Hola all! I`m sitting in an internet cafe in Santa Elena, a town about a 25 minute 10$ cab ride from the San Luis Ecolodge. We had to drive on La Trocha to get here, which translates to `the trecharous road.` The road is really steep and not paved so it was quite a bumpy ride, but the view up the mountain was incredible. To answer one question, one of the reasons I am here is because at the Ecolodge I only get 30 minutes of internet a week and it is 5$ an hour after that and it is extremly slow. (Hence the lack of updates.)

As for air conditioning, the temperature outside is really nice so airconditioning isn`t much of a necessity. It is sort of cool outside, like Spring weather. It is generally kind of windy, it feels like the beach sometimes. It also rains sporadically.

Abundant food choices...every meal so far has basically been gallo pinto(rice and beans), some sort of salad, a meat, vegetables, and some fruit juice. So not a lot of variety, but the food is all really simple, healthy, and good quality so no complaints here. In general I feel like I have very little complaints because of how amazing this experience is. We do have some bug visitors in our room but I they don`t really bother me.

Okay, so back to what I`ve been doing. We took the four our bus ride to San Luis on Monday and arrive about 1pm. (By the way, there is a 2 hour time difference). We put our things in the cabinas and then ate lunch. We got an orientation in which one of the naturalists Peter showed us a short slideshow with some animals and a little bit about the Ecolodge. We got our syllabus for the History class at dinner. After dinner(dinner is at 6 every day) a few of us went on a night hike. Our guide, the other naturalist Paul, took us on a trail by the Ecolodge. He had one flashlight that is so powerful that it has a safety on the one switch!! Anyways, we saw mostly bugs(butterflys, katydids, spiders, caterpillers, centipedes) and we found one snake and a giant toad. My goal for the trip is to see a mammal, preferably a monkey or one of the little raccoon relatives. I wish I had brought a book about the wildlife and I looked at one in a shop here but it was like 40 bucks!

(Sidenote: I totally forgot to say that on the way to rafting we saw a SLOTH!! aka un perezoso. It was SO cool!)

Tuesday we were awoken by a bird repeteadly ramming into our room`s window. At first i thought it was the door banging open and closed but when I finally looked, it was a little brown bird with yellow spots on the side of his neck who was sitting on a chair on our porch and then flying full force into the glass. He would then perch on the chair again and repeat until we walked towards the window. As soon as we walked towards him he would fly back to the forest as if he was embarressed to be discovered. Then he would come back later and do it again! It is the weirdest thing I`ve ever seen, I have no idea why the bird would do that! He did it again this morning too!

We have to walk down a path for about ten minutes to get to the main campus where we have class and meals. My favorite part fo the walk is this part where the trees clear and there is really tall grass that blows in the wind. At night you can see the stars really well from there. Breakfast was fruit, gallo pinto, eggs, and really good fried plantains. We had our spanish class at 9 until 11. Lunch at 12. Then I had a break before history where I took a nap and did some reading. History we just had a discussion about perceptions of Latin America and how we learned about Latin Americans and their history growing up. We had dinner right after class. Then I went to the little library on campus to look for information for my Spanish presentation.

That`s all I have time for now! Hopefully I answered some of the questions! I`d be happy to answer more if you have them!

(Mama and Daddy, I bought a phone card so be expecting a call soon, probably about 9pm your time tonight but it will depend on if I can use the phone, there is only one phone for the whole campus. Also, they said the cheapest way to do it would be for you to buy a phone card and call the campus. Buy one!)