panama

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Hi everyone, hope you are all well!
Before we start, our last blog entry (from Nicaragua) has been lost so if anyone has a copy, online or not, if you could lets us know, that would be most appreciated. I really can't be bothered writing it again and we have probably forgotten most of it.

Anyway, we are now in Panama, on a small island in the Cribbean (once again ;-). We spent our two weeks on the Chocolate farm in Costa Rica and had a great time. We would work for 4-5 houres in the morning and have the afternoons off (because it usually rained). We spent time digging ditches, harvesting cocoa , watering gardens, peeling cacoa, making chicken coups, roasting and grinding cocoa etc etc. You probably get the picture that life of the farm revolved around the production of chocolate or the powder at least. The work was a bit boring at times but it was the people who were there that made it such a good time, the family and volunteers alike.

In our afternoons we did a few different things. I got to play 2min of soccer for the local Mastatal Galacticos. Another day we went on a walking / tubing tour down a river. Carissa is not all that fond of rivers ( rapids really) so she wasn't having all that much fun to start with. The guide was really good though, took charge of getting down safely. Then at the end, we walked to a pool at the bottom of a cool water fall where we all went swimming. It was only at this point i noticed the guide couldn't really swim, so that was a bit of a laugh

From there we went to The Caribbean coast of Costa Rica with a French (Canadian) and an Aussie who we met on the farm. We spent a couple of nights enjoying the finer things after being in the middle of nowhere for a while (and eating rice and beans 3 times a day, not that i'm complaining!!). We where then all gonna go our own ways but turned out our own ways were all the same so we are all in Panama, on an island in the Caribbean swimming, snorkeling and still enjoying all the finer things ;-)

We went snorkeling today at a small point across the bay. While we were out, Francis popped his head up, eyes wide excitedly yelling "i saw a shark, i saw a shark!!!" . Carissa responded with "you saw what?" and then moved her self back to shore faster than i have ever seen her move in the water before.

Its our last night here, we are moving to Panama City tomorrow for a bit of an explore and then moving on to South America so i guess our next blog will be from there.

P.S. It has taken so long to get this published, we are now at the end of our stay in Panama. We visted the canal today (pics to come) where we watched a couple of ships go through. This was the highlight of the city. Apart from that, Panama City has been quite uneventful. Tomorow its off to South America and the start of a new adventure and we get to celebrate Carissa´s birthday on another continent.

Take care and love to you all

Josh and Carissa

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Photos

Relaxing Caribbean Style
ie. with a big bottle of rum (pic courtesy of Francis

Comments

[lauren]

la iguana chocolate
hey guys! sounds like your panama experience was good and glad you got to travel a bit with francis and courtney! ... carissa -- i'll let you know that leah and i went snorkeling on the caribbean coast and i saw a barracuda... not quite as exciting as a shark, but they are quite large and angry looking and i was also out of the water as fast as my fins could carry me!! all the best with your trip down to columbia. stay safe!

[Dylan]

Ups
Hey J-mo and Carissa, Howz it hangin' homies. Good to get your blog - i actually read yours! Im back in NZ. Just ran that army race in Dunedin hills. Back to school in one week. Hoping to get some good days up the club fields to shake off the Indian dirt. Peace kids - D