a typical day in baños

wake up not too early, but not too late. It all depends on the activity of the canine orchestra outside, and how vociferous the delivery drivers are.

If there´s not early classes to teach or spanish lessons, it´s straight to the fridge, but not before opening the blinds to reveal a view that takes my breath away each and every morning.

The fridge contains all manner of goodness. Dice up some starfruit, mangitos (small mangos!), tomate dulce, bananas and whatever type of melon there is available. Blend some guava seeds, strawberry and natural yoghurt in the mixer and apply to the fruits. top with granola and all bran.

Perhaps throw in a poached egg afterwards (on a different plate, dufus). If the milk lady has been to sell milk from her metal container (straight from the cow), then there will be cream for the croissants too. The milk has to be boiled as soon as you get it, and you can skim the cream off at the end.

Then it´s a shower and a wee seat in the hammock outside, just to take everything in before the day kicks into gear.

The weather is very changeable, so it all depends what mood the clouds are in. If there´s grey skies, it´ll be sunny later and vice versa. like the scottish highlands, the light and clouds play in an ever changing and never symetrical formation, breathing new perspective into the landscape every moment. If you don´t look up for half an hour, you get a shock when you do at how different things are. The 30 metre waterfall up the road from the flat, which plunges down a sheer cliff face into a platform for taking éxtreme´showers, gets an inordinate amount of sunshine. I´m not complaining.

If it´s nice, a wander around town will be had. have a coffee on the plaza and watch the street dogs playing with the shoe-shine kids and generally enjoying themselves. Maybe up to casa Hood to swap a book, or maybe into the school to see what´s up and plan some lessons for later.

Otherwise, there are a million hikes around here, as well as hot springs, hydrotherapy pools and run-of-the-mill swimming pools. Quite an aquatic theme emerging here.

The basketball court is the local skate spot. Sometimes you get a game of basketball, a game of football and a skate session all at once and on the same court. The ledges have been dutifully waxed by yours truly, and sealant has been procured to fix the cracks. There is a rail to skate, but is at the edge of the grass, so no transfers. A friend of mine, Pepe, is going halfs with me on wood this friday. we´re building a fly off and grind box for starters, and the local basketball rental guy says we can store them in his hut. The skaters are about 20 in number, but have the collective motivation of a sloth on heroine.

They have all skated for around 4 years on average, and have never sought to better their situation. they are all at the same level, flipping the board but making no attempt to land it, and generally missing the point of skating. they hang out, carry their boards for show, get a wee bit competitive on occassion, but NEVER look like they´re enjoying it! Pepe and I (he´s an old school skater from the coast, and has just designed and helped build the best park in th country there.) have vowed to get them off their arses.

Anyway, it´s time for work by then, so it´s off to the school. the students are usually a few minutes late, and so am i. we get a lot done, and they are progressing well. They go upstairs to the roof after class, where we chat, play games, listen to music, meet travellers etc in our social club.

tired now. altitude does that to you. go next door to casa hood and grab a seat with whoever´s around to watch the nightly movie. Order a chai tea or a beer and a super-cookie and settle down. Game of cards then zzzzzz

not too shabby, on the whole.