day 4: 'swim, bike, run'

14-7-09

Alright, so here’s the country cultural experience I was looking for: midnight battles with crickets, afternoons watching a vaquero disect a cow, lazy afternoon naps reading, doing crafts or climbing trees.

I woke this morning to Laura coming into my room a little before 8 o’clock. I pulled her into the bed with me, naively hoping just for a few more minutes of sleep. ; ) As my portuguese has been getting better, so has our friendship. And ironically, so has her english. We lazily laid there and she ran her finger over the design on my shirt. She’s all....’swim, bike, run’. Haha. She’s so cute. (I’m wearing my Pismo Beach Triathalon shirt Kacie gave me.) I’ll have these girls talking like real athletes by the time I leave here. What's funny is that swimming, biking and running is about all I do here it seems....no complaints, no complaints.

On one of our impromptu exploring adventures today, we came upon the vaqueros skinning a cow that had broken its leg earlier today (that I mentioned earlier). This afternoon, they hung it from the hooks right in the middle of the yard (conveniently right there amongst the hammocks) to cut it all up. Thank God I’m not a vegetarian, huh? And you know what’s sick? I actually thought it looked good, like tasty? ...of course I’ve been jaded from all the Machado round ups. I wasn’t surprised when we had beef that evening (and every day following....ironically I did not like the taste of it). And later the girls and the gang started decorating cabacas (cabashas), which are gourds (much like that of the Argentine mate cup). I’m brainstorming ideas on how to decorate it. This activity seems to entertain the girls to eternity.....; ) which I like.