june 4. 2015
waking up to this view was amazing! i posted it in the last post, but seriously, the views are unbelievable. since we went to bed about 8:45pm last night, we woke up about 7 and got going. i showered in the outdoor shower that overlooks the village…sounds risk-ay, but it’s totally amazing being half out in nature. jarom found a small store in the village, and grabbed some cereal and powdered milk…the girls actually didn’t mind that. we also got eggs from the local chickens.
we got ready, and the price’s hiked from their casa(a 20 minute hike) to our village. we hiked down our mountain, and met with nathalie(our homeowner) who also has a small casa in the village. she gave us a really great deal to rent that house for the 6 weeks, so we can have the village kids come there for us to do different schooling and fun activities with them. total immersion for us and our kids, hanging with the village kids. we’ll see how it goes, but we are excited to be able to interact with them more. and doug will be able to show videos and teach the kids about taking care of their teeth. while we were visiting with nathalie, the kids played in the large yard, playing badminton and other things. luciano at one point needed a smaller stick, and ran and came back with his machete and just started chopping away, fixing what he needed to fix. the girls were like-“oh, he just came back with a machete and started chopping stuff…it was so out of the ordinary to what we are used to, but it was hilarious!”
we stopped by hans’, saw some baby ducks, picked up a loaf of homemade bread, and headed to the docks to catch a boat to pana(20 minutes). pana is the bigger town where there are banks, restaurants, and the grocery. which is everything we needed. we walked a lot through the town, ate a yummy meal, and grocery shopped. it was awesome-they even had gluten free and “natural” products you can find in the u.s. right outside when we were shopping-a small parade went by. we also saw a girl making tortillas-which looked amazing. we jumped back on the boat-and went to the price’s to hang out and check out their beautiful casa. the kids played some soccer, we planned out our schedule, and relaxed for a bit. since we are in the rainy season, we didn’t want to risk traveling in the downpour, but also didn’t want to pay for all of us to ride the boat again…so jarom and i and camden rode the boat with all our groceries, and the price’s and alex and madison and nadia hiked from their casa to ours…let me just say, i haven’t hiked it yet, but i know it isn’t super easy-so this is pretty impressive! the kids in the village must hear when boats come to the dock, because three little boys, between the ages of 7-10, they look about 6 years old though, came, grabbed our boxes of groceries, threw them on their backs, and helped us all the way up to the house. i guess it’s a good way to support the village and let the kids work for some money.
we had fun playing games during the rainstorm, ordered dinner from hans, and the price’s headed home. we got ready for bed and watched a little of a movie. everyone did so great-especially after having traveled for so long just yesterday. luciano told cam he would teach her spanish if she taught him english. he’s getting a little too comfortable with us because sometimes he laughs at us when we use the wrong words…he’s such a great kid. jarom asked how much his machete cost…jarom is considering adding a machete to his carry-on. luciano laughed and said, “why?” like, that’s the weirdest question i’ve been asked. funny.
