September 16, 2012
Well, I know it has been a little while, and this blog is a
little late, but things have been getting kind of busy down here.
My dad just left after his week long visit to the jungle. I
think he had a good time, though the blister beetle did make an encore
appearance. After picking my dad up late from the airport on Monday night, we
headed back to the hotel for a couple of hours of sleep. My dad had the once in
a lifetime opportunity to head out the next morning at 3am in order to catch the first bus to
the Darien, so I could make it to my regional meeting. After 6 hours in bus, 30
minutes in scary minivan type transportation, and a total of an hour and a
half in boat (though about an hour of that was waiting at the port) we made it
to La Palma, the capitol of the Darien province. I had a great time, and I
think my dad did too. After the meeting we headed to a cute hotel and had beers
on the back porch. Most of the other volunteers thought my dad was a volunteer
too and were curious about where his site was—welcome to the group Dad!
The next morning we had coffee and the Panamanian version of
Beignets and hit the road again. We
made it back to Loma Bonita just in time for dinner and to set up the hammock,
which my dad spent just about all of his time in. We spent Thursday in Torti,
using the Internet and eating cheesecake and drinking beer!
Saturday, my dad, another volunteer (Sara) and I headed up
to visit the water source for the community. We have been having some trouble
with our aqueduct, which is pretty common in this part of the country. The
water source, which is a pipe in the river up in the mountains, gets clogged
after rains, and the filter connected to the aqueduct does not function
properly. The water committee of Loma Bonita has asked for my help in improving
the water quality in the community—they have more faith in my
abilities/knowledge of water systems than they should. Anyways, I have been
telling the committee that I would like to see the water source in order to get
a better idea of what we are working with. The committee, after putting this
off for months, decided that Saturday was the day for the trip. It really was
an amazing hike, and something that I was very proud to get to share with my
dad.
After we got back down, we headed straight to the cantina
and drank a caja (24 beers), and then headed home to scarf down some spaghetti,
shower, pack up and get on a bus to head to the city—my dad left early the next
morning.
All in all, it was a good trip, though not quite as restful
as I had promised. I was really happy to have been able to share so much of
Panama with my Dad; I hope he enjoyed it too. Everyone is still asking about
you Dad, and are disappointed that they didn’t get to see more of you. They all
want to know when you’re coming down again!
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| Big tree that the men now call dos Saras (they call me Sara in my community) |
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| Barney accompanied us to the Darien |
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| Trusty Darien Transport |
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| About to get on the boat out to La Palma |
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Full boat, there was also a box of very scared chickens. That green boat is the 'border control'
we were stopped by them at least 10 times on the way out. |
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| Lost gringos in La Palma |
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| Beers on the back porch |
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| Heading back |
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| Dad and Manolo, my community guide, on our way up to the jungle |
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| Me and members of the water community. The school and my house is way out there in the distance. |
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| Following our fearless guide... |
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| That little pipe in the background brings all the water to Loma Bonita. |
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| Water Source, notice pipe in river |
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| Learning all about water collection |
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Not sure what they're talking about--I don't think either of
them knows either. |
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| It's the PanaVersion of that Cesar Millan Dog Whisperer guy |
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