Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Another busy day in Granada (Wednesday)

JohnG and I were picked up at the house at 7 am by a shuttle, then taken to Lake Granada, just a few minutes away. We had arranged a three-hour, private boat tour of the nearby islands in the lake.

Cathedral from lake.jpg
Cathedral from the lake.

The islands are beautiful. Lots of birds. Sharks too, even Hammerheads, but we didn't see any of those. I think that costs extra. Some of the islands are for sale. You can get an island with a house on it for around $200,000. That doesn't include the money you'll spend on a boat to get home or to the mainland.

Bird and island.jpg

I did fine the first two hours, then the motion started getting to me. On the way back, we stopped at an island to have a Coke. That helped. When the shuttle dropped us off at the house, I lay down, passed out, then felt fine.

Washing clothes.jpg
Laundry day.

Unfortunately, I didn't wake up in time to meet Marcia at the sewing co-op she volunteers for. When she came in, we grabbed a taxi and went across town to her school again. The taxi driver didn't take Marcia's advice about how to get there (and to avoid the road construction), so we ended up getting out of the cab somewhere in the barrio and walking the rest of the way.

We spent a couple of hours at the school. I shot video while she interviewed more families who've been invited to apply for scholarships. More great video of the kids. And mothers. And the barrio. And kids in the barrio. Their faces really light up when you flip the LCD screen around so they can see themselves on the screen.

I got more barrio video as we walked to the main street to catch a taxi. Once at the main street, just a block from the cemetery, I noticed we're standing in front of a pool hall. I start evaluating the chances of getting video. Then a young man in the back of the pool hall starts shouting in Spanish. Marcia says he's inviting me in. So I go in and get super cool shots of barrio guys shooting pool. Nice guys. We might hang out later and drink beer. Maybe do some pool hustling and win some cordavas ($$). If you don't ever hear from me again, that's what I did.