Camilla in Mexico

After being in Mexico for more than a month, I suddenly thought; Why not start writing a web blog?
--So I did...

Being in Mexico for a while now, I'm experiencing so much, and I want to share it with more people than the people on "Facebook". So here is a resumé of my first month here (sorry folks, but it is going to be a lot of writing here:p) :

After 4 great months in the US with my grandparents and other family, 29th of January I left NC and the US.
The flight to Guadalajara took six hours, and being a novice when it comes to travelling, I was nervous all the way there. So many "what ifs"... And not knowing any spanish, I could only hope for the best.
However, I arrived to the airport, bought my taxi ticket, arrived safely at the "terminal de autobuses", bought a ticket for the bus and got on the bus with out ANY of the "what ifs" included! My only problem was to get my backpack on my back, because it was SO heavy...

When I arrived in Colima it was all dark, but still at least 20 C (70 F). Ferry, who manages the orphanage, waited for me by the enterence and we drove to the orphanage.
When we arrived at the orphanage he showed me my room, a charming room that I shared with a lot of spiders web, and told me breakfast was tomorrow at 9am. I didn't even think of a complain at all.

The next day I gradually was introduced to the place I was going to live the next four months. I got to meet the other volunteers, who all were from Holland... And at breakfast, many curious children came over to me and asked my name. I was also introdused to "frijoles" (aka beans). And I must say I really got to know beans very well, just after one week...

The weekend came, and Febuary being the time of carneval, friday the other volunteers and I whent to see a parade and enjoied a free concert. A lot of fun!

Saterday, while some whent to Manzanillo, I stayed in Colima. Two of the other remaining volunteers; Sandra, Terry, and I whent to a lake outside of Colima. It was so beautifull there!

And on our way there we met several horses, chickens and dogs. And at a point we even had to stop our car for a buch of cows.
By the river we enjoied the refreshging wather of the river and cold, mexican beer untill dawn.

After just one week I allready knew I was going to love this place, and of course the children.

My second week a new group of volunteers came to the orphanage. We were now a group of 13 volunteers (Terry, Karen, Rianne, Sandra, Eva,Tamara, Ines, Marlou, Shari, Suzanne, Jonathan, (Mandy--who left after a wek) and I), and with me as the only non-Dutch.

We also started Spanish class, 2 hrs, 4 times a week!
I was getting more and more language confused, and my sentences had a tendency to come out as a good mix of English, Norwegian, Spanish and Dutch...

This was the week of "alberca" (swimmingpool) and we had to clean it to fill it with wather. Because of the extremly long and cold winter weeks (yes, that was written very ironically...) it had been a while since the last time it was cleaned. So we had to remove big amounts of leaves and dirt. After removing one of the wather toys, (that some one left the last time the pool was in use,) an iguana terrefied jumped out to hide somewhere else. As the biologist (to be) I am, I was so fascinated. And just five minuttes later I found a big scorpion too! Next I was just expecting to find a tarantella and poisonous snake...

The whole idea with a week of swimmingpool is SO brilliant, and the kids love it alot! It really warms a swimming intructors heart. However, after three days and with out a filter system, the wather is really growse...

The week passed by very fast, and suddenly it was weekend again...
I went with Tamara and Karen to a little town right out side of Colima, called Comala. It is a very charming little town, with little shops and the characteristic church by a park, with a "kiosko" in the middle. Comala is also known for its tapas resturants, so we sat down at "Don Camalon". It turned out that by ordering drinks we got several plates with different taco and tortillas filled with salsas and guacemole. MHMMMMM!!!!

While enjoing our delicious meal a lonely harmonica player played "la cucaracha" for us.

Later we whent to a museum with mexican ancient art from the time of the pyramides. We took the lokal bus home from the museum, and it was one bumpy ride... :D

On sunday Terry, Sandra and I whent with some of Sandras local friends to a lake by the volcanos and had a barbecue! On our way there we passed the "magic piont" in Colima. This is a spot where, if you stop your car engine in the bottom of a little hill here, your car will move by itself, backwards. It was SO fascinating!!!