Day 8: Sunday is a day of rest, innit!

I am woken by singing, lots of people singing and I hear clunking bells. I don´t know if this is because it´s Sunday or because it´s Father´s Day but it sounds like there are a lot of people out on the street. When I get outside, there´s nobody there! It must have been the radio?

My back is very sore and I am full of cold. I didn´t bring my aloe vera after-sun so I moisturise with my LÓccitane Precious cream sample pot. It won´t go very far.

I try and write in my journal but it´s so hot already I can´t concentrate. I wake Irina at 08:20 and breakfast is a quiet affair. She didn´t get back last night until 01:40. Nobody is hung over, just hot and tired.

I know what I´m doing today, unlike the others, who are faffing for a change. I am staying in town to wander round the shops but mostly I will be writing and getting my blog up to date.

Marten has to go to the hospital to get the insect bite he picked up at the beach yesterday sorted out - his foot has swollen so he can hardly walk. They give him an injection and has to take medication. Kate is like a lobster from sitting in the sun for so long yesterday with Marten but they all head off to the beach again.

I search out an ATM as I´m getting low on cash - there have been so many hidden expenses: taxi from the airport, the hostel room for 2 nights plus all meals while I´m here. I thought we were going to be at the station all the time - I suppose it makes sense we come into town on our days off to go on other trips or go to the beaches or snorkel or whatever but it would have been nice to know that´s what happens so I could budget for it.

I sit in the Hotel Casablanca for two hours and make my very large glass of Mora juice last! At $2 I need to make it last. It is delicious and very cold. Such a shame we have to cut all these plants down up at the station but it has to be this way when you see what effect they have on the endemic species.

I see my fellow newbies wander back and forth heading for whichever beach and though I´m sad to be missing watching the seals (I knew I´d be blasé about them before the weekend was over), snorkelling with them and the turtles, I don´t regret my decision to stay in town. With my back the state it´s in, I need to be in the shade all day.

I spend 2 hours in the Mockingbird café typing up my blog but I get such a crappy keyboard my progress is slow. Eventually I have to abandon this place and find an alternative internet café to finish off what I can in the time I have.

The taxis arrive at 4 pm to take us back to the station and it´s nice to be "home". At supper, we chat about our weekend and swap stories.

My room with Irina now doesn´t have a light, nor is there one on the landing. It´s really annoying as it´s dark by 6:30 and we need torches to find anything. It´s quiet in the Casa Neuva as most people have moved houses because the teachers/scientists/biologists are coming tomorrow to stay in our house. Our room is full of others´bags and with no light they are a hazard. I´ll be glad when the teachers leave and they haven´t even arrived yet!

I ask Cesare to cut me a leaf of aloe vera for my sunburned back and I share it with Marten, whose back is burned all over - but then he did actually sit in the sun for hours whereas I was in the shade! The aloe vera is so cool, shockingly so but I have high expectations that it will sort out my burn.