We´re BAAAAACCKKK!!!!!

Hola! Long time, no type. First things first...

1) Go turn on a light switch
2) Flush the toilet
3) Turn on the hot water tap
4) Don´t take it for granted



Whoowheee....Was Soloy an interesting/amazing/learning/and slightly amusing experience. No power, no toilets, no real roads...Wait, in all fairness there was a little "light bulb that couldn´t", which was powered by a solar panel, and a latrine out back. Yes, latrine. For those of you who are unfamiliar with latrines, it´s an open pit with a bit of a can (that bugs just love) and sheet for walls. (I said shEEt). When the pit is filled, you just move the can over a few feet. Watch your step!"Little House on the Panama?" It was an amazing experience. The bats flying just above your head during dinner, which was actually appreciated because they kept the bugs at bay, and the giant resident toad left nothing to be desired, well except your bug net at night. Again, whoowhee!

On the first morning we were there, we hiked up to some of the more remote communities. Beautiful, beautiful views. The landscape is just breathtaking. Thankfully, we saw no snakes that were breathtaking. On the hike we met a man who took us to see the local school. It was this old, run down building, with a huge rack of solar panels in the back! They were used, of course, to power the 27 inch tv inside.

The monsoon rains stranded Carli back in San Felix that night, so we were left to fend for ourselves again against the bats and bugs (and local gawking children). We were thrilled when we woke the next morning. We made it through the night!

We don´t need to wonder why one man described North Americans as "delicate".

The next day we ventured out again, this time all by our brave selves. By our selves of course until we made another local friend who was more than happy to show us his "special" rocks out in the middle of freaking nowhere. After I started to realize that these boulders were sacred (the white painted rocks that surrounded them, then the black, black painted rocks that were in the distance really tipped me off), I started to wonder about sacrificial practices and said "Boy howdy, am I tired!!!" (in Spanish) followed by "Tom, I´m scared." (in whispered English). We quickly followed the GPS bread crumbs back to the main ´road´.

In all honesty though, the man was very nice, and the indigenous people are so friendly and proud to show you their beautiful land and share in their community. As North Americans, who have watched too much tv, we weren´t used to this hospitality.

We hitched a ride out with Carli when she went and dropped off the study poop at the lab in San Felix. The two of us then beetled it over to a cabana on the beach of the Pacific. We found an awesome (cheap, cheap) place, with an awesome beach. We were so excited to turn on a light and run a shower. Well, lets not get carried away here. The lights were on until the generator was turned off at 9:00pm, and the shower was refreshingly icy. But, relatively speaking, this place was a resort! This morning we walked along the soft sandy beach, which stretched for nearly 20 kms. The tide was out, so we walked way out into the ocean and carved up our pineapple we bought the night before from the convenience store. It was an awesome experience. Come to think of it though, I´m not exactly sure the pinneapple was for sale, but when we saw it hanging out there all by its lonely self and offered to buy it, the woman quickly came up with a price, which was cheap to us, but she probably hosed us on it. Sometimes things are just a little more expensive for us than it would be if we looked a little more local... (can you believe they charged us a buck for a roll of toilet paper and bag of sugar?)

Today we are back in San Felix, but accidently left Carli´s umbrella in the taxi. I´m pretty sure he isn´t going to come find us to return it considering we drove such a hard bargain with him. Stupid us, walking away all proud of our success for not getting ripped off this time...We are heading to the store right after this to see if we can replace it before Carli comes home from the field tonight. I´m sure the dollar we saved on the cab ride will offset the cost of a new umbrella. It´s not like you need a quality one in the rainy season.

Seriously though...This has been a great trip. We have learned so much, we have experienced so much, and I think we have been doing a good job of making the most of the time we have here. And the time we have here together. When we got back to the house this morning, we found a poking stick and whacked some fresh oranges out of the tree in the back yard and made fresh squeezed OJ. Delicious. Did we mention we have seen pineapple fields, sugar cane, banana crops, and rice fields? In our own backyard, in addition to the orange tree, we have a lemon tree, avocado tree, and some unknown vegetables that are growing in the ground. We are planning on having them for dinner. Tom snatched up two eggs this morning from the backyard chicken coup. I stood on gaurd with a 2x4 stick to ward off any hen that wanted her eggs back. Thankfully, the peace was kept. Eggs for lunch!



By the way, does anyone know if there is a second verse to the Happy Birthday song???