Earth Quake, Los Cangilones, and Dinner with Jose

In these pictures you are seeing some great shots of one the wonders of the Gualaca, Panama Area. It is called Los Cangilones. It is a miniature canyon with cliffs 20 feet high and water over 15 feet deep. After I tested it, some of our braver students were willing to jump off at the higher points. The students really enjoyed this outing, but that is not all what happened today. Today when we were in our final Spanish Class, we felt an earth quake. It was 5.8 on the richter scale, and it is believed to be an aftershock from the large earth quake in Chile last night. We ended our day by having a traditional Panamanian meal in a home of an old friend. The students enjoyed seeing American TV for the first time in three weeks. Jose treated us to a cassava based soup dish and bread. It was muy deliciouso.
Tomorrow we leave for the Beach and three more performances. I hope to talk to you soon.

Spanish Class with Maria in El Explorador

Today we visited The Explorador Garden in Jarmillo. Jarmillo is the mountain side that faces Boquete on the southern side. When you look to the north you can always see Vulcan Baru the inactive volcano that towers over everything.  Today we held our Spanish class in a Japanese Garden. It was beautiful. The students enjoyed the sun and beautiful temperatures.  I enjoyed the flowers. The owner of the garden took a personal interest in us this year. She was very attached to Cierra. She invited us into her house for some fresh avocado. We were greeted at the door by two Yorkshire terriers. One was just a baby and really cute. The garden had swings and home made gymnasium equipment. The lady placed many philosophical signs all over the garden to stimulate interest and the learning of Spanish. If I had a garden, I would make it very similar to this.  It was like walking around in someones dream, and enjoying it with them. She gave us samples of many of the fruits in her garden. We even ate hot peppers.

Later on that day we were able to arrange our return stay in The Panama House in Panama City. We will be there April 5th and 6th.  I was also able to drop off some coloring books to Casa Esperanza. My colleague, Sarah Aungst has done service projects with this private school in the past. They were appreciative, and I hope we will still be able to work with them in the future.

Tomorrow we will go to the miniature canyon of Panama, Los Cangilones to swim. We will have our last full day in Boquete, our last Spanish Class, and we will prepare to leave for San Felix and the beach.  Thank you for following our BLOG! Please feel free to share it on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Tumbler or Instagram.

5 Mime skit performances today in Boquete, Panama

Today is performance Day in the Boquete Area. We did 5 performances to over 200 students today. We completed performances in Boquete, Palmera, Baha Mono, and Volcancito. What a surprised look we got from the Ngobe when they heard me speaking their language. It was also very cute when one of the little girls ran to back of the classroom when Keon the Jaguar came out to his lair. Today was a major success!

Visit our Panama Excursion for #PALCSPanama2014. This post is Day 7 but there is much more.

Our crew!

Keon our leader

 

What a group

Our most photogenic member

It is hard to believe it has been one week since we arrived in Panama. So far the trip has gone extremely well. We were able to book 8 performances and we should be able to distribute all 300 coloring books and crayons. We did a team building activity on our day off today. We went zip lining at 8 AM. It was very exciting. One of the lines was the longest in North and South America. The guides had to literally throw us as hard as they could from the platform so we can reach the next station. There were 13 platforms and 12 zip lines.  People would not reach the platform on the longest line because they would use their hands to slow themselves with a braking action. When the students got stuck before they reached the platform, the guides would yell Amarillo into their walkies. Olivia was the first to complete the long zip line without stopping.  She did amazing well for her first time zip lining. Keon led the way and was the first to jump off the platform from the entire group. He is the youngest member of the group, but he showed real courage today.
In the afternoon we visited Caldera and went on a hike on a very rocky road. Our guide, Mr. Parris choose, “the road less traveled,” but unfortunately unlike Robert Frost he got us all lost instead of being, “all the better for it.” We doubled back and earned our right to jump into the naturally hot springs. They were very therapeutic and a number of us felt light headed when we got up out of the water heated by the vulcanism of the earth. It was really nice except for the sulfur smell. Some of the students thought that it was gas, but it was actually the natural smell of geothermal heat.

Time for bed. Tomorrow is our first performance! For more post and to talk to our students post here!

Day 7 Zip line, The Hot Springs, and our dress rehearsal