The Life of Cheese: From Their Udders to Your Mouth.

This trip just keeps getting better and better…

Woke up around 6:30, took my first hot shower in well over a week, then helped Marcelo in his daily chores: First, we drove around selling jugs of water and

buying food for the hotel's restaurant before taking a quick break for breakfast. Next, we joined Marcelo's brother in a huge truck full of empty water jugs and huge milk casks and began an 8 hour journey to his relative's cheese processing plant just past the city of Jama and back. Along the way, we collected milk from various places (including Pedro's ranch) and dropped

off the empty water jugs at the purification plant. Marcelo drives one of five trucks that collect easily hundreds of gallons of milk every day and take it to this plant, where it's turned into delicious Ecuadorian cheese (basically mozzarella).

After filtering the milk into vats

for processing, we cleaned the empty milk casks, loaded them back onto the truck for tomorrow's collection, and headed back to Cojimíes, stopping once to replace a blown out tire, and once again in Jama for lunch - cow's foot soup, beef, and possibly the best ice cream I've ever had.

By the time we got back, it was already pretty late, so I quickly picked up some limes to help get rid of my

cold (result of the climate change) and headed to La Casa del Niños to wait for a bus, where I encountered Sofia and some usual suspects hanging out in the street. The topic of conversation was dancing, so I attempted to give swing lessons (I was not successful).

When I got back to the ranch, read some Treasure Island (yes, it's about 5th-grade level) and was again invited to dinner with Josefa and Wellington's family. Shrimp, rice, lentils, and plantains, all delicious as usual. Good conversation, too, as my spanish is improving, though not as fast as I'd like it to.

Happy 4th of July!