Today we woke up and had a lecture about this eco-lodge from one of the workers who had been there for a long time. He told us about how this eco-lodge had started as farming land and then started housing visitors when the national park opened. Originally it was just the main building, but now there are about 20 cabins in a semicircle around the beautiful landscaping. In the future, they plan to add several more cabins in order to complete the circle. Our speaker had been working to help build the geothermal energy plant until today. He told us that building the plant had created a lot of jobs for people and now that it was almost finished being built, the jobs would be gone.
The worst part about breakfast was that our horseback riding and canopy tour trip was cancelled. It had rained all through the night and was still drizzling so they said that it was too dangerous for the horses to be walking in the mud. I was really disappointed, a canopy tour is something I have always wanted to do, but I will next time! Next, we all took really fast showers and got dressed up to go to the Ad Astra Rocket Company. Continuing to pack up all of our stuff that smelled terrible was getting gross. Doing a load of laundry would be really helpful for me and would spare everyone else from the stench.
The tour of the astronaut facility was actually really cool, I was impressed. They have some awesome plasma rocket technology that will help astronauts get places with much less fuel and clear space of the satellite and other garbage. Satellites are only useful in space for a certain amount of time, so finding a way to get rid of them will allow more room for new satellites and make work in space safer for astronauts. Of course they did not tell us much about their technology since it is secret and still in progress. NASA has given them the money to build an entire facility in Houston devoted to researching this technology. It would be amazing if this technology worked, and investing in it would be a brilliant idea, if it works. A risky business usually means a huge reward if it is successful.
Next, we drove to a few different local beaches for a short time just to waste some time. They were beautiful, I cannot wait to come back and spend time here getting some vitamin D. Continuing to the second home-stay in Corral De Piedra, we arrived to find the local children ready to perform some traditional dances for us. This welcoming was very cool, and helped us to open up to them. Dancing and playing games with the children was a great way to start our visit here. Afterwards, we split up with our families. Taylor and I were put with Zulay, her son Haraldo, and their puppy Danger. After a little bit of awkward conversation because this community had never had people spend the night with them, we went to bed. Unfortunately, this time we did not have mosquito nets.
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