A Parade

Friday, September 15^th

I started off on crawl counts like normal, but was stopped almost immediately by a man who wanted to sell me eggs. By the time I had paid, walked back to the parque, and buried the eggs, it was already light. I just started counting tracks instead of walking to the end and then counting on the way back. When I got to the end, I tried hitchhiking, but it was probably my worst attempt yet. I walked almost 1.5km, then was able to get about .75km with one moto before he turned off the road. I probably walked another 1.25km before getting a ride the rest of the way with another moto.

When I got back, there were some hatchlings to release. The parade that Hawaii puts on for Guatemalan Independence Day was supposed to start at 8:00am and all of these things were keeping me from attending. Luckily, the parade was working on Guatemalan time. I was able to get to the parade just in time with the volunteers. The parade was cute! The winner of the beauty pageant was at the head of the float and all the school children with their band outfits and instruments followed along. They were adorable! It was cool to be able to see how the locals celebrate their Independence Day. The real Independence Day is tomorrow, but they have activities the whole week leading up to it. While we were watching, we indulged in some street food.I got m favorite fries along with a granizada, which is a Guatemalan version of a snow cone. I ordered a lime one not knowing that they put chicken flavoring with the lime. It was disgusting! Who wants a chicken flavored snow cone?? I was able to scrape all of the chicken flavor off luckily and then it tasted much better! Well now I know I shouldn’t order just lime next time haha.

The parade

Miss Hawaii walking back to her float

 Riikka and I enjoying our fries!

Once we got back to the parque, we took a dip in the ocean because it has been SO hot! It hasn’t rained for almost a week, which is really weird during the rainy season. Then, I took a much needed nap. I definitely need to get a hammock when I get home. After my nap, Riikka and I made more ice cream. I made pineapple and she made lime and banana coffee. She borrowed a hand mixer from her host family, so it was a lot easier than beating the eggs and cream by hand with a whisk. Later, I organized patrol kits and the money that we use to buy eggs. After dinner, we released some more hatchlings and then I went to sleep before patrols/crawl counts.