Life in the mountains



So we’re continuing our journey of discovery, finding out what life is like up here in the mountains of Panama. The word that describes it most of the time is simply.... beautiful, especially when it’s not raining!

As rain brews....

 

The view from the house where we're staying, as the rain clears.

 

We’ve been exploring less on foot (thankfully!) due to the acquisition of a new quad bike and Ethan has learned this week that a 30 minute journey downhill to the river doesn’t guarantee an equally speedy return. (We spent 6 hours winching, pushing & accepting help from our neighbours in order to get it back up the rain torn slopes!).

 

Ethan has also been working hard to chop trees (with the aid of his new chain saw), dig up roots and start to clear a path so that we can actually drive onto the part of the farm which will hopefully, someday be ours. I’d love to say that I’ve also been helping, but to be honest despite returning home with clothes covered in dirt, I don’t get much done which may be at least partially attributable to my being eternally distracted by the wildlife watching us from the surrounding forest.

 

 

 

These black dots in the trees are toucans too. Really!



Ethan found this guy in a waterfall plunge pool. He must have been at least 1m long.

 

The house where we’re staying (at the complete generosity of Aristides, one of the neighbouring farm owners) is becoming increasingly full of homely, farm sounds especially due to the acquisition of chickens. Meet our rooster, Russell (because he ‘Crowes’ a lot), Jen the Hen (front left, purely because I like the rhyme) and Tina (behind, on account of her suspect ‘80s hairdo).

Accompanied by mooing cows in the corral when Aristides brings them up from the fields, we really do feel like we’re on a farm! And I’m slowly making my small contribution as my garden grows in plastic tubes, with the tantalising promise that one day we won’t have to buy our produce from the grocery store 2 hours away.

 

We do have amazingly kind neighbours though, who constantly bring us food.... whether it’s eggs from their chickens, pineapples from their gardens, cheese from their cows, mangoes because they genuinely can’t keep up with their tree’s productivity or avocados because that seems to be the going currency right now. People are also tremendously patient with us and our Spanish and as we chat more, we realize how hardy and amazing they are. Many of these families came up to these hills 20-30 years ago to claim land, fell some trees, clear some pasture for cattle and make a life for themselves and their families. That’s no mean feat when your mode of transport is a horse and the nearest town, grocery store or medical centre is a 4 hour horse ride away.

As rainy season fast approaches life here gets a little tougher too.... our neighbour (a mere 2 hours walk away) was telling us about the year that it rained so much that the river became strong enough to carry cows out to the ocean and roads became completely impassable. Apparently that was a rare occurrence though. I hope they"re right! We're not as tough as these people... not yet, anyway!