Xs Memories Santa Clara

... that pour out at<br>this location, so you can see one big water fall that is surrounded by<br>all these other waterfalls that are pouring out of other streams and<br>sometimes just right out of the rock. I've taken pictures, but there is<br>no way to capture the glory of this spot. <br><br><br><br>Richard and I are hanging out at the house today...cleaning, painting,<br>doing laundry and stuff like that. Tomorrow, I go to Boquete for<br>Spanish ...

... hopping from car rental shop to car rental shop pricing it out.<br><br>I started out driving, we hit a super market and wait for it&#8230;&#8230;MC DONALDS!!!! We&#8217;re a bit ashamed to admit it, but french fries were calling our name. It&#8217;s freaking hard to order McDonalds in Spanish, at least when you know as poquito as we do.<br><br>We made our way to our &#8220;hotel&#8221;, Rancho de Caldera. When we booked, we researched a lot, go ...

... San Blas where our boat to Columbia leaves from, but we have been amazed by what a beautiful and friendly country it is. We are now taking our time discovering great little towns and villages. We hadn't spoken to many people who had been to Panama but we have a very thin guide book and are slowly working our way south. One of the first places we visited was Bocas de Toros, a very beautiful group of islands with great snorkering and beautiful beaches. We spend a lot more days here ...

... was pretty rough. We also visited a number of gardens which had very beautiful flowers. Yesterday we got 2 buses from Boquete, one down one side of the mountain and one up the other to Guadaloupe, a tiny village. This is the starting point for the quetzal trail- an elusive blue bird which inhabits this area- which were we planning on doing tomorrow, however weve just found out the trail is closed so were not doing it anymore, which is kind of good because its about 6hrs ...

... and I practically in unison said we'd take it. It was HUGE with a double bed for each person and air conditioning. And to boot, it was right next to where the bus Cory was taking from Panama City would be coming in. We expected Cory around 9pm so Joseph and I waited outside from about 8:30 to 10. Bus after bus from Panama City came in and he wasn't on them. ¨Great,¨ we thought, ¨he's probably stranded somewhere in Panama City and we have no way to contact him.¨ After waiting for ...

... any more! We got up early the next day to head onto the ferry back to the mainland. It was a smooth ferry ride for an hour or so, we then got on a few buses and arrived at our next and final destination in Nicaragua, San Juan del Sur. San Juan is a small, heavely touristy beach town on the pacific coast and only about 45 minutes from the Costa Rican border. We stayed here for a couple of days but generally didn´t like the tourist tax that was imposed on us, as the ...

... here with a couple of Canadians who are staying here whilst the land thy have bought is got ready for them to move into. The site itself is very reasonable with the exception of the toilet and showers. It is not an error when we write toilet, there is only one, plus one open sink and two open showers with only cold water. Not really what we expect for $19 a night. We also got the car tonight ready to go into town tomorrow. 7th - Set of to ...

... already portaged a class 5 when we reached a class 4. The guide decided to run it. We wedged between two rocks just above a 3 foot drop. The raft flooded taking some oars and the current tried to push us out. I was in front trying to hold position and Colin started being swept to my right. I was worried that he would be swept under me but the guide helped him onto an exposed rock. I started to get on the rock too, but the raft became ...

... enough to bother. Fred and I were each able to do what we like at the beach here in Santa Clara. Fred likes to be under a palapa, reading a book, in the shade. Here there were great palapas with 2 hammocks underneath. So we both had our own hammock to lie and read and listen to the waves. The palapas were just off the restaurant, in the sand, so we could get drinks and food at the palapa. I on the other hand, love to jump ...

... like toads, but bigger and made of steel. Our group of 35 Americans took over this small Panamanian town for two and a half months. Half of us were trained in sustainable agriculture techniques and my group was trained in community environmental conservation techniques. I can't even begin to cover everything I was taught during training, but the highlights were reforestation techniques, gardening with organic fertilizers, identifying local flora and creating Estufas Lorenas, clay ...