Cliffs and Caves for today

**Forgive me... I just re-read through this...and it's a bit disjointed, but because the internet cafe is about to close, I'm not going to go back through and rearrange...

Tonight I'm updating from an internet cafe... plus I don't have all my notes with me. It's amazing how all our activities start to run together. As I was starting to write this, I turned to Hannah and asked her what we had done today.... momentarily lapse in brain function!

The Cliffs of Moher... wait till you see those photos! I had never even heard of the cliffs until I started learning about this itinerary. They are spectacular. There's also a castle on the grounds - well, it was probably more like a watchtower. We were there probably close to an hour and a half. We could have all used more time. One of our delegates told us he/she (?) had read that these cliffs were the last thing people saw as they were leaving Ireland to immigrate to the U.S
BubbleShare: Share photos - Play some Online Games.

After the cliffs, we headed to Aillwee Cave. That was pretty cool... strolling through the caverns , seeing the waterfall. It wasn't a very long tour... maybe 45 minutes. The cave stays at a constant 50 degrees. it was interesting. We learned the story of Jacko McGann who discovered the caves with his dog...who was chasing a rabbit...and when the dog disappeared, Jacko parted the grass looking for him, and discovered the caves!

Leaving, we passed a lot of different sites... a castle, a rock formation where they found the bodies of something like 16 women and children - back in the 1700's I think, and more...

The country is just beautiful. One thing we constantly see are rock fences... they're more like a border between properties. Our guide told us people who owned the lands use to have the peasants clear the properties...and when they were clearing rocks, they stacked them up into the fences. Just put this picture in your mind... lush green rolling hills, rock fences dividing the land into different sections, beautiful homes - many painted yellow - dotting the land, steeples and tops of castles on the landscape every so often...and for us, variations in the colors of the clouds...
One guide told me this had not been a good summer - because of the weather. When I told Sam that, he laughed and said the summers are always like this!

For most of the day, we were in an area called the Burren. It's beautiful... but very different than anything we've seen. It is compared to a lunar landscape... but there are 30 different species of iris - out of the 36 varieties in all of Ireland! Same with butterflies... lots of butterflies.

There is a big game going on of Gaelic football with our guys... they came into dinner hot and sweaty... but as soon as dinner and announcements were finished, they were off to play another game.

That's about it for today.

I have no idea if I'll be able to post for the next 3 nights. We start our home stays tomorrow afternoon - after visiting another castle. The kids - at least the ones I've talked to about it, are VERY excited. All the students will be with at least one other....which they're also happy about. The leaders also are in home stays, so hopefully I'll have internet access. We'll get back together as a delegation during the day, and then go back to our families in the evenings...

Cheers!