A Visit to the Other Side

After my parents visited I had an awkward week and a half gap where I could not go back into site because of the boat schedule. I decided to take this opportunity to visit some friends over in Bocas del Toro, the province as far from the Darien as can be.

For starters one of the volunteers from my group that lives out there had parents visiting at the same time, so I simply followed her back to her community to begin the adventure. Heidi has one of the other Peace Corps Panama beach sites, but on the Caribbean side and it is quite beautiful. With crystal clear water and a house that is right on the beach, her community is super laid back but a pretty neat place overall.

Heidi's house. Her yard's irrigation has a salinity problem.

The view from inside her house isn't bad either.

After Heidi’s site I continued on to visit a volunteer from the group one year ahead of mine, Abby. Abby is a pretty cool gal and will be taking the job of regional leader in the Darien in the next few months which is pretty lucky for all of us on the east side. Abby’s site is quite nice but my stay with her was exceptional if for no other reason than that girl can cook! I’m talking cinnamon roll breakfast, black bean burger dinners, and we even had a “make your own chocolate bar” day.

Abby's house tucked away in the mountains.

Ready to start making my own chocolate bars!

From base camp at Abby’s we went to visit three other volunteer’s sites including Jordan and Sarah Varble who write a blog over at https://panamagua.wordpress.com/. Their visit was pretty cool because I followed their blog to learn about Peace Corps Panama before coming here and corresponded with them through email to ask a few questions.  It was a lot of fun getting to go see them and the community they have spent so much time in. I’d love to try and describe every detail of the trip, but it was a while ago and I feel that sometimes on a blog some extra photos do the trick, so here are photos from around the trip to enjoy!

Me and my friend Katy Mazer

Poison dart frog at Alex's site

Hanging with Sarah, Jordan, and Abby