mon may 11th paraguas (umbrellas)

so the downpour has us running scared! we packed up our meager belongings and hopped the bus to david to crash at limon´s cousins xiomada´s casa. after a beautiful downhill through bamboo forests, trees and cows and a tipical panamanian meal our friends norielle and rosiri picked us up and took us to his house across the costa rican border. we are putting building the house in volcan on hold until the rain lets up. that night norielle´s son drove us all to golfito, san cudo bay where he has a huge beach house and bar-restaurant. it was pouring intermittently there as well so we made the best of it and walked to the point to explore and buy fresh corvina (white fish). rosiri fried it up with platanos from a nearby tree and we devoured it with habanero salsa. limon managed to knock down about 20 pipas (coconuts) for fresh ice cold agua di pipa....mmmm. we drove with them to the point burica a long point that is half panama and half costa rica, through a small town called limones =). it is miles and miles of gorgeous tropical beach and small fishing villages. we saw hundreds of young tuna jumping in a feeding frenzy while a young pescador threw net again and again to catch some. we passed through many pueblos and a huge petrol station with chinese, korean and american tankers that mocked the coastline with their girth (so gross).
a panamanian couple was stuck in the sand and we offered the help of the 4x4. once we had successfully pulled them back to packed sand we climbed the hill to continue the drive and saw them drive right back down the beach to find themselves stuck once again...our next stop was a couple friend of theirs who had recently lost their two sons in a land slide. we saw their new house very sullen and secluded in the middle of a farm and continued on to their old house. half the roof was gone and two of the back rooms were filled with sand, the walls destroyed. one room was perfectly intact- where the parents had been sleeping at 4am when the rain brought the hillside down last december. they managed to pull the oldest son who was stuck up to his waist in sand to safety but tragically the others were buried too deep. you could see the loss of only 4 months on their faces. and seeing the wrecked house was deeply moving. they were only one month away from moving into their new home. so sad.
after this we went to a greecian style (all blue and white, very santorini) hotel right on the sand! so many rooms and boats to use- a good destination for a group- who´s down? the rooms were crazy and had huge full grown crocodile skins on the wall as well as taxidermied turtles. limon says they may have been leatherbacks. in the trees near the beach we saw a group of monkeys with many babies, not howlers but definately howling, limon is really getting good at this mock call.
on our way back that night we came to a screetching hault as norielle avoided a sloth who had fallen from a tree onto the ground and broken his arm. limon and norielle grabbed a small fallen tree and helped him climb up back onto the nearest big tree, he was moving very slowly and painfully, using his teeth as a 4th appendage, but we think he will survive! so lucky we came along most people here would have either run him over or taken him home to make soup! a few miles before that we came across a black and red striped snake which we had run over.
that night we went to the bar and later took a long walk down the peaceful playa with a full moon to guide us. our soccer game got rough and we all ended up swimming in the ocean of gulfo dolce fully clothed!!!
on sunday we all piled in again and were off to a beautiful river that is a long rocky crevass. we swam and had a picnic, limon saw a black squirrel. that evening we took a long rocky unpaved road up to boquete, the back way, passing by the local hot springs in caldera (definately taking the bus back up here)!
boquete is strange and very americanized but sits in gorgeous, pristine valley at the top of the mountains. we could see volcan baru the whole time, it the preferred entry point for hiking the volcan, and the whole pacific side of the country. they have white water rafting excursions, a pizzeria and coffee shops.
my favorite stores so far were 3 ice stores in a row that had no ice and an internet cafe with no internet! now we´re off to guabito to fix up the little house limon bought from his aunt. buena suerte!