Attack of the Ticks

 School is nearly out; the tiniest faint light is beginning to appear at the furthest end of the tunnel. The kids think the light is right in front of them... and we're still 5 weeks away. That's a long time with 105 checked-out 12-year-olds. I've been doing as much student led activities as possible. Right now were designing simple machines using Google SketchUp in the computer labs. They love and I get to feel like I'm in the middle of an Architecture studio running around.

 Pinta the puppy

Another fine weekend relaxing at the beach. Two friends and I camped out on one of our favorite (not as much anymore) surf spots. La Caleta is a inhabitantless beach a fifteen-minute boat ride from the nearest town. Except for one old man who has lived there alone for 40 years. From what we gather, he was fed up with life in his hometown of Las Varas and packed up and moved to a deserted beach.

La Caleta on a better weekend---

This past weekend there happened to be some of the smallest, slowest waves we'd seen in a while, so we lounged around the beach with the puppies and chickens that belonged to Juan (the hermit). After a day of PB&J we decided to explore a trail that led to nearby Chacala. Juan informed us that the walk took about an hour. The sound of a juicy steak burrito could not be resisted.

We took of down the trail sweating as the jungle sun beat down through the canopy. I was sweating profusely and attracting all kinds of bug life. I batted at mosquitoes with my shirt while trying to fan myself at the same time. This hike seemed to be taking forever and was becoming increasingly uncomfortable. Was this really worth a burrito I thought? It was at this moment that I glanced down at my itchy legs to see what appeared to be freckles. I stopped to find that the luckily I hadn't grown new freckles, but instead was covered in ticks. Probably over a hundred of them were swarming up my legs and underneath my swim trunks.

I screamed out to my friends and they stopped to find themselves in the same predicament. The three of us stopped dropped our shorts where we were and began the process of removing every tick we could see. All the while I was hopping around yelling in discomfort and terror. We removed a good 50 each and then ran towards town and the ocean. I sprinted through all the people into the Pacific hoping the ticks would drown.

They didn't. We sat down for burritos and spent the next hour removing and killing ticks. Now I'm just hoping there's no crazy tick diseases down here.

A video test for my new 1st person camera at La Ticla, in Michoacan