This is the week that never ends.....

My first open water dive.

The waterfall at the end of the 1 hour jungle hike on ED-ventures.

The hammocks at the Eco-lodge in Paria where we stayed for ED-ventures.

THE STORY OF MY WEEK....

Take 50 middle schoolers plus 90 degree heat with 90% humidity, mix in a constant cloud of mosquitoes at a rustic camp of cabins, tents, and hammocks, add a fair amount of stomach flu and fevers, and, just for good measure, throw in treacherous trails along ravines with boiling hot springs below, careening truckloads of students sitting on benches in the bed of the truck, along with a downpour to flood the tents….and you have what my school week looked like last week. This grand adventure is an annual trip called ED-ventures sponsored by my school. This year, I was one of 8 chaperones and leaders for the trip.

 

I took notes about the trip instead of keeping a journal. It’s not that I was too busy to write, I was merely too hot or too tired or…..well, once, I even cried. It was tough. I was the only chaperone who had actually ever raised kids and, thus, by nature, I was the only one looking at it from both the parent and the teacher point of view. To be fair, I am not one of those parents who sheltered my kids-I mean, I let my 13 year old daughter climb UP a rock (El Capitan) for four days. My perspective on safe and reasonable is pretty broad, I thought…..until this trip.

 

Monday, after 6 hours on a bus-winding through the backwoods of Venezuela on two lane roads with 95 speed bumps (literally, we counted), coaxing kids through their carsickness the whole way, we arrived in Paria. It’s a peninsula on the eastern side of Venezuela that contains a large amount of biodiversity as well as the eco-lodge that would be our home for the week.

 

For the next five days we hiked through rainforests, around lakes, up hot springs, down mountain ridges, as well as visited a cocoa plantation/factory/museum and planted trees. The nights were hot and the days were scorching. All the guides spoke in Spanish so I made up my own story about everything in my head, and so did the 10 or so students in my same boat.  At least I have cool photos, even if I cannot tell you anything about what is in them=). During our downtime in camp, we played games like capture the flag and various forms of tag-all organized and led by 8^th graders. Many of these activities took place at 7 AM…yeah, you can imagine how those went….at least it was not scorching yet at that time of day.

 

The high points…???....swimming in the cool springs at the base of the water falls, carving the totuma pods,  and seeing the villages on the mountain hike.

 

Now that I am home, I have spent my first two days (my whole weekend) finishing my SCUBA Open Water certification.  The first day we dove and had to return to the dive shop in a rainstorm with pelting rain, strong winds, and lightening….it was exciting….and cold. In spite of that, we did see fish of so many colors that I thought I was in the Disney movie with Nemo…..and we saw octopi-which apparently are rare to see. Day two was sunny, thankfully. Our day started with a pod of dolphins cavorting near our boat on the way to the dive site. On the dives we saw a shipwreck and eels among other beautiful sights. I did end up with an annoying jellyfish sting, but it was worth it. SCUBA is an exhilarating, fascinating, and nervewrecking activity. I am glad I am doing it.

 

So, tune in next week, you never know what will happen next….(like the 6.3 earthquake that shook the country’s  capital yesterday and sent mild shock waves all the way to us-never a dull moment).