Bed at Nols, originally uploaded by funchilde.

So, um…yeah. THIS is where I am sleeping. NOLS has a bunkhouse with 6 or 8 rooms that sleep up to 4 per room. It is rare that there are that many people in camp at the same time so I have a room all to myself, and it is actually quite comfy. It is about 12 ft high, 7 ft wide and 9 ft deep. Yes that is MY pillow that I have dragged cross country because I’m crazy like that.

If you look in the upper right hand corner you will see a drawing of the Virgin Guadalupe, she’s a VERY big deal down here. There are shrines to her all over the place. Supposedly she offers protection and safe passage so uh, yeah I’ll rest my head here and let her watch over me.

And now some things about travel that you should know. Kind of a little Public Service Announcement.

1. Birds are EVERYWHERE and they are loud. They have lots to say to one another and they start sayin’ it at 5:30 a.m. every.single.day.

2. All those cartoons that led you to believe that Roosters crow at the crack of dawn to signal the sunrise? Wrong. Oh, so very wrong. When do Roosters crow you ask? When ever the hell they want to. This generally seems to happen when you are trying to GO to sleep, when you are ALREADY asleep, or when you are stuffing earplugs in your ears to maintain your sanity.

3. I woke up one morning thinking that there was some major construction going on in the compound. It sounded like one of those jackhammers that road construction crews use. I couldn’t believe that they would start work at 6a.m. When I got up to see what was going on? Kevin informed me that the resident Woodpecker liked to peck on the roof of the bunkhouse. excuse me, the CORRUGATED TIN ROOF of the bunkhouse. This Woodpecker is also known for sitting on the door of cars/trucks and pecking his reflection in the mirror (which i did witness).

4. So I’ve been harassed by a hummingbird, roused by roosters, chased by chickens and had my nerves worn to shreds by a woodpecker.

I’m so not in love with nature right now.