ENOR-moth progress

Half an hour out of Bogota, we were still in the mountains and climbing
up into the clouds and mist, with over seven hours ahead of us due to road
conditions. It was a long, long ride after a long, long ride.

I’ve been back “in country” for really four days. I can’t count the first day since it was spent getting from the airport to the hotel and into bed, collapsing after an 11-hour bus ride from Jacksonville, FL to Ft. Lauderdale (and no sleep at all!), as it was the least expensive way to transport myself and my baggage to Spirit Airlines.

I chose Spirit this time because the fares were incredibly inexpensive. Guess what? Everything comes with a price... including cheap fares. They nickeled and dimed me nearly to death, charging me huge fees for even the first bag, and the final cost was pretty close to what it would have cost me to fly on Avianca or Delta with less hassle. Guess I won’t do that again soon.

Well, I won’t be doing it soon anyhow as I have my visa and can stay for up to a year now...depends on whether I go to Colorado this summer or not.

Gratefully I am back into my artistic mode, speaking Spanish daily and today I am off to a ceramic class that will last for about a month - free! As a resident I am entitled to take a variety of classes at the ‘taller’ at no cost... yippee!!!

Tomorrow or the next day I am starting an art project using oil paints, converting a sketch I made last year into a full-sized painting. All these efforts are geared toward my goal of having enough creative works to show something off by the end of my year here, to prove that my time was not wasted and to prove that I really am the artist I have always felt that I was.

This is also an ENORmoth (sorry) bug... measures at least
8 inches across and moves enough air by flapping about
that I confuse it with the more silent bats.

The trip from Bogota was mostly in the rain, as March began the rainy season here. It is mostly cloudy in Barichara with rain at night, sometimes very light and sometimes with more force. But the rivers are flooded and creating more problems after only a three-month hiatus from the desperate situation late last year.

My casa was dusty and strewn with leaves, spiders had moved back into residence and this is also the year of cicadas, which means they make very, VERY loud noises and sometimes come into the casa. So I have been kept busy sweeping and dusting and getting settled again. But this time I can really unpack as I do not have any deadline to dance to and it feels really wonderful to wake up to the sun and my new life here. 

This is one HUGE cicada, in my opinion. I think he is
considering using my art supplies.