Ilana in the Cloud Forest

Hello, it's me. Writing to you once again today but this time about this week that ended on Sunday.  For reference, I think I may have skipped a week or miscounted at some point, because I think this past week was actually week 51. But how crazy is that?? Almost an entire year since I left for Mexico!! This week was pretty chill or  tranquila , as we say in Spanish. I think the kids and myself alike are just waiting for the school year to start up again, as school seems to be the one thing that keeps the community in a routine and moving forward. I'm certainly eager to get back into my routine of teaching in the elementary school and starting to teach in the high school and getting my cistern project off the ground. But as we wait for school to be back in session (just one more week!) I've been taking advantage of or  aprovechando (one of my favorite words in Spanish) the slowness. I've been going for lots of walks with the kids — some of which I have enjoyed, some of w...

Good evening, everyone!
 I’m writing to you from my house in Neblinas where I returned to today after a week in Querétaro. I’m currently writing to you in the dark because we lost power, so if I don’t get around to sending this email tonight, it will get to you all tomorrow once we get power back.  On Monday morning, I left my house in Neblinas at 5am and took the seven-hour journey to Querétaro, arriving in the city around 1pm. After arriving at the bus station, I took an Uber to the Peace Corps office where I needed to go to sign some documents that needed to be sent to the lawyer for immigration the next day.  While at the office, I saw staff members, learned that the grants committee approved my grant project (!!) and saw the volunteers from PCM22 (the group before mine) who were at the office for their close of service (COS) conference, which is the last time the entire cohort will be together before leaving the country. I can only imagine what emotions and thoughts are g...

Good afternoon, everyone, I hope you are having a beautiful Sunday. It's been a busy couple of weeks of adventuring. Apologies in advance if this edition runs long.  After my trip to the river two weeks ago, I took Monday and Tuesday off to recover and work a bit on my grant application and various other projects. I finally submitted my application to the committee, and I'm waiting for their response. Having rested for a couple of days, by Wednesday, I was ready to get back out there and start adventuring again.  So I went with Tito and Jair down the carretera to do some birdwatching and to see what other cool organisms we could discover. We saw a good number of species of birds: motmots, red-legged honeycreepers, different varieties of woodpeckers and parrots and other species. There truly is an abundance of biodiversity in this forest that enchants me every time I step foot outside of my house.  We even encountered a really cool alligator lizard sitting in the middle of...