Card readers rock, but not as much as computer literate Ngabes who speak English

This is Tess, my former trainer and my favorite person to pick on and make fun of in Panama. Ask her to say "creek." Anyway, I caught her off guard by putting my arm around her and she was so shy and nervous her tongue actually fell out of her mouth and she started drooling everywhere. Now, I'm usually used to girls drooling over me, but not to this extent. You really need to control yourself Tess...

Have you ever seen a Ngabe cooking pizza? Jessica sports her nagua and our delicious campo pizza made in Adam's co-op's kitchen. Below: Surveying her aqueduct line.

My hiking partner Laura and I at the summit.

One day Bejerano brings over this little cat (it's dead by the way). I'm not sure what type it is but I'm sure it's not too common. Their dog attacked it and I'm surprised the dog won - unless the mother wasn't around. It was cute for sure, but it was also bleeding...a fact which Bejerano didn't seem to mind.

A typical house in Jessica's site. Most of the roofs are penca (thatched palm leaves) with dirt floors. The women also wear naguas everyday.

So I'm sitting on Jessica's porch and this very old woman walks by me. I say hello several times but it was apparent she couldn't hear well. First she sat down by me, then she just kinda laid down and decided to take a little nap. Then Jessica said "¡BUENAS TARDES ABUELA!" and the women said, "Hon."

The cloud line from around 3500m.

My future Christmas card.

Of course one cannot have a giant mountain without a plethera of anntennas (anntenni?).

Another shot of yours truly.

So then Bejerano wanted a picture of the cat with his girls. They put on their best dresses and Erica and Geodessa posed with the bleeding cat. Ok, to tell you the truth, I saw this coming from a mile away....hmmm...Geodessa's pretty white dress....bleeding cat.....maybe a bad combination. But Bejerano and his wife were stunned that Geodessa's dress was covered with blood as they picked up the cat.

Then Bejerano prepared a rope to skin the cat. I sat there in silence with his mom watching him hang the cat by the neck. Out of nowhere, his mom makes a Saddam Hussein reference which caught me by surprised and I laughed outloud for probably 5 minutes with all of them. BJ subsequently skinned it and stuffed the hide with newspaper to make a rudimentary taxidermy mount. He also said something about there being many ways to skin a cat......ha ha ha... (I had to end this story with a joke)

Mi Jardin es Su Jardin (My garden is your garden....but you knew that) in Boquete. Ranked as one of the best public gardens in the world. Notice the rainbow, would you please freakin notice the rainbow?

The entrance to Volcan Baru National Park. You know, this is one of those cheesy pictures with a big sign to show everyone that you were actually there.

Sarah from Cali, and other unrecognizables (and Adam) hiking up. Colin, being the expert former backpacking guide, suggested garbage bags for our backpacks for the rain.

Jessica, Sarah, Adam and Colin (an expert former backpacking guide).

Laura and Jessica trying to stay warm. When isn't Jessica cold? Ok so there was 100% humidity as we were literally in the clouds. This made fire starting a little tricky and it wasn't long before we were all really wet. Luckily Colin, being the expert former backpacking guide, had a tarp along which we used to make a tent. I'm not ripping on Colin by the way, his tarp saved my life.
"Celebrating cero siete with six shivering sober spooners."