Trekking Adventure Tour

Students from the tourism department of UMAR organized an after school walk downtown yesterday. Coincidentally, my bike was locked up in my apartment after repairs and I had planned on walking home anyways. All I knew was that people were walking home in a big group but it was a big deal in honor of Children's Day and people were dressed for the occasion.

I took a lot of pictures but people were in motion and the light was fading. These are the ones that turned out.

It was dark when we arrived downtown so no pictures of the dancing and water balloon fights that took place. Good times.

UMARELA 2011

While many of the people from Centro de Idiomas went straight home after work for a long winter's nap, Santa's most faithful fans stood by to join him in the march downtown for UMARELA 2011.

It was time to go. We weren't the only ones late for the starting point.







The original plan was to just escort Santa to the propane station parking lot but the parade had already moved ahead. We were late. We couldn't wait for the rest of the stragglers. Full speed ahead.



Normally, I would have made a video of this event but, when you're responsible for the safety of the number one VIP, it's both hands on the handlebars. I passed the camera off to a willing helper with two free hands who did her best to chronicle everything.




Harrrr.





















Everybody loves Santa.




He's a rock star at UMARELA.

Huatulco through fresh eyes

Our newest teacher at UMAR Huatulco spent his first week taking care of all that necessary paperwork and didn't get a chance to see very much until the weekend when we went off for an introductory tour together. Tom speaks fluent Spanish so I took the opportunity when we were down at Chahue to ask for a quick tour of the spa. I've always been curious.


Checking out the landscape with Tom was a good reminder for me of just how beautiful this place is.

Santa Cruz from above.






We bombed around for about 5 hours and still only saw a fraction of the highlights.