Extrema-bella :)

Well, the province we were in was really called Extremadura, but it was one of the most beautiful places I've seen here thus far...hence ExtremaBELLA. We started our excursion by visiting the Roman ruins in Mérida. I mean MAYYYYBE its not as "grand" as Rome's colosseum, but hey, this is as close as I'll get this trip :) and I'm more than okay with it. We also visited a Roman Ruins museum, and I may or may not have gotten yelled at for pretending to kiss the statue in a picture. Oops.

We then drove to Trujillo where we walked around town and stumbled upon a gorgeous old fort! This was the most beautiful thing my eyes have seen in a while. Unbelievable. The sun was at just the right height to light up the place, and the wind tumbling through (all of our) hairs!

I could've spent all day on top of this building taking pictures. Love love love love love. Happy happy happy happy. 

Our hotel was pretty neat, I mean, with API, when wouldn't it be?! We walked around this neat medieval market that was in the town center and laughed and played cards that night to rest up for our big hike the next day.

...and when I say big hike, I mean 10 miles! Since some people chose not to go, our director, Kepa got to bring along a few friends and family members. Included in this little group of Kepa's friends was his 70 something year old dad! And he did the entire hike like a champ, with a smile on his face. That was very very cool in my opinion. Some parts of the hike were harder than others, but it definitely tired us all out by the end. I'm proud that everyone finished...and in 1 piece! Well, 60 some odd pieces/people. You get what I mean.

This is what we saw as we walked up to our destination-- the monastery in Guadalupe. We SLEPT here. Yep, in a real, live, famous monastery. After a shower and some rest they fed us a fancy dinner that we sure deserved! We heard a rumor that there was a karaoke bar next door, so naturally we checked it out. Turns out, they don't do karaoke on Saturdays!!! But it was worth the extra few hours considering Kepa busted a few moves in the middle of the dance circle :) what a fun director.

The next morning we got a tour of the monastery. a REAL monk even showed us the virgen de Guadalupe. For Catholics, this is a big deal. Some people got to go up and kiss something important and religious.

Other than the sheer beauty of this weekend, it was definitely a weekend for bonding. I learned a lot about my friends here and got to get to know others that I haven't talked to much before.

La dee dah. 

Stay tuned to see how my LAGOS, Portugal weekend will be! I'll give you a clue......