days 31 through 34

i have lots to say since i havent had internet that last four days!

here´s a summary of my long weekend in chiriqui: (and its a long post too)

friday:

we drove about four hours from las tablas to chiriqui, but of course the actual drive took wayyy longer because we stopped like 2345 times. but four hours, ill say, because thats the time it should take. we stopped at all of my host mom´s siblings´houses. she has seven other siblings, so basically we were out until late going from house to house. i assumed we would do one big dinner party type thing like we would in the US, but thats not how things work here. food is not a social event. people dont gather for meals. they gather to talk, and so why not just talk for a while in each of the houses, i suppose? i met this one neice of my host mom who is eighteen, and she was so funny about meeting me, because she is obsessed with learning english. she doesnt know much at all. shes in her first year at the university, but really cant speak it. we only spoke in spanish, and i helped her withher english homework. i found out that they never even taught her what a cognate is. and so i taught her, and she understands like 50 percent more of the words now. anywyas, we went back to one of the sister´s house to sleep. all of these houses i was at, to say the least, are a lottt mroe simple than what i am living in with my family. i took my first bucket shower. and i had to be careful that the ants didnt attack my toothbrush. but other than that, everything was great. everyone gave me food alll the time. even tho i am vegetarian, they do seem to find a whole lot for me to eat. theyre super nice, the families all live within two blocks of each toher, everyones super close, and its a cute close knit family. i can tell my host mom is sad to be away from them. oh! and how can i forget! i met a costa rican family! some family member of my host mom (there were too many of them to keep straight) moved to costa rica, and has a costa rican family. and so i spent forever tlaking about costa rica with them of course. and they gave me their info for me to come stay with them whenevber! how perfect! i want to go back so badly!

saturday:

i woke up to more food. im never that hungry, but its rude not to finish hte plate, so i am training my stomach on how to finish. its so horrible for me, and i cannot wait to train it back to normal. we were staying really close to a big city named david. its the second largest city in panama, behind panama city. and so it was really busy with lots of stores. and my host mom took me shopping, to say the least. she likes to shop! all of the stores seem to sell the exact same things (everything), and we went to many of them. my host sibs got a lot of new clothes, and i got panamanian shoes (for $1.30). then we hung around the town more, went back to the house and ate some more of course. thennn we started our journey to the border. yes, the border of costa rica and panama. i was THAT close to going back! but there are huge markets around there that sell things from both countries for real cheap. so we shopped around some more. and i saw costa rican things that made me miss it more. but then my host mom got sad that i like costa rica more, so i decided i had to like panama more. thennnn, after heading back towards the house, i found out that we were going someplace different for the night! we went to my family´s vacation house in the mountains. they told me an hour ride, or less, but of course it was about three hours because we stopped every ten minutes. every member of my family got new shoes on that ride tho. finally we made it to the house. i was into the backyard, nad saw a cabbage patch! then i looked up and saw the picture perfect rainbow. and the mountains were gorgeous! and the climate is mountain temperature, which means it was not too hot. so i laid in the hammock had had the best few moments ever. then the kids came yelling for me to play with them. we just hung around their house that night, but it was relaxing, and pretty nice.

SUNDAY:

i woke up around 6:30 and had yet another huge breakfast. we went into town and had ´fresa con crema´which is the signature food of the town. its a really rich cream and really fresh strawberries, and it was amazing even though i was full. we walked around some more, and we met this cute little indiginous girl. lots of indiginous families live in the chiriqui region. theyre really interesting, so more on them later. this girl showed us around her house. they sell flowers, and so it was just so beautiful. but the house itself, man it was basic. but they had monkeys and baby pigs and puppies, and so i really enjoyed myself. we walked around more, and my host fam bought about 100 pounds of vegetables, and antoehr 100 of meat from a street vendor. i dont think this is an exageration. they said its a lot cheaper there. after that, we went to visit some friends of the family. they were super cool, and had a really nice house. they took us to their vegetable farm, and we went for a nice little hike around there. i saw potatoes, onions, cabbage, lettuce, and so much more. potatoes take about 3months in total to be ready to sell, onions the same, and cabbage a bit longer. we were really high up and the view was just awesome. of course i took pictures. el volcan, which is the name of the town, is the highest point in panama. the volcano there is active, but not erupting, and that is the actual highest point. and we were pretty close to it! then the two families went to eat at a restaurant. this is the first time i have been to a restuarant with my host family. its not a common thing to go do. like i said, food is not the social gathering point. everyone ordered the same thing, just the type of meat varied. they had rice, hte meat and a salad. no one ate their salads, so i had like 5. after that we came back to the house to hang out, i laid in the hammock, and read a lot of my book.

today (monday): we headed back for las tablas. but on the way we stopped at all the siblings´houses again, plus many times for other random things. made it back in about 6 hours including all the stops though. and now im here, reading to celebrate santa librada. in fact, my host cousin just called me to see if i wanted to go out to the party with her. i think i will.