"In Service Training"

Six of us have made it this far. Not all of sound body or mind, as you can tell from our group photo:

Left to right: Kirsten, Lance, Thomas, Me, Jon, and Dylan

We got brought to Iwokrama, which is a protected area in Region Nine, for our next training session. Most of it centered around Wildlife Clubs, which is what every Environmental Volunteer except me is working on. We were supposed to be working on things like how to teach compass use and mapping and things like that...

Junio working diligently, as usual, while the rest of us goofed off

...but most of us were far more interested in being silly, or getting distracted by anything that hopped, crawled or flew. In my defense, it was a week of whole-day-long meetings that had little or nothing to do with any of my work. We'd been doing almost nothing but Wildlife Club trainings ever since we swore in, and I am not doing a Wildlife Club. (Side note: when you're in the Peace Corps, you're supposed to choose your work based on the needs of your community. Since my situation is so different, it wouldn't make much sense for me to do a club, so I don't.)

I don't even think they were looking at anything

Blue and Gold Macaws

Our morning visitor

We very much enjoyed a night boat ride looking for snakes and caiman (well, most of us did. Stephanie, the training coordinator, was a bit nervous and less than enthusiastic about both the darkness and the reptiles), and a stunning hike up Turtle Mountain. 

See? Junio is psyched for this

Stephanie refused to pet this guy for some reason

I do not understand how the guides can spot these snakes in tree branches in the dark, from a boat driving past. It's magical.

Lance enjoying the view from the summit

Junio, Carey, and Ken

The view from the top