San Antonio, Panama (Mar 31-Apr 1)
Met Nando at the bus station and then took an hour long bus ride to Balboa. We did a short walk through the jungle and then Nando ferried us across a lake in his hand made canoe to his village, San Antonio. Edmund was stung by a humongous wasp 20 seconds into the walk in the jungle. The village has 30 inhabitants, all native Panamanians. There was also one American Peacecorp guy (Mateo) there setting up internet for them and teaching them how to use computers. We sat around at night and watched their worship. It was really cool to hear there songs and see them improve on their instruments. Nando´s family couldn´t believe that Edmund was actually older than Richard! They all thought that was really funny. We slept on the wooden floor of Nando´s family´s hut. It was really cool! Everyone gets a mosquito net around them (like little forts!) and they all lie around and tell stories and laugh into the night. Nando´s uncle hates tight clothes so he is always wearing baggy stuff, they call him Batman because they say his clothes are like a cape… hahaha! Nando made Linda some beautiful earings and Edmund a really cool yellow frog necklace. Thanks Nando!
Despite the cool mosquito net forts we didn´t have a very good sleep on the wood floor. Nando and Edmund played soccer until Edmund had sweated out all of the fluids from his body. Nando took us to a waterfall in a small boat. The water level was too low so we ended up hiking through a swamp covered in lily pads and then through treked bearfoot through the jungle. Linda and Edmund both ended up getting ticks from that expedition. Edmund had about 4 and Linda had over 30. Haha Linda! We said goodbye to everyone in the village and hopped on a night bus to the Bocas del Toro islands.
Tags: Travel
esaunger