Hotel Guadacorte Park Cádiz

Our first night was spent in Spain at a very nice campsite with Wi-Fi and hot showers, though the western toilets were void of toilet seats. The night was spent drinking loads of red wine and discovering everyone's names and backgrounds. We have 24 people total on the trip, six girls and 18 guys. Ages range from 22 to 60 and there are quite a variety of nationalities, though I am the only American. People are from the UK, Scotland, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Japan and ...

... to communicate. We were able to watch Flamingo dancing at the center in town as there was a special performance that night and the star was a young man who grew up in Cadiz and Loly and her husband have known as a child. After the show we went to lunch with Sergio and Oscar their sons. Oscar is older and speaks a little English and looks just like Jon Vaglio. Crazy. That morning both sons were at a casting call for a movie to be made with Tom ...

... our ship for the journey through the straight of Gibraltar towards Mallorca. M: I found a bird. He wasn't a very healthy bird and I don't think he had long to live. Being without a firearm, I was unable to perform a mercy killing, but I was able to provide him with a little shade as he sat on the sidewalk. For a while at least-I couldn't stay there all day. Aside from that, Cadiz was a very nice place. Very sunny and cheerful!

... od 30-tu lat i ma zawze tyle hostorii do opowiedzenia, ze czasem cala noc nie wystarcza. Nazywam go "tatusiem", bo jest w wieku moich rodzicow i dba o mnie prawie jak o wlasne dziecko - zjedz to, wypij tamto, odpocznij sobie, chcesz sprawdzic intewrnet u mnie w biurze? nie ma sprawy, itp, itd... Poza nim, mam tu jeszcze kilkoro innych paesanos - Polakow. Jest Marzena w kasynie, jest "Teddy Band" - muzycy z Tadziem na czele, jest pielegniarz ...

... villages I've read have some hiking and, you know, trees. That's all i ask for. I definitely miss steamboat and bellingham, and all the hiking. But, I am excited to check out the rest of the province. anyways, If there is anything you want me to mention in my blog feel free to ask. Also, feel free to come visit me. And please leave comments, i like to know what you guys think, and I want to here from you guys. I miss everyone its nice to hear from you.

So I can't even begin to explain how much fun this weekend was. The whole weekend can be summed up by saying it was a combination of Mardi Gras, St. Patty's Day, Halloween, and Senior Prom. Cadiz was absolutely GORGEOUS. The bus ride was really long on Friday- we got there around dinner time. There were 4 buses of kids total.. that's 200 kids!! Some were from our school, some were Syracuse, and a few other schools as well. We all raced to the supermarket next door to get ...

... waited and waited and waited. What could be taking so long? After an interminable wait we were finally brought black beans and white rice (how long does it take to open a can and make Minute Rice?). After another wait our fajitas showed up and the platters looked pretty good. There were no onions which was a bummer but the fajitas tasted OK. We were just happy to get food. Lee and I figured out that the restaurant looked busy because each table took more than an ...

... before I managed to shake them off... that's when one bit me. It was just a nip, it didn't hurt but it gave me a shock. I spent ages up there with the monkeys just watching them interact with the people. It is illegal to feed tham, but that didn't stop people... why can't people read the signs? Feeding the monkeys will just encourage them to believe that all humans have food, they also get a well balanced monkey diet given to them, they don't need strawberry milk or chocolate as well.

... We weren't sure whether to stare back and not seem afraid, or not to make eye contact in order to be less conspicuous (!if that was possible!) and possibly less confrontational somehow. I tried to take a cue from the other passengers, who all looked pretty uncomfortable, but not afraid--that helped--and also from the fact that he started accepting coins from several people. Turns out he was jobless and homeless and was soliciting money in the name of the Islamic tradition of helping ...

... the port & the view was great but the hotel was all faded grandeur with basic enough rooms, it was grand we were happy, so cracked open the duty free with our new friends & let our hair down. Sometime in the night I woke up (possibly by over head light going on) & realised I had searing stomach ache. Both of us did, I started puking in the bin as had no en-suite bathroom, then C started puking & we continued this every 15 mins in turn each one for about 12 hours, (in the end we ...