COSTA RICA!!

We had to say goodbye to Panama this morning. We went out with a bang though because our friend Rebekah in Bocas was house sitting an absoloutely amazing house right on the ocean with a pool that was breathtaking even by American-Canadian standards. That a lot of fun. Today we took a boat off of the island and headed up the road to Costa Rica. We had to cross an old railway bridge on foot ( which was especially scary because we had to share the bridge with a semi truck) to get to the immigration building for entrance into costa rica. From their we took a taxi to a little sleepy town called cahuita where we found a nice little cabina on the ocean. We are planning on staying here until sunday. There is a national park here so i am looking forward to exploring a little in the morning. Adios

Plane over Panama

This is our video from the tiny plane we took back from the san blas area to civilization .. you can see some of the jungle ( no man´s land) and some of the little islands

Bocas del Toro

We are just spending our last night in Bocas del toro. We have been here for 4 days and have had an amazing time. It started off as a bit of a terrible adventure when we got stuck on a bus across the country for 14 hours ( our bus broke down in the middle of the night). We arrived in a little town called almirante where we took a boat to the main island colon of bocas del toro archipleago. It is a cool little town with a surfer feel to it. We ran into some witnesses who were out in service on our first day here and made plans to meet up with them the next day at the kingdom hall for service. That same day we attempted to get to drago beach on the other side of the island. When we finally got there we were so hungry that we ended up taking a boat to a restaurant on the water and we spent so much time there that we didn´t have time or any sun left to go back to the beach haha. We did get to see a dolphin swimming in the water though while we were eating!! The next day it poured as in torrential down pour but we still went out in service with 3 sweet girls from wisconsin kaeli, akela, and callie ( tongue twister). We were also invited to sleep at 2 girls house Jamie and Rebecca from Ohio which has been a lot of fun. We went to the english meeting last night which consisted of 13 of us ( with a little 5 year old on mic´s) and 2 brothers for all the parts. We all had a huge part in the meeting with all of the questions and answers. Today we took a boat to bastimentos an island nearby and we went in service there. It was very hot and very muddy and Jessica and i were quite covered in mud by the end of it all but i was able to start 3 bible studies with jamaicans that spoke english but read in spanish which i handed over to a couple of the girls here. We love Panama it will be hard to say goodbye to it tomorrow....

Here is a random video from our trip

I am just trying to see if this works im not even sure which video this is...

Kuna Say - Dee ge dee

Dee ge De !!! That means hello in Kuna the indigenous tribe on the San Blas islands that we went to visit. It felt as if we had just stepped onto the pages of National Geographic. It was a day full of adventure starting with a crazy jeep ride through the mountains in which we could look over and see the forboding jumgle of the Darien Gap ( no man{s land). Afterwards we took a boat ( if you could call it a boat it was more of a canoe made out of old boards) through the jumgle to the open sea. We had to constantly bail out the boat because it had so many holes in it and we had to actually jump into another boat half way but we arrived at the villiage of the Kuna finally. It was amazing the way that their culture is completely unique and fairly untouched by western civilization. There was no room for us in the hotel so we were shipped off ( not even told what was going on because of course no one speaks spanish they speak Kuna) to the Devils Island where the Kuna Grandpa Chime lives... and no one else... it really is just a desert island. There was not even a bathroom just a hut with some hammocks. (Although the Kuna don{t have much even in their town just huts over top of the water with a hole into the ocean for a bathroom). So we made a fire using palm trees and when that died we played with the phosphercent planktin( i can{t spell) in the water. We burnt very bad.. i have never felt sun so intense somewhere before. The next day we wound our way back to the Kunas island through the 50 other islands made up of sometimes only one palm tree and sand... but alas there was still no room for us in the designated toursit huts.. so we again did something tourists don{t normally get to do ... we stayed with an old kuna women in her hut she gave up the hammocks in her room for us. The next day we went by boat to catch a tiny plane so that we could get back to panama city. We are here now.. I hope you all enjoy the pictures!!!

Panama City at night from Casco Viejo

In the jumgles of Panama

River ride upriver Carti The Kuna Indians Villiage Kuna Women Mee me whose hut we slept in Jes in amongst the Kuna´s huts in Carti La isla Diablo we ate barracuda and spent the night on a desserted island

Panama City Pics..... FINALLY!!!

Panama Viejo the ruins of the original Panama City sacked by Captain Morgan.

View from our bathroom in Casco Viejo at lunas castle

View from our balcony of the panama skyline in casco viejo

PANAMA CANAL.. We saw 2 ships go through

Crossroads of the World

Hola
Jes and I are in Panama !! we love it here. We didnt have to many complications getting here. OUr only problems were having to race to catch our flight in new jersey and accidentlty lockimg our passports in a safe that we did not know how to work in our hotel in panama. We have already been to the canal and toi panama viejo the old part of panama that captain morgan sacked full of ruins. WE are happy in our place at lnas castle in casco viejo and we are leaving for san blas islands tomorrow where the kuna indian tribles live. Our pics are not uplaoding properly so i will try to post some later.
Adios

One Week To Go

With only one week to go i have been so busy getting all of my life organized. In getting everything together i'm afraid that i haven't had a lot of time to work on my photos or school work. I did manage to get out in the snow one day and take some pictures of my mom. Here are a couple of my favorites. Enjoy!