Blog day 21

 

Today was a very important day for taking surveys in the islands. The overall goal was discussed at a amazing self serve breakfast buffet of eggs, yuca bread, and juice. We found out that if we reached an additional 180 surveys today, then we would reach the required amount and the other survey days in the itinerary would become a free day to enjoy ourselves on the island. This was a crazy shock to everyone because in previous days we have been able to reach that amount so everyone’s hopes were high and eager to see what we could accomplish. Leaving the hotel with all our gear and ready to attack the streets, everyone got straight to work. We began by finishing up each store that was open or had a new worker to optimize our path. Unfortunately, this is the same strategy that we’ve used the past few days so most of the stores had already taking the survey and the survey is limited to someone only ever taking it once. Because of this, we had to limit ourselves to just the people that were walking the streets and the pier. Up until lunch, there weren’t many people out so our survey numbers were a little short when we took a quick tally eating at 1835 again. For food I stuck with what I ordered last time when went which was a bacon cheeseburger that was so good and gives Texas burgers a run for their money. Once lunch finished, we lost Dacey because she, Dr.M and Di were driving around the island and documenting all the hospitals, clinics, and pharmacies. With Daceys’ iPads being divided among us, we got back to work to try and reach the goal. We worked all the way up until 5 where Kendall did some quick math and let everyone know over the radio that we had reached our goal and we are official finished. Once hearing this, It was very reassuring that all our hard work had payed off and now we get some extra time later in the week to just ourselves. As a group we decided to collect our final surveys and to head back home to shower and relax before dinner. We hung out in the lobby next to the pool until going back to Bahia Mar for dinner where we enjoyed beautifully cooked chicken and sautéed vegetables and Dacey even made friends with some cute individuals on the other side of the window. We concluded the night with a walk along the pier before heading back to get to bed early and ready for our wake up time of 6 tomorrow to catch a ferry to Isabela.