Hiking up the old road to Santa Maria

As part of my adult English class, I suggested that we could organize an outing once a month to practice speaking English outside of a classroom environment. The class was quite excited with this idea so we decided to hike up the old road to Santa Maria. Kevin and I had heard that this road is beautiful so we were both keen to explore it. We had planned to meet at 8 am at the Copey Learning Center. I really had no idea whether anyone would actually participate, so I was pleasantly surprised when six students showed up. The sun was quite hot, even at that early hour. We walked on the flat, paved road for about a half hour until we reached a fork in the road that lead up to the old road. This dirt road was quite steep for quite a long way, so we were definitely getting our exercise. It was amazing to watch Roger's young son, Brian, move like he was walking on air. No huffing or puffing... I have to admit I was a bit envious with the ease with which he seemed to climb the vertical slope. We walked a little over an hour in one direction and then turned around and headed back. During the whole hike, everyone spoke English. I thought they might fall into speaking Spanish to each other, but they didn't. It was great how they would ask how to say this or that. They asked questions in English and did their very best to answer each other in their second language. I was really happy (and proud) with the success of this event. Everyone agreed that having the opportunity to practice English outside of the classroom, doing an enjoyable activity, was a lot of fun and they said they look forward to the next outing.

The sun was beating down on us for much of the walk so we made sure to stop and drink water. Thank goodness Kevin wore his hat! Poor Frankie hasn't gone on a walk like this in a very long time, so she was completely exhausted by the end of it. Bless her. I, too, felt completely drained for the rest of the day. Later, we took Mary and Karen over to Martin and Clara's restaurant for lunch where we all caught our own trout. A very enjoyable Sunday!

From left to right: Leidy (her dog Yo), Victor (his dog Jack), Dina, Jose, Roger (Roger's son, Brian), Alba and Kevin (and our dog, Frankie).