Day 6 of boot camp.

Wilbur is the freaking man. Forget Chuck Norris. Wilbur is my hero.

Wilbur is our driver for the week. I thought I had seen the TURISMO taxis in action, but only now do I see just how naive I was. Just for the record, TURISMO taxis are fatty broken down mexi-vans. These things can freaking do work. Well, if you have Wilbur behind the wheel that is. The man is fearless. Slash out of his mind, but who's counting? It was easily the roughest terrain we have encountered yet, but Wilbur was not fazed. Nor was he fazed when we couldn't make it across a mud pit the first 2 or 3 attempts. He would simply back the taxi up to get more momentum, then rev the engine up and conquer. We squeezed past trees and edged our way along gravel roads with sides that dropped off. It seemed that there was nothing that could stop us. The best was easily when we crossed a river. A RIVER! Wilbur did not even blink. He just slammed the gas pedal down and we raced across running water and sharp rocks like it was nothing. Another goodie was the 275 degree turn onto a "bridge" at the bottom of a hill.

Wilbur never puts gas in his TURISMO taxi. Because of the sheer energy transferred from his foot to the accelerator, he is always driving on fumes.

We were dropped off when the road stopped. The Fantastic Four actually considered rebuilding the roads by rearranging boulders, but decided that maybe we could walk for some of this hike we had planned.. So we hopped out and walked into this weird deserted state park looking thing. On the way, we had to cross a few streams. Seeing as how I was not in waterproof footwear, I called upon Tia-ita to carry me across the first stream. We were going strong for all of five steps, but then the slippery rocks got the best of Tia-ita and I went right over her head straight into the water. My boots were dunzo and my socks were soaking wet. The blisters are not pleased.

Identifying every plant and insect along the way, we hiked up to geography heaven. We were all sweaty and disgusting and itchy from all the poaceae, but the view was beautiful. After soaking it all in, we kept hiking down to a stream where we took a break from our intensive studies and had a nice swim. Study abroad rules. Then we all sat on the rocks and snacked on our delicious packed lunches full of fresh frutas and veggies and sandwiches. Then we switched back into our hiking gear and headed back to the taxi for our afternoon beach trip.

The beach trip was intended to be a study of mangrove forests and saltwater-freshwater ecosystems, but of course we all ended up in our bathing suits. Well, not so much Scott because he couldn't get the bottoms to zip off. So he just undid the zippers at his knees as far as they would go and let the bottoms sort of flop around. He looked really cool. It was the most beautiful beach I have ever seen in my life. It was untouched and perfect in every way. So I made the most of my time there and took a fatty nap. Also, we found out that Scott is planning on getting a tattoo when he graduates in December. He won't tell us exactly what it is, but we know for sure that it involves a human skeleton and will be upside down on his right outer calf. Oh, Scott. We were really hoping it was going to be an upside-down frog skeleton, but it doesn't look promising. He could change his mind, though. We are an awfully persuasive group after all..

We piled back into the taxi and the truck around 4:30, leaving us just enough time to make it back for dinner. I am uncomfortable with how close we come with missing meals. Lucky for the Fantastic Four, we did make it in time for dinner. And then we had plenty of time for post-dinner Chiky and peanut butter. And Yippy and peanut butter. And QuQui and peanut butter. And Oreos and peanut butter...

Tia-ita was invited to go out with the Eurotrash next door to us tonight. At the last minute she decided not to go only because she did not want to be tired in the morning. It did not bother her that she met these fools just two days ago. It did not bother her that they are 8 boys and she is one girl. It did not bother her that she has no cell phone and no alternative way back to the room if they were to ditch her or if they got too drunk to drive. It did not bother her that one had the biggest rattail I have ever seen in my life. Oh Tia-ita.

I'm really looking forward to another night of sleeping on this rock-hard couch with my moldy pillow.

peace love and wilbur