And now for an update of what I've been up to the last week. Saturday really early in the morning Tracy Anastacia and I all met up to go on a hike to Lagoinha do Leste. It was put on by an environmental group at the university so we paid $10 for a bus ride there and back and also got t-shirts! Lagoinha can only be reached by hiking in or boating to the beach. So we were dropped off and hiked in the long "easy" way around, about 3 1/2 hours! It was so beautiful and truly a nice trail. It seemed like we were walking up hill forever and ever. At one point we were pretty high up and I felt like if I tripped I would surely not survive the fall. Everyone made it though, don't worry.
Beautiful!
About half way there :)
We are adventurers!!
Hiking Hiking Hiking
We finally see our destination!Once we got to the beach everyone ate the food that they had brought in and then they discussed this article that they read. Since it was in portuguese and Tracy and I were really tired we napped while they did this :P After that was finished everyone went for a swim in the ocean and played in the waves. It was a little cold getting in but it was so much fun just hanging out in the water and swimming around.
For the hike out we went the short hard way; and it was definitely hard. I was slower than the fast group but faster than the slow group so I was alone for most of the way out. I didn't mind though because it was such a nice place to be and allowed me to clear my mind of absolutely everything. It felt like I could have been anywhere in the world since I didn't have anyone talking around me. It was also nice that no one was right with me because I was SOO sweaty! It wasn't as sunny as it was when we had hiked in but I think it was equally as hot. Once we had all finished the hike we hopped onto the bus again and made a quick pit stop for some corn and cane sugar juice. Delicious! And as an added bonus, since it was the end of their business day, the corn was free! Made it taste even better. That night Tracy and I were so exhausted. All we did was watch a movie and go straight to bed after!
During the week I went to work as usual on Monday and Wednesday. Cris and I continued giving the turtles their Vitamin A injections and the rest went on like normal. Their diet change has been going really well too! They love to eat all their new foods and I hope they start putting on more weight soon. Tracy and I went on Thursday instead of Friday because there was supposed to be a field trip that we were going to on Friday (but it got cancelled). Tracy came to help me because I needed to weigh all the turtles again and she hadn't been to R3 in a long time. It wasn't too eventful other than a penguin escape! As we were doing our thing we noticed a visiter waddling up to the fence to see us. Tracy stayed with the turtles and I ran around to go and catch the runaway. He wasn't very happy to be taken back to his enclosure so soon after his escape but I had to do it! Speaking of runaways; #6 has released himself! I couldn't find him the last few days and I thought that maybe, because he is so small, he was just hiding really well. But on Thursday I decided that he has for sure made it out. I hope that he is happy somewhere in the wild right now.
Another thing that we finally got accomplished was extending our visa's. I'm not sure if many of you know this but when we applied for our visa's in Canada they only gave us 90 days instead of the full 119 days that we needed. They told us that we would need to visit imigration once we were here to get permission to stay longer. Anyways after a couple of attempts and a lot of running around we got them! Once we had all the stuff we needed and were in the right place it was actually REALLY easy to get them. They barely asked us any questions and had actually started stamping our passports before asking why we wanted to stay longer. Vanessa told us after we had gotten them that one guy said to the other that he should ask us a few questions before filling it out so it didn't seem so easy I guess. It was pretty a pretty funny scene. They ended up giving us an extra 60 days and so technically we could be here for new years... TEMPTING!! But I won't do it haha.
Now Tracy and I are going to eat some dins and finish up some last minute things that we need to do. I cannot believe we're leaving tomorrow!! You guys will be hearing from me again some time after we get home on the 24th :)
Catch you later!
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