panama!

i just realized that it has almost been a whole month since i've written here - i can't believe it! i apologize to all of you who have been checking this page three times a day since mid-august (yeah, right). but, now that i am finally in panama, actually have my computer and succeeded in deleting enough pictures from my overloaded iphoto to downloaded new ones, i will try to write more often.

i am sitting in my basement studio apartment in panama, half-watching some dramatic movie on TV ... which is actually what i've been doing all week long. why would i be watching movies all week instead of the many, many other exciting things that i could be doing?? because i have MONO. after a little trip to the hospital last week with a headache and fever, i found out that i caught mono somewhere between nicaragua and panama, so now i have to rest, rest, rest, rest, take vitamins, rest and rest. BORING!!!!! needless to say, i'm a little frustrated. but at least i can do things like delete pictures from my iphoto to make more room.

so, to pick up where i left off, the last week and a half we spent in nicaragua was with molly, which was great. i think we were inspired to make more plans and get out of the little hut in totoco. this is a picture of the volcanic swimming hole we went to called ojo de agua, after an epic bumpy-rocky-dusty-hilly bike ride on the worst bikes ever with half-broken brakes. it was really beautiful, and touristy, so there was a restaurant and everything - although they tried to tell us that they were out of chicken tacos after we had paid, until i asked for my money back and then they made some more chicken tacos. hmm ... well, we were really hungry. of course, after that we accidently lost track of time swimming in the EXTREMELY AMAZING AND HEALTH-RESTORING WATERS (according to the person that greeted us at the gate) and had to ride back in the pitch black ... that was exciting. my palms were bruised the next day from gripping the brakes so hard!



these are some pictures of the day we went swimming in lake nicaragua/cocibolca with izuara, who worked in the kitchen at totoco, and her family. it was so lovely, and the water was bath-water warm with a sandy bottom. we had dinner at her house that night and made tortillas (or, well, i tried to make tortillas, and she made tortillas) and then met her 106-year-old great-great-grandmother the next day. she was really ... old. like, really old.
another day we went to finca magdalena, a big coffee harvesting/farming/hostel/gardens/restaurant cooperative that was taken over by the local people during the revolution in the 1970s. it clearly used to be a hacienda, given the huge porch and absurdly large house, and it is really beautiful today. there are the petroglyphs nearby, i would explain more about them but i actually don't know any more about them than you do. there was no tour guide or sign and i didnt remember to ask ... oops. however, here is a nice picture!
after our (very) brief walk to the rocks, we had some coffee and chocolate cake on the huge porch at finca magdalena ...
and here is one of the delights of the jungle we saw on the walk to the shower where we were staying ... probably one of the only things shown on the planet earth series that i've actually seen with my own eyes. also, its hilarious.


we left nicaragua on august 21st, on the ticabus ... and i magically got really sick in the middle of the night (i seem particularily prone to this, i dont know why) and spent some time in the bus bathroom with the sign that says "only for piss" on the front door, where it was at least 90 degrees and very shaky and bumpy, obviously, because the bus was driving around huge mountains. not the best night, but otherwise, the bus trip was fine. but we got to panama safe and sound on the 22nd, and before i got sick last week, we were working a lot and getting to know the city. we got really lucky and were able to rent a studio apartment in the basement of a friend's parent's house the second day we got here - its cute, affordable and in a nice neighborhood. it certainly is much better than the "room" the foundation tried to give me in an abandoned high school that looked like it had been the school infirmary and had no bathroom but the multiple-stall and multiple-shower school bathroom. can you say horror movie!? yes, it actually was as weird as it sounds ... i dont know WHAT they were thinking. apart from that strange proposition, however, i am loving my job and am very excited to get over this mono situation and get back to the foundation soon. here is a picture of about half of the apartment, the kitchen and bathroom and bed"room" are on the other side:

The landlords are exceedingly nice ... for example, here is a photo of the day they decided that our appliance situation wasn't good enough, and we came home to a new refrigerator, toaster oven, and microwave. the place was so truly "furnished" when we got here that there was SOAP in the shower - they are probably the best landlords ever.
my camera is having some problems, so i will save the details about my job until i can include some pictures. and, until i start feeling a little better and actually go to work. speaking of, i am going to end this very long entry and go to sleep. good night!