Saturday, September 18, 2010

Day Thirteen: A Beer with the Mayor

Bonsoir~

After all the excitement yesterday, what with biking 92 km on wet, muddy dirt roads; seeing Ryan and Daniel; FINALLY getting to open Emma's box; biking the wrong way around the marche; and then eating an awesome meal, today seemed much more routine.

Half of us slept at Daniel's house (he has a coffee maker!) and half of us at Ryan's.  We all reconvened in the morning for our daily cheer (aka "Yako or die--Huzzah!), and then headed off.  Daniel led the way out of town and biked with us for about 15 km before he turned back.  Lorena Gonzalez is now riding with us, and John Barbour and Evan Johnson are still with us (that makes 10 for today). 

It was a huge relief to be on paved road again.  We biked 79 km today; our overall times varied from 4.5 hours to 5.5 hours. It was, again, a beautiful day, though it's getting hotter as we slip back into Jula-phone land (which is WEIRD--it should have been the other way around).  Every day that we bike, people along the roads wave at us or clap.  Today We saw sunflowers--the first ones that any of us have seen here.





 

We were welcomed into town by the mayor and the commendat of the police, who helped us get settled into the local school and then bought us all lunch.  It was incredible, especially since the town only received word that we were coming THIS MORNING.  The mayor even helped us pump water for our showers!  It stormed almost immediately after we arrived; Emma got a good picture of the storm coming from out of the school windows.  Evan, Josh, and Neal hung out with the mayor after lunch, who showed them around town and had a beer with them. 









After we arrived, our new driver, Vincent welcomed us (he's the driver and do-it-all guy in Bobo).  We said goodbye to Nana, but he said we may be able to see him again when we finish in Leo.  We'll miss the traditional tea he made and shared with us every night. 


We're about to head back into town for some omelettes, and then hit the hay.  We're all pretty exhausted, and want to rest up for Bobo.

Ohhhh...one terrible thing that happened is that I stepped on and broke Rob's glasses, so he had a blurry ride today.  I also broke my sunglasses, and both Julie and I chipped a tooth.  Yikes.  Apparently, I just can't have nice things...like teeth.

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