Katie
I know it has been a couple of days since my last update, but goodness, I have been exhausted! I was invited to join an outing with Katie’s summer camp to a place called Granja Las Americas.
I was tired from a sleepless night, I was awoken at 1am by hammering on a door, I jumped out of bed thinking Ana, our landlady, had locked herself out. But I found her on the sofa watching TV because she too had not been able to sleep due to the noise. These particular neighbours cause a lot of noise every night, but that night was particularly bad, it sounded like there was furniture being moved around, bookcases knocked over and furniture being put together. I can hear them watching TV all day and then at night there are lots of strange noises like out of the Tom Hanks movie ‘The ‘Burbs’.
I had a cup of tea and then went back to bed and put in my noise cancelling headphones that I bought for airplane travel and turned my iPod on, but I could still hear thumping and some kind of extremely loud screeching, I have no idea what they were doing and in the middle of the night.
So I wasn’t exactly looking forward to hitting a theme park with thirty children from the age of three but in the end after two cups of strong coffee I had a blast of a time.
In usual Mexican time keeping style, though everyone had been stressed to by the manageress that we all had to be there and ready to leave at 8:30am there were still kids arriving at nine after the register had been taken and one child who either didn’t turn up, or was so late, got left behind because at 9:15, 45 minutes after schedule we were piled on to the bus.
The camp had hired a bus to take us to the park which was more cramped than the overstuffed farang vans we used in S.E. Asia. I had to sit slanted to the side with my knees pressed against my chest. The three 3 year olds sitting in front of me must have been impressed with my contortionist skills because we spent the entire journey playing catch the hand and a form of peek a boo that seemed designed to give the grandmother sitting next to me a heart attack.
It was fantastic, not on the scale of say Six Flags or Alton Towers, however it was utterly charming although I can’t describe it in too much detail as as the individual attractions took place inside tiny little huts and adults weren’t allowed in for lack of space.
All the children were split into groups of about eight and I was placed with Katie’s group and assisted Yvonne who was a staff member of the summer camp. They were all so adorable and I got so many cuddles and Katie’s best friend in the group assigned herself my own personal Spanish teacher.
There was a maze there and everyone got lost and separated from their group, we all ended up running around in circles before meeting up at a rope ladder we had to climb down. I think the most amusing part of the day was watching two grandmothers who had come with try and get down but everyone was such good sports. We then subsequently all got separated again and most of us regrouped at the exit except three girls who had re-entered to go around again and Katie who had gone back in looking for me.
My self assigned Spanish teacher is in the middle
With the results of a tortilla style snack they had made
After that it was time to do the zip rope, most of the adults ducked out, my excuse being that I wanted to stay on the ground to photograph Katie, though there was no way you were going to get me up there and though I had palpitations at the thought of Katie doing it I wasn’t going to say no in front of all her friends when even the three years olds were taking part in it. It’s official, I have braved the jungle, a gun, a snake and American immigration and I am still more chicken than a three year old Mexican!
Katie on the zip line
Part of my group
Then before we knew it, it was time to return back to base. I fell asleep on the bus on the way back and came to with my head at a funny angle, cocked back, and my mouth wide open. I checked for any drool, but thankfully, I was saved from that embarrassment, though I am surprised that at the angle I was in I hadn’t passed out on the neighbouring grandmothers shoulder.
We then walked home and I promptly went to bed for an hour while Katie wrote the day up in her journal.
