Light Day and Trip Preparation

Today we started a bit lighter after breakfast learning how to put the tents we'll be using on our camping trip tomorrow. Although we weren't hiking up and down, the job of finding the right holes and poles to a tent is definitely not straightforward, so that took a little while and a bit of advice from our counselor Amelia. The funny part about it is that the smallest boys decided to stay together - Rafa, Cadu and Gabriel from France - and the biggest boys really wanted to fit all in their small tent - Dani, David and Alejandro from Mexico. Girls were forced to mix, one German with one Mexican. They were all quite happy with the arrangement at the end and succeeded in putting up their tents all right. Next, we headed to the dorms to learn how to pack our bags and the most of the space inside it. Great tips! And since we still had about an hour to lunch, we stayed out and learned how to craft bracelets out of colored string, and made beautiful ones that we are now wearing.
After lunch we went down to the village for the first time to buy some snacks at the market and hang out for some time around the stores. Good time to walk around with friends and enjoy another gorgeous day in a very pretty village.
Night time was very fun with games outside and the Counselors' Talent Show. It was all interactive and the audience was split into teams that competed for a special prize snack before bedtime.
As I'd mentioned, we head out to our 2-day camping trip tomorrow (Thursday) morning and will be back late afternoon on Friday, so we'll be back with more adventure after that. And stunning pictures, I promise! This time we're going to a new lake I can't pronounce the name yet, but it's a nice hike, they say. Please cross your fingers so we don't find too many mosquitoes this time, You wouldn't believe how many bites Dani and I got...

Stay tuned for more in two days!

Rock Climbing and Kayaking

Yesterday was an extraordinary day of overcoming our inner fears and being empowered by the strength we all have inside. In the morning, we went rock climbing and we already had quite a few people anxious about what they were going to find. This time, Tamwood hired a specialized company to do the whole training and bring the necessary equipment (even shoes!). It was just moving to watch as everyone participant was welcomed by this trained instructor and all his or her teammates would cheer to help him/her overcome the obstacles. The result was fantastic! Everyone was able to get to the top, including myself! The feeling is undescribable, because when you get down to the ground there's a rush of adrenaline through your body and you feel like a hero and able to conquer whatever you want. Well, I learned so much from the experience that I'm sure the same thing happened to the kids. Cadu and Rafa tried out the last adventure, which involved  walking over logs and lines way up in high trees, and at the end throwing themselves down a "Tarzan" rope. Impressive, indeed.
I thought the morning was enough for a week of adventure, but not really. In the afternoon, we went kayaking, and that involved carrying, preparing and of course, paddling. The day looked amazing and Rainbow Park is one of the most beautiful lakes, with all the snowy mountains in the back and the perfect green grass surrounding this shiny lake. We paddled quite a bit, played a game on the kayaks and only Cadu volunteered to go. You had to run across all kayaks that were lined up, as if it were a piano, and try to go back to yours. Naturally, everyone fell in the water, got all of us wet and laughed a lot. At the end, the hard work of carrying everything back and putting it up on high racks. Great workout!
Do you think exercising is over for the day? No way! We're Explorers and with us there's never a moment's rest. After dinner we went swimming at Meadow Park Centre, which is someting like a public club with a variety of pools and other sports as well. Kids played water basketball and jumped from a rope again, only this time in the water. Super fun!
Our Adventure Group has something very special to it: all kids have already mingled and interact really well already. Besides, there are no issues with whiny kids or bored teens, everyone's up to everything, and what's most special, this time they have me as teammate too, so I have to correspond. I'll do my best buddies!
Today it's camping trip preparation and some lake in the afternoon. We'll be away camping Thursday and Friday, so you might get news only on Saturday morning. I'll try to write the soonest possible.

See you then and enjoy our new photos!

Canada 2013

What time is it? It's time for adventure! Let's go Explorers!

Welcome to our 2013 trip to Canada, speaking now straight from Whistler. We are a small but very sharp and united group - me and my Three Musketeers. Our airport run was absolutely smooth and my partners can lead the way ahead of me, so no worries there. The trip is long though and it takes quite some time before we get to Whistler.  But, like I said, my trio's bold and brave. So, as we arrived to the camp, we were welcomed by smiley counselors who helped us get settled and integrated as Adventure Group. We are a very diverse bunch: 4 Mexicans (2 boys and 2 girls), 2 German girls, an enthusiast French boy, our 3 Brazilian boys (plus me) and our 2 French Canadian counselors, both from Quebec, a man and a woman. From the experience up to now, I can say there's never been so much English going on for our boys and they don't even mind it. We just came from a game night at their school in Whistler Village and you wouldn't believe them playing with this Italian boy and a British counselor a very funny card game called "Cheat"; everyone laughing at Daniel for not being able to disguise his cheating. Pure crosscultural fun!
Now to what matters: the adventure! Today we went hiking on Cougar Mountain and were surprised by clouds of mosquitoes that wouldn't leave us no matter what repellent we used. Final count of the day: many lumps of bites all over the body, and even under our clothes! When we stopped to eat our lunch snack, it was just impossible to eat with those bugs eating us up, so we just walked around, up and down to be able to swallow the delicious sandwiches we brought. We managed to get the bus to pick us up earlier so we could be saved from so many bites. Later, we went to Lost Lake, which sort of translates as their Copacabana, because everybody goes down there for a good swim, suntanning and hanging out with friends and family. It was quite busy there today with such warm weather. We swam, played cards and, why not, hiked a little more, Back to the camp, we had dinner and then went to their school for games.
Oh, there are fireworks going on outside! It's Canada Day! Horray!!
Here are some photos of what I've described so far...