Week 26 photos!

Day 176: Braided hair is really popular in Santa Marta. A lot of Afro Caribbean women on the beach sell the tight braided hairstyles to tourists. It's pretty neat to watch them do the braids.



Cops ride on motorcycles here and they do it two people to a motorcycle. One of the hilarious things is seeing the "I'm not touching you" style of riding on the back of a bike.



Donkeys on the freeway!



Day 177: All gas stations here have people pumping gas. You also have to get out of the car if someone's pumping gas. Just in case the car blows up. For serious.



Day 178: Welcome back to the US!



Day 179: First purchase back in the states!



Day 180: Squeaky! I miss my kitten!



Day 181: Meds.



Day 182: Meds.

Week 25 photos!

Day 169: More corner activity. Note the fruit vendors and the police officers! Why yes, he does have a gun.



Day 170: I guess boys are the same everywhere. Here are some Colombian skateboarders.



Day 171: Beautiful sunset! Never gets old.



Day 172: I've said over and over again that mangoes are huge here. They are all over the place. To the point that you can pick them off the sidewalk.



Day 173: This is one of the porteros! He opens the door for us, and keeps us safe!



Day 174: Empty classroom. :( End of the school year!



Day 175: Quail eggs! In the supermarket!

Week 24 photos!

Day 162: Me looking terribly touristy on our balcony. Because our building is what amounts to "vacation homes" for most people who own space here, the most common question I get is "Vacaciones?" and I have to say, "No, vivo aqui." Which gets some weird looks because of my accent.



Day 163: The seniors have left the building, leaving their old shoes behind them. You'll note the style of the shoes, which are part of the girls' uniform. Why yes. It does look like something out of a '50s movie. The shoes are also REALLY expensive and essentially a way to make money.



Day 164: A while ago, my kids made this picture of me. In case you can't read it, it says, "You're killing me!" which is something I say when the kids are doing nearly anything.



Day 165: Lucas's birthday party! He wanted us to all get together and make dinner, so we made a really nice tenderloin dinner. My contribution was mashed potatoes and to act as sous-chef.



Day 166: Soccer! Or futbol, as it's known here. Football is SO BIG. All the kids play and they all know who the best players are. Weirdly, the kids also love baseball and American football which got popular when some of the older kids visited America. The latter was used as a way to bully smaller kids, so the school said no more American football.



Day 167: Pelicans! Usually they fly RIGHT NEXT to our balcony (as in, I could reach out and touch them), but I can never get a good picture of that.



Day 168: All of the normal beach activities are huge here, but unlike in the states, people move all their supplies by hand and foot. There aren't any trucks that come out to remove bikes/kayaks/chairs. Instead, at the end of the day, you see vendors wheeling everything to where ever they store it.

Week 23 photos!

Wow, sorry it's been like 2 weeks since I posted.

Day 155: This is a chiva, one of the buses that's essentially an open air party bus. They light up at night and drive around with either live music or really loud radio music. The music here is baillanato (essentially romantic music about love, loss and how pretty girls are), reggeton (a modern kind of reggae), salsa and carnivale music.



Day 156: One thing I will miss is how colorful everything is here. Places are colorful, buildings are painted bright even if it contrasts with the neighbors. They try to attract attention.



Day 157: The lightning storm I mentioned. It was really amazing.



Day 158: I can't tell you how much using positive rather than negative reinforcement has changed my outlook. I find myself yelling less and noticing the good more. One of our mentors in the program used to say, "Catch them doing good" as the methodology to positive reinforcement.



Day 159: Me drinking juice! Juice is something I really want to bring back to the states. I love it SO MUCH and essentially it's just fresh fruit, water and sugar.



Day 160: Ana Maria is a friend I found late in my experience here. She and I share a lot of tv and a lot of movies and I'm kind of sad that we're only becoming friends now that I'm leaving.



Day 161: Uozo is a pizza place that's been opened by the same Americans that run the Brisa Loca hostel. It's delicious food, really, really delicious, but the service was AWFUL. We couldn't get anyone to take our order or give us plates or even give us our change! On the other hand, they hired all local artists to paint the tiles and do some work on the interior.

Week 22 photos!

Day 148: Granadilla fruit! Hard on the outside, soft juicy seeds on the inside.



Day 149: Beach vendors. The guys sitting on their cooler sell shrimp on the beach. They walk from person to person offering to make shrimp cocktails. It's hard to resist, but I don't like to mess around with seafood - it's a guarantee of a stomach ache. The guy with the boat is the coolest one I've seen. He makes cocktails and walks up and down the beach pushing the boat.



Day 150: Jenga! Lauren's Christmas present to me. A knockoff Jenga you can buy for 15k.



Day 151: My kiddos. They drive me crazy, they can be so awesome, they can be so crazy.



Day 152: Apparently, the reason water is undrinkable here has nothing to do with the water itself. Instead, it's because the water gets store in these tanks above houses and the tanks and pipes have all sorts of bacteria in them.



Day 153: This is at the center of Parque de los Novios. It's in "el Centro" the downtown area of Santa Marta. After all the bars and clubs close, people hang out here. It's lit up. Apparently, it's a kind of "lover's lane".



Day 154: This is the guy selling candies native to the area. They're delicious and awesome.

Week 21 photos!

Day 141: Grading essays on a Sunday! I'm so productive!



Day 142: Bug in the apartment. At first I thought it was a tick, but it is clearly not that. I think it's some kind of a beetle.



Day 143: Grey days. The weather turns alternately sweet and sour. Some days are warmer than others.



Day 144: Pops, you asked about guns. These are two army (not police, but we see police out dressed like this, too) guys. If you look, you can see he has an automatic rifle over his shoulder. These are guys that are right on the side of the road, guarding it. Not sure from what - maybe carjacking?



Day 145: On the side of the freeway, halfway to Buenavista, there is a watermelon seller. They sell pieces of watermelon or whole watermelons.



Day 146: Nacho, a guy that works at the bar, taught me how to throw darts like throwing knives and backwards. He was hilariously helpful about it.



Day 147: Rodadero at night.

Week 20 photos!

Day 134: Fruit seller outside the supermarket. I can't get over the street vendors here, only because they're so prevalent here and so unseen in the states.



Day 135: Beach day at Tagonga! Lauren and me chilling, a beer commercial and Lauren consuming ALL THE FOOD.







Day 136: These yellow flowers that appear after the first big rain, exist for a day and then DISAPPEAR until next year.



Day 137: Staff meeting and annual plans. Lauren and I both feel like this:



Day 138: Artsy shot of me in a hammock.



Day 139: Santa Marta at night. It's bizarre but a lot of places don't even heat up until after 10pm. There are people all about, there's even a park open all night and people just wander around going from club to club and from restaurant to bar.



Day 140: The first rain of the season. Thank god. The heat has gotten so oppressive. It's like trying to walk in an oven, it just doesn't work. There's no doing it.

The rain calms the heat for a while, until you're just left with the aftermath, which turns the heat into humidity. Then you beg for rain again.

Meanwhile, the mosquitoes are loving it.