Bocas to Volcan

Wow almost my bday. we've been here for more than four months and its been a wild ride. we finally finished renovations to the bocas house and rented it to some nice panamanians with a contract to build the new bridge from panama to costa rica at the sixiola border. we're traveling around a bit and stopped in Volcan to check on materials and the trees. they look great and have grown about six inches! we're headed to costa rica for a week to hang out at norielle's in golfito. we're helping him put his beach front bar/restaurant and house up for sale. know any buyers? we'll have pix in sept- its gorgeous and golfito is a bay so the water is very calm. after that its back up to Volcan to start the build. we have 2 truck loads of river rocks coming from the abundant rocky bed of chiriqui grande and will begin constructing our fence. our first project is to build a cabana, like the one we stayed in in puerto viejo, costa rica. all bamboo and local reclaimed wood. we're taking on the project ourselves to see just how hard it is to build. once we have the fence and cabana to stay in we're going to build the hearth and get the garden going... the big house is phase two.

we met our new neighbor today (from seattle haha) they're 45 and are moving down to start a coffee farm and community projects with the local indigenos. they are going to be great partners and are as altruistic and optimistic as we are- i guess you can trust people over 30. haha. Impressive research and knowledge of the area and the things we are looking into. It's just so nice to finally meet people down here who get it! the population is relatively ignorant and uninformed which is a real challenge. Resistance to change and pride leave people unable to experience new things and unwilling to participate in community programs. We have to educate before we can help. It's overwhelming at times but that's how we know its worth it.

oh and i'd like to give a shout-out to 3liz and Margalatate! Freshman year in University & high School! WoooHooo!