an ode to colonia:

well, the once dreaded passport renewal trip has been forever changed for the good in my mind.

this is what time in colonia, uruguay is usually like:
get up before 6am to take the bus to buenos aires. get to bs. as. a little before 8:00. check in and get on the boat to take you to uruguay. sit on the boat for 3 hours. arrive a little after noon. eat lunch. hang out. shop around. get on the boat again around 6:30. sit on the boat for 3 hours. get to bs. as. after 11. get on the bus to la plata. arrive in la plata around 1am so tired you don't even want to walk home.

but not this time.

i mean, sure, we got up before 6am to take the bus to bs. as. but, we decided to make a weekend of it and so we spent the night in a hotel on saturday night. we rented motos for the day and spent a ton of time driving them by the coast.

when i woke up on sunday morning, i felt so peaceful and tranquilo...a complete contrast to the emotional state i have been in these past few weeks. and it lasted the whole day. and it was so wonderful.

sarah and i spent the morning walking around, talking about life and the Old Testament, shopping, passing the mate back and forth. i finally found a mate i'm really excited about. then we went to eat lunch on the beach. meeker and i took a spill off the moto onto the sand and it was pretty hilarious. i was laughing as i fell. luckily i landed right on top of meeker and so i don't hurt at all. then we just sat around on the beach. the boys played frisbee and skipped stones in the river. we roasted marshmallows and put them in bananas. fantastic. then we drove around some more on the motos. a few of us went out into the country with them and it was so nice. then on the way to turn the motos back in, meeker saw these kids sliding down a huge hill on cardboard and we got off the moto and ran across the road to join them. so funny!

God knows just what we need. I love it.

besos, jess