of some kind, maybe a jaguar or jaguarundi.






















This week has been the end of school, prep for the holiday week. We took Kaileah to a secret santa party on Friday and spent most of the day at an all day graduation party. We finally got a chance to get down with the locals. In the past we've gone to their parties and everyone was standing around, nobody dancing. We discovered last night that if you just stay late enough people start loosening up and dancing. We were also tricked into participating in a dance contest. Carlos came running up to us looking very serious, telling us that we HAD to go dance because they needed one more couple to dance. We didn't really understand why it was so urgent but we went ahead and danced. Everyone else was sitting/standing and watching us dance, but that's usually what happens so we didn't think anything of it. Then when the music stopped we started to walk away and they stopped us and had us line up in front of everyone. Then they started announcing everyone's names and having the audience cheer for everyone. It finally occurred to us that we'd just competed in a contest! The funniest thing about it was that we won the contest. It was definitely a pity win, as we were the worst dancers on the floor. Funny stuff!

Willie and Josh have been really sick for the last several days. They've been feverish and feeling pretty nasty. So, they've missed out on all the fun. Willlie seems to be feeling better so we're hoping he'll be all better ASAP. It stinks that he's missed out on all the events going on.

As always, we're keeping track of the more farm related activities on our other blog http://verdenergiablog.blogspot.com/

A harrowing experience....

We've had a fun week.

On Saturday Mike and Yemaya had a gig in Salitrales, a nearby community. By the time we had to leave it was dark and had been raining pretty heavily. It was a harrowing adventure. I wasn't sure whether to laugh or scream in fear, so I did both:) It was dark, so luckily we couldn't see the scary cliffs or landslide areas, but the road was crazy and we were expecting a hill to fall on us at any moment. At one point there was a waterfall into the road. And to top it off the headlights kept going out. It was like a ride at Disneyland only minus the feeling of security of knowing it's all staged. But we got to the show in one piece and it went great! It's always an adventure out here and we wouldn't trade it for anything, even if it's scary sometimes.

Right now we're house-sitting at our friend Dominic's. He has a nice open air place with a great view. I wanted to do some walking around the property but I don't have safe shoes. I was startled by a small snake while I was walking around and decided to be safe. Supposedly there are a lot of baby Fur de Lances in the area right now, and these snakes are extra dangerous as the babies don't know how to control how much venom they put out when they bite. So, I'm not taking any chances. But it's nice and tranquilo here, Pura Vida.

Other than that we've been up to our usual things, mostly working on the farm, teaching at the school, hanging out with the various folks who stop by, and living our lives. Good stuff!