Weather: Sunny and 86, no rain

Today I was up and ready to head out the door for 7:30am. Today we had class at Lobería (yes...on a Saturday) which is a beach on the opposite side of town from where the university is.

The past two days in the last 15 minutes of class my professor has taken us across the street to Playa Mann and we've worked on breathing/meditating exercises. Some are too far out there for me but I went along with it thinking maybe I'd be enlightened. These little practices we had were preparing us for today. When we arrived at Lobería we walked past the beach part and got to some shade where we did some breathing exercises that involved imagining an egg around us and the more we breathed the more it expanded. After about 15 minutes of that we hiked up to the cliffs of Lobería where we did another existential exercise which was basically us just sitting in silence for over an hour. I really liked this exercise because on the way to Lobería Tammy told us to think about what we're grateful for, once we were on the cliffs she had us sit wherever we wanted and had us reflect on what we're grateful for. I completely absorbed the landscape and thought about how grateful I am to have the opportunity to be here in the islands. I'm grateful for my family, friends, and everything I have and everything I've been to do in 21 years. There was a point where I actually got a bit emotional thinking about Nana and Uncle Matt and how I am grateful they were in my life and how I wish they were still here. Sitting on the cliffs was surely a mental break and I've been pretty relaxed since being here but that was what my mind needed I think.

We hiked back towards the main beach and ran into some marine iguanas along the way. It's their nesting season, we didn't see any nests which was surprising but you do have to be careful because their nests are holes in the sand. Once we got back we met up with Tammy, she had left the cliff around 10:15 to head back to the main beach and told the guide to have us start hiking back at 10:45 however, we didn't start hiking back til after 11am. We got back to Tammy around 11:40am on the main beach. She was confused but realized it was poor communication on her part. We went to the main road leading to Lobería and picked up trash and plastics between a certain area, that took about 20 minutes and then we caught the bus back to town around 1pm. The trip was interesting as we were supposed to spend 2 hours picking up plastics instead we spent most of the time meditating. The wonderful thing is that there weren't any plastics to pick up on the beach which is why we decided to pick up trash on the road leading to the beach. There's no where near as many microplastics as there are on Puerto Chino, which made my day.

When I got back I was super tired as the entire day we hiked a bit over 5 miles in the direct sun and heat. I decided to just relax and read my book. I ended up finishing it which is my second book I've started reading here for fun! It's really nice being able to have down time and read as I haven't read for fun in I don't know how long. I remember in Quito I had a hard time on Sundays cause that would usually be my down day where I didn't have many plans. I'd be thinking about what my other friends may be doing. Here it's different in that I am focusing on myself and letting myself relax and do nothing whenever I get the chance. I view this journey as a way to disconnect and go at a much slower pace. My goal is to be as stress free as I can in hopes when I return the states my acne and stomach problems are no longer huge problems and under control.

Later in the day I went to the crepe place for dinner with Sara, Audrey, Olivia, and Adrian. I had a mozzarella, basil, and tomato crepe which was really delicious and was my first crepe ever. I tried the chocolate banana one Sara got and I was not a fan as it was way too sweet for me. After dinner, I got some icecream and headed to the pier to watch the sea life under the lights. Once my cone was gone, I headed home for bed. It was a great day filled with the perfect mix of relaxation, exercise, and friends.