When I was back home daydreaming about being a Peace Corps volunteer my thoughts tended toward exotic cultural experiences, a new world, new language, new people, new everything. And there has certainly been plenty of that. But what never occurred to me was the friendships I would develop with fellow volunteers from the good old U.S.A., and the tremendous importance these new frienships would have in keeping us all going.
With that in mind, this is just a short photo-post of a great little vacation I took with five of my best buddies in Peace Corps,
Derek, Austin, Dan & Dan, Jon and yours truly.We started from Austin´s house, a two hour boat ride up the River Manante in the village Calante, and followed a rough cut track west towards the nearest paved road. Everyone was a little vague about how far it was and how long it might take, but we were in no hurry. This was the kind of thing we came here for.
The road took us through beautiful backcountry of the Comarca Ngäbe-Bugle, the semi-autonomous region of western Panama. After a long first day of hiking we were lucky enough to stumble onto a half-finished house that provided shelter for a rainy night, and enough rest for us to hike on the next day to the first village where we could catch a chiva, a pickup truck rigged out for passengers, and ride the rest of the way out to the highway.I just have a few minutes to get this posted before catching the boat for home, so I´ll leave it at that. But if you´d like to read a little more, you can check out Austin´s blog,http://anotherpeacecorpsblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/bro-hike.html
for posts on the hike and Peace Corps life with the Ngäbes in general. His blog is full of spot-on insights and wry humor. Highly recommended.
Lou,
ReplyDeleteGlad to see that you have some buddies from the States to share your experience. It must be helpful in so many ways when you're fully immersed in another culture for long periods.
You're doing a great job with the blog. Great writing and pictures.
I just subscribed to Dave's Raves. Between the two of you, I'm starting to feel like a shut-in in a nursing home. I did just come back from a dive trip in Turks and Caicos, and several people congratulated me for getting out and really living life. I'm certainly not complaining, but I'm not sure that taking a vacation really counts.
Joe