BIG NEWS! Auntie Lella came to visit! We welcomed her at Santa Marta airport with flying banners. When I saw her I burst with excitement. I gave her a million hugs and a thousand kisses. We had her to ourselves for the first weekend because Mummy and Daddy went away to a music festival. We went to a place called Palomino (on the Caribbean coast of Colombia), and stayed in a little villa on the beach. It had a big swimming pool, lots of hammocks and a bed for swinging on.
There was a massive iguana that lived in the tree and every time we came to the car there was a massive splodge of kaka de iguana on it. Mostly we chilled that weekend, and Bella and I made our special home made guacamole and nachos to celebrate Lella’s arrival with a glass of passionfruit juice.
The beach was wild but beautiful.
On the beach we played in the sand and dug big holes. We even did some maths lessons on the beach. The game was that we had to work out the sum before the wave crashed over the question.
Auntie Lella sometimes helped out with literacy at school.
Rob walked to our house every day from the local town and crossed a river on the way.
Rob’s river crossing
On an early morning walk, Mummy saw this man fishing with a net which was really cool.
On Thursday we had a school field trip to go and see some indigenous people. We were only expecting it to be a 1 hour walk, but it turned out to be a 3 hour walk, in the blazing heat with a rubbish guide. He wouldn’t tell us anything interesting about the forest we walked through, or the people we were visiting, and he kept taking loads of selfies of himself . One time he said the word ‘foto’ and so we handed him Mummy’s phone thinking he wanted to take a picture of us, but actually he was asking us to take a picture of him with the indigenous children.
The chief of the tribe gave us a friendship bracelet as a greeting present.
Bella and I gave up 2 of our small toys and gave them to 2 of the younger boys because the big kids weren’t sharing our gifts with them.
We were a bit surprised (but not surprised at the same time) to see a solar panel and a few electronics, especially since they didn’t wear shoes.
One afternoon we all set off to a horse riding stables. We got our horses. Mine was a skewbald called Pinto (!!!). Lella rode another skewbald called Ciara. Bella’s was a chestnut called Pepino. Daddy rode Shelby who was a dapple grey with pink flecks. Mummy rode a bay arab called Nellie who was a bit nervous. First we crossed a river and the water got right up to our knees! It felt cold but amazing. After that we cantered across the beach right in the breaking waves at sunset before heading home. It was an exciting ride.
Another afternoon we went tubing down the Buritaca river. Most people go on the Palomino river (which gets really crowded), but we had our river to ourselves. We went quite late in the day so it got a bit cold, and we had to hike up carrying our tubes which was hard work, but it was worth it!
And here is us in our hole to finish!
What a hole!