Long time coming

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I don't know what happened, but before I left Bocas del Toro, I posted a new entry but it never got put up. Basically, Tortuga Feliz was awesome, as was the rest of Carribean CR. Bocas was so/so. Now we are at Lost and Found in Chiriqui provence, Panamá.

Now we are in a town called Gualaca about half hour drive from the hostel, no headphones. It's a lot warmer down here than at the hostel! Here's what we've been doing:

Monday: We arrived from Bocas after about 3 hours of travel. We had to walk up this really steep hill, but very quickly we learned that Lost and Foiund is in an amazing place. There are views of Volcan Barú and at times the clouds engulf you. The sunset was spectacular and we had chicken curry for dinner.

Tuesday: Kendrick and I did the hostel's treasure hunt. They've set up a series of clues on the trails around. We swam in the river and found the final clue back at the hostel about 6 and a half hours later, earning a free bottle of wine. You can buy all sorts of stuff from the hostel. Snacks, macncheese, rice, dinner made by a volunteer, cereal, milk, beer, rum, wine, juice, eggs, bread.

Wednesday: Our wolf pack dwindled back down to 2 when Maria and Nicole left to continue their journey. I stopped taking my malaria pills because there isn´t malaria here, and I won't be back in a place that has it. We met with one of the owners (Andrew) and went over volunteering stuff. Just hung out and enjoyed the day. Kendrick and I sat and talked around the fire ring. Foosball tounaments by night-I'm not doing so hot. Winners get a beer from the losers.

Thursday: Our first shift as volunteers started at 7 am. Duncan is the assisstant manager, from Austrailia. He and Orla from Ireland showed us how to do inventory, which is the morning shift's job. We checked in a few new guests and pretty much just had a lot of free time. We moved to the volunteer house--about a 10 minute walk from the hostel down a trail. The house definately has some character to it. Kendrick and I are sleeping in a room that sounds like the roof is going to blow off every now and then. The wind has been ripping through that area recently. It was a hard first night of sleep there. A man named Hayden from Australia was staying there. Last year he got lost in Laos for 11 days and barely survived. His story is miraculous. NBC and Discovery Channel are going to do specials on him I believe. Meeting him only reinforces the addage, 'Never judge a book by its cover.'

Friday: They offer a number of tours at the hostel. Since we had the day off we went on Don Cuni's coffee tour. Cuni is a grandpa that owns and operates a certified organic farm. He's very unique and special. He stopped using pesticides in 1990 when he noticed that he himself was feeling sick. He made us a special stew for lunch--I think mine had chicken lungs in it. We got to sample his homemade fruit wine. I bought some of his hot suace. I can't wait til we run out of the store bought coffee at the hostel because then we start brewing Cuni's coffee. I started reading The Mosquito Coast. Helped Laura mash garbanzo beans for her dinner in the dark--the electricity went out. When the lights came back on, everyone cheered, it was quite the seen, a full house last night. People from all over find this hostel.

Today: Kendrick and I are making a grocery run now, stopping first to use the internet. We have a full kitchen and fridge at the volunteer house. Volunteers at the house are: Duncan, Trevor, Emma, Orla, Kendrick, Me, and Andrew. Trevor and Emma arrived the same day we did. It's much warmer down here in Gualaca!

So we are going to do a 2 week volunteer thing which will put the end of our stay around the 18th I believe. We will be doing different tasks as well as the basic running of the hostel. For example, they are trying to create a new treasure hunt that will last days, so we'll need to do reconisaince on that.

Sorry I'm not keeping up the blog very well, but hope this helps y'all keeps some tabs on me.

CRS

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Comments

[Mandy and Rob]

http://anewlifeincyprus.blogspot.com/
Greetings from Cyprus, enjoyed the blog http://anewlifeincyprus.blogspot.com/