Howler Monkey

Sorry I've been so long to post something new. A lot has been happening these days, good and bad and some days I'm just too worn out to get out here and update everyone.

This morning we have Howler monkeys right outside our door. They make quite the fuss when the cars drive under them, it's pretty cool to hear them howl. I tried to get a few good close shots, I don't have my tripod, so I was a little shaky, but I think they came out okay. Hope you enjoy.

Stan and Smiley have been reunited

The neighbor down the road had taken Smiley the dog in after Stan left last October. Today they were reunited :)

Saturday Drive

Some photos I took on our Saturday drive, it was a slow overcast day so we jumped in the truck with the camera.

Lots of this flower around here.





This is Playa Big Creek, it's about a mile down from our house.



Playa Big Creek, looking in the other direction. The little hut belongs to the Hotel Playa Tortuga.

Bamboo

Huge Bamboo trees


This is about a mile from our home in the other direction, I love these vines hanging from the tree.

Island Path gets a new path

One of the local guys is helping us with creating a path from our front porch down to the cabana's and then to the driveway. Martin is doing a great job. You would not believe the heat and humidity these guys work in. It's got to be low 90's and humid, humid, humid. He has been digging these trenches all this week. Once the trenches are complete, we will add a block border, level the land, then fill with gravel. Then we can plant some flowers along the side of the path. Right now you can see there are already 3 banana trees planted. It looks like they need some water, it has been HOT!

Today we also planted the pineapple plants that we rec'd from our neighbor a couple of days ago. We will start them in pots then eventually move them to the ground.

Sa-weeet

The neighbors just dropped of some fresh banana's (the mini kind) and 3 pineapple tops. Now we can plant 3 pineapple plants in the yard :)

It will take the pineapple tops about 6 months to root in a pot, then we will plant them out in the yard.

Stan also installed a new air conditioner today, whew...finally a little cool air.

The Rig

Stan and I made a trip to David (said like Daaveed) on Wednesday. It's on the mainland of Panama and is where you go to buy the big stuff. There is not much here on the island and what is here is cheap crap that falls apart while you're pulling it out of the box AND it's very expensive.

There are two options to get into David, a plane trip or a bus ride. Being we are trying to save some money, we opted for the bus ride. Let me tell you, this was the trip of a lifetime. First we take a water taxi from Bocas to Almirante (a town on the mainland about 20 minutes boat ride), then we take a taxi from there to the bus station, about 10 minutes, then we hop on a bus for a 4 hour ride through the mountains to get to David. The buses are packed and hot and it was one of the worst experiences I've had in a LONG time. I hope I never have to do that again. If the money is available, I will opt for the 40 minute plane ride. They pack the buses with people and I don't mean every seat is full, I mean every seat is full and they keep stopping and adding more people into the isle until literally there is not a single space available. The drivers go fast around curvy mountain passes, the first half of the trip I thought I was going to die, about half way through the trip we stopped and a bunch of people got off. Finally I was able to relax and breath a little.

After we arrived in David, we stopped into a few different stores to pick up things like a stove, air conditioners, hardware, tile, towels, microwave, toasters and so on. They have stores like Lowes, but they are called "Do it Center" and "Novey". The salesguy at Novey was great, he helped us so much, he didnt speak any english but we brought our friend Sully who helped with all the translation, we could not have done this without him. Thank YOU Sully! At one point while shopping the song "Whatever you want I will be here" I cannot remember who sings this, but our sales guy pointed to the ceiling and said "eso musico, es me for you" :). We had to spend 2 nights in David to finish all of our shopping and purchase a car. It was exhausting.

Once we finsished we drove our own truck back from David to Almirante, 3 hours in the truck, a little faster than the buses and MUCH more enjoyable. The mountain side was beautiful. I often wished I had my camera. We arrived in Almirante and left our truck there so that it could be moved onto the next mornings ferry ride to Bocas. Then we hopped back on a water taxi and came home. This morning the Ferry showed up with our truck and the guy we hired to pick up all the stuff we bought in David also came over on this morning's ferry. So we've got everything in the house now.

Here is Stan in his new rig. It's a 2000 Hyundai Galloper, I guess they don't sell these in the US. We hope it works out well for us. It was a little over the budget, but it is an automatic so I can drive it and is in really good shape.

Chocolate

Well I don't much about planting chocolate, but I do know a thing or two about eating it. Abel, a local native american from the gnobe buge tribe (prononced like "no bay boo gay) is teaching us how to grow cocoa trees. We are planting 15 cocoa trees once the seeds take root in the bucket. I asked him if he had any Reeses Pieces seeds, but my question must of been lost in the translation, he just gave me a funny look :)

These pods grow on the side of the tree and are filled with the seeds that are covered in a yogurt type substance. I had to take this photo off the internet, stupid me forgot to take a picture of the pod before we cracked it open.

The seeds inside the pod.

Abel showing us how to plant the seeds. He says start them in a bucket, leave them for about one month then transfer into the ground.