Family party in the pueblo

After Karla's graduation ceremony this week, her lovely family invited us to come to the house and celebrate with them this weekend. When Saturday rolled around, we woke up early and started our long journey to the capital. Usually it takes four buses and four hours to get to Karla's house but we lucked out by hitching a ride part-way with transport from NPH. After we got into the city we just had to grab one final bus that drove us out into the county for an hour. The amount of land that's considered part of the capital here is apparently pretty huge; after an hour of driving through the mountains and forests, we were still in the capital.

Her town was really cute and rural, it definitely seemed more my speed.

Cows just walk around and graze. No need for ropes.

Same goes for the horses. Just chillin.

Her boyfriend Alvin met us and walked us through the neighborhood to her house. Entranced by Vroni's beauty, he suddenly asked her to dance with him in the street

Or maybe he was just giving her directions. My mind's a bit cloudy. I'm glad we didn't have to trek up that big hill.

Karla's house!

I didn't know if it'd be rude to ask for a tour so I only saw a few rooms of her home, but it was really cute. This room was my favorite. It had an open wall with a sheet to block the sun, so it was effectively a Florida room. (Is that what they're called? I've heard that term before. It was a room with lots of sun and breeze, kind of like an enclosed porch. Quite cozy.)

We had an awesome lunch of roasted chicken, herbed potatoes, salad and dinner rolls. It was delightful :) The closest thing I've had to an American meal since being here

Volunteers are always happy with free food (that's not from the cafeteria)

Her little brother made this killer cake, made all the floral centerpieces AND did her hair. Totally awesome AND super talented

Mom and Karla exchanged speeches thanking one another and talking about how much they love each other. Lots of crying followed from all. Then Mom gave her a school ring

Group shot!

We started to get a little nervous at this point because we had a four hour bus ride back home and it was already 4:30p. Having a group of foreigners in the capital after dark is just asking for trouble. Luckily one of the people at the party offered to drive us down into the capital which would save us a bit of time. We all graciously piled into the back of his pickup truck (completely squished, but it was still more roomy than the bus would have been). It was an awesome way to see the capital, I felt like we were a tour group.

Cool view of a neighborhood in the city

Us leaving the pueblo

As you can see, Elena clearly enjoyed the ride

As did Charlotte

We actually all had a really good time. I only got slightly nervous once, and that's when we were going 80 on the wet highway. I had a passing thought about what my chances of survival would be if we happened to spin out of control, but luckily I was caught back up into the laughter and scenery and stopped fretting.

And then it started POURING. It just added to the sense of adventure though

The driver never stopped in the capital, he just kept on going. He drove the entire two hour trip to our house and left us at the gate of NPH. It was really nice of him and made a potentially stressful trip home totally enjoyable