Still in Boquete!

Here's my favorite little guy at the Paradise Gardens...Billy the Capuchin Monkey!!! He is only a few months old, and when we first arrived he had only been there a few days. He was so scared of people he did a lot of squeaking and running away from us. We really couldn't get near him...But, after almost one month, he is getting so brave! He now comes and sits on us and hangs out, pulls our hair and plays with us. He has learned a lot from his older monkey friend, Monty. It has been really cool to see him become healthier and less scared as we spend more time with him...

It's been very nice settling for a bit here in Boquete. It's been a month, and we will leave at the end of the week :( Volunteering at the gardens was the best move we could do while we here-we got to spend time with fun animals, and got to meet really great people! One of my favorite things about the gardens is that the people there are so nice. The owners, Jenny and Paul Saban, have created a truly homey community among the people that spend time there. When it's raining we all just sit around on the porch, drink tea, and chat (the owners are English, so our tea drinking has definetly gone up over the last month!). Since we have been on the move for the most part of the last 4-5 months, it is a different, enjoyable feeling to stop in somewhere and start to get to know people there. It will be sad to leave here, but there is more to explore of Panama...and then on to South America!

Time to stay put, for a little while.

We have decided to hang out here in Boquete, for about a month...We have been thinking that somewhere in Panama we would try to stop for a bit, and either work or volunteer somewhere. By staying in one place we will save a little money by not paying for traveling expenses every couple of days, and getting a deal on a place to stay. Plus, it's nice to unpack for a bit! We rented a little cabina right across the driveway from the cool hostel we were staying at. It is a pretty good setup for us!!

On our second or third day here we visited Paradise Gardens, and garden and wildlife refuge started by an English couple that retired here in Panama...After some time, they started taking on all sorts of rescue animals and trying to rehabilitate them. Three years later, they have a beautiful garden, bird aviaries that contain beautiful tropical birds, different monkeys and other animals. I am not doing the place justice in my inadequate description, but when we went for a visit we absolutely loved the place. We stopped back to ask if they could use our help, and we are now volunteers there!!! It is so fun!! We go there in the afternoons and give people tours and tell them about the animals, or do various other things to help out around the place...The other day I sawed down an orange tree (a first for me!) and put the branches in the animal cages for them to play with. We get to play with all the animals, and start to try to hand feed some of the rescued babies. What is so cool about this place is that it is just run on donations, and the retirement pension of the couple that started it! I think it will be a fun way to spend some time here, hanging out with animals and trying to learn all the plants that they have. Here is a picture of me with Precious, a Hyacinth Macaw. I have never seen a bird like this before, she is absolutely beautiful!

Country number 8!

We are back in Panama! Last week we visited Bocas del Toro, a town on an island called Isle de Colon, on the North Eastern coast, just below Costa Rica. It is the same spot where we spent New Years' 06-07. It was nice to revisit a place that was slightly familiar. Being on the road and seeing so many new things is really great, but it is a nice to change to have a little sense of knowledge of the place. I think I have forgotten that reassuring little aspect of familiarity! It was cool to go back there and remember that the white truck at the end of the road has a guy who makes the most delicious sandwiches in the town...We went several nights for dinner there, and told as many people we could about his yummy sandwiches- They all agreed. I think the sandwiches were still even the same price:)

I thought it would be boring to go back there, but we ended up staying for a week!! We had a blast and weren't bored at all. We went to the beach, we did a cool dive, and we even attempted more surfing (it didn't go so well this time, as we forgot the board wax and couldn't stay on the board because it was too slippery!). We stayed in a relatively new hostel, and we met some great people that we hung out with for the week. Bocas is a big party town, and it is extremely hot AND buggy. Not a fun combination. It was the strangest thing, we decided that around 7pm was the hottest time of the day...It was very weird, you felt ok, finally cooling off from the scorching daytime heat and then in the evening you started sweating all over again! So, the combination of staying up late, not sleeping due to the heat, and being eaten alive- Bocas kinda wiped us out...

Which leads us to where we are now. We are in the highlands, in a town called Boquete. There is supposed to be some good hikes and some hot springs here. For today, we are doing nothing...Relaxing and catching up on sleep, as well as enjoying the cooler mountain temperature! We are finally not sweating!!! And my bug bites are subsiding...

There is a serious need for editing down here...

Do you see anything wrong with this sign?
It doesn't make any sense!!! It was a sign that was in our hotel, encouraging visitors to book any excursions with them because they would allow a full refund if you would like to cancel due to rain, unlike other tour operators in town. A very good thing to have, as it really pours here during the rainy season!

Adrian and I have a great idea for a new business...Contracting Sign Editors for businesses all over Central America. We've been seeing signs, all over the place, written in English for benefit of the non*Spanish speaking visitors. This is a very good idea, obviously, but noone seems to execute it very well. The translations turn out very bad, and often don't make much sense. If you were a business owner and had the good idea to make your signs in English, shouldn't you go to a little bit of trouble to find a native English speaker to give it a once over?! I'm not trying to make fun, as I myself am trying to get by in a country who's language I don't speak very well...But we do find it funny that noone takes that extra little step to make sure the signs make sense...Or that there are no spelling errors. Just a thought!

Costa Rica!

So we have made it to Costa Rica...Like I mentioned before, the rainy season is upon us, but it´s really not too bad. It rains for a bit in the afternoon, or just at night. For us it just means that we now bring our rain jackets with us all the time, and try to plan it so we are not stuck in a downpour with all our belongings on our backs.

After the tropical storm passed in Nicaragua, the next day was absolutely beautiful. So, of course we headed to the beach and took surfing lessons! It was great! I was able to stand up after a few tries, and by the end of the afternoon I could stand on almost every try. Granted, I still had help from the instructor turning the board around and getting into the wave at the right time. Next time I try I´m sure it will be so much harder, as you have to do so much crazy paddling! But it was fun, and we will definetly do some more. I wish Christen were there to learn with me!

Anyways, back to Costa Rica...We just spent the last three days driving up and down the Western coast of the Nicoya peninsula. We beach hopped and drove between all these hard-to-get-towns. We rented a car because it was easier than using the bus for where we wanted to go. I know, renting a car-so luxurious!!! It worked out well, though. We went to Tamarindo and Samara as our two major stops, and checked out most of the beaches in between. The beaches near Samara were pretty nice, and you could find yourself all alone on a beach. Very nice...We just headed back inland and into the mountains, we are on our way to Volcan Arenal and then Monteverde Cloud forest.

Rainy season?

So we are now in Southern Nicaragua on the coast, in a town called San Juan del Sur. We were aware that the rainy season was approaching, so I was wary about how much rain we would get and how crappy things would be. About 1 week ago we were in Granada, and it did rain a few days at night. I mean, torrential rain. But when it rains at night it´s not so bad, plus it cooled things off. But this past week since Sunday it has rained a lot. Everyday, and for the past couple of days, most of the day...And now we are in the middle of Tropical Storm Alma!!

What makes it worse is that our friends Gavin and Lilly are visiting...And it´s just raining and raining! Normally we would just chill and wait out the storm. We want to do things and show them around, but there´s not much to do besides surf here. And we can´t do that in a tropical storm! Our initial plan was to leave here this morning, but all the buses stopped running because the roads flooded. It might not even look good tomorrow for us to leave here, or take a surfing lesson...We shall see...

Country number 6!

So we have made it to Nicaragua, quite easily. When we got to southern Honduras to get a bus onwards, we found out that the bus strike is over. That made things ok for us to get around. Right now we are in Granada, an old colonial city. It's very cute, all these old buildings and churches painted in lively colors. We have heard great things about Nicaragua, so we are reviewing our plan of attack so we don't miss anything here. There are a bunch of volcanoes, crater lakes, and beautiful beaches to see. Our friend Gavin is flying into Costa Rica on Saturday, so I think we will have them come up to Nicaragua for a few days and then work our way back south with them. There are places we don't want to miss by going to Costa Rica to quickly, and things we think that they would also enjoy...

I think tomorrow we will head off to a place called the Monkey Hut, a cabin on a crater lake called Laguna de Apoyo, do some swimming and relax. It is hot here, so I need to get to some water to cool off!