Living in Boquete

Lex

Good morning to all you folks around the world. I'm here to tell you about what we have been doing in Boquete.

After a short hop on a plane from Panama City to David our taxi dropped us off at the host family's house. It appeared to be the biggest house in the street. The others were run down, patched up,leaking and they reminded me of Charlie Buckets house in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. They had a porch full of wind chimes and rocking chairs that looked like my grandad's old people's home. The family were a bit lacking in enthusiasm except my mate Alberto. He's 13 and lives here. There are people coming and going here all the time and a week later I'm still not sure who actually lives here!

Let me describe the house. Well the bathroom ! Here we go! First the toilet, they have a rule that you cannot put any paper in the toilet. It's really hard to remember after a number 2! Mum has had to fish out quite a bit of forgotten paper. The shower is also a bit crazy because the water seems straight from a glacier. It's freezing! Abuela thinks hot water is bad for the bones!

Abuela cooks breakfast and dinner for us. We usually have egg something for breakfast with the most delicious juice. One morning though abuela thought we needed vitamins and we had a rice nutrient drink that I didn't really like. I felt like I was a contestant from 'I'm a celebrity ' and struggled to keep it down.
For dinner we usually have rice, beans and unidentifiable meat of some kind. One day as a treat we had McDonald's style sandwiches . They tasted exactly the same as a Big Mac. Incredible!

The noise in the house is driving me mad! Aaahhh! The dogs bark continuously day and night, the cockerels crow in stereo constantly from every house and the TV blares rubbish all day long.

This photo of us is was taken outside the shop where we wait for a taxi in the morning although today we had to take a 15 seater bus but there were more like 30 people on it! School starts at 8 but its only until 10 . Me and Oscar have our own teacher called Mitzilla. The lessons have been fun and we have learnt a lot of Spanish eg. the days of the week , the colours and occupations.

When we were at school we met a family from Texas and enjoyed playing chess and chase after classes.

It's now the end of the week and school is out! Do I hear the cockerel crowing ha ha ha

Hot Springs!

Oscar

Today I went to Spanish school. We learnt the days of the week and months of the year. After that we had a picnic with strawberries, grapes,Oreos and Pringles.

We climbed into the bus and a guide drove us away. The first thing he did was run out of petrol! We stopped to have a swim in a river with big fish. It was hot and we jumped off the rocks. There was a horse having a bath in the water. All the boys were throwing oranges at the girls.

Then we drove off to the hot springs. It was 40 degrees Celsius and smelt like rotten eggs. The pool was heated by volcanic heat. There were bubbles in the pool like a jacuzzi and we were a bit scared in case they were biting creatures. Afterwards we had to jump in the river to cool ourselves down.I covered myself in mud and threw some at Lex. There was a monkey that liked children. He was wild but was treated like a pet. The guide draped it round his neck.

We had a brilliant day out.

The Panama Canal

Fact file: The Panama Canal

The first ship went through the canal in 1914.

The canal connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

The average cost for a ship to travel through the canal is $100,000.

The most expensive passage was $419,000.

The canal cuts off thousands of miles for ships.

The canal drops 85 feet on total.

There are three sets of locks. Miraflores, Gatun and Pedro Miguel

Richard Halliburton swum the canal in 1926.

The photos show the gates closing and the water draining out to the next level.

Embera Tribe

Oscar

First we went in a dug out canoe. I was amazed at how big it was. It was made out of a big sharp tree. There were logs in the river and they looked like crocodiles. The water looked murky.

We climbed out of the canoe and walked then swam to a waterfall. It was icy cold like my favourite ice-cream. We clung to the rocks as the current was so strong. Then we got back into the canoe and we rode to the village. They welcomed us with music. 

We went to a hut for lunch. The hut was on stilts 6 feet in the air so the snakes couldn't climb up. The floors were made of long strips of wood. First we had some pineapples bananas and oranges. They were wrapped in a banana leaf. They put palm leaves on top. Finally they did a dance and mummy joined in. 

Miracle fruit!

You'll be pleased to know that we have taken our second malaria pills today and it was not as traumatic as last week. The difference...

We dissolved one of these miracle fruit tablets in our mouths and then had some fun. The idea is that they disable the sour and bitter receptors on your tongue and so change the flavour of sour things to sweet. We ate a whole lemon and it tasted so good, like pure sugar. After this the malaria tablets were not so bad.
These would be great fun for a party. The effect lasts for about half an hour and so we also tried tomatoes (not much else left in the fridge!) . The box recommends kiwi fruit and grapefruit.

We have been practising our Spanish this week. Do you know  any Spanish?

Try and guess these animals..

La jirafa
El elefante
El leon
El canguro
El cebra
El delfin


Giraffe,elephant,lion,kangaroo,zebra,dolphin .....easy peasy!

This is a link to a fun website for learning Spanish.

http://www.123teachme.com/kids/spanish_flash_cards/category/children_animals

This was our first blog on the iPad and it was so hard without a mouse.

First (of many! ) malaria pills.

We have to take malaria tablets so we don't get really sick on our trip. If we get bitten by a mosquito that carries the disease this should stop us getting malaria.

The tablets were big and white and we had to swallow them. I sat with Flipper and Clever Bear who were going to help me.

First try.....





 

Second attempt we tried banana, third time we tried chocolate and fourth time we tried jam!

It was pretty funny really as every time we gagged into the toilet mum had to try and fish out the tablet to see if we had swallowed it. The first time we had forgotten to flush it!

Where exactly are we going?

Here is a map of our adventure. We hope to add to it as we travel. The map is a bit basic as we had too many places for each to be displayed.




We have listed the countries that we will be visiting and have included any information that we know already.

Panama - It has a famous canal. A canal is a fake river.
Costa Rica - There may be poison arrow frogs. We are going to see a volcano.
Nicaragua - They eat rice and beans.
Honduras - There are some ruins.
Belize - The sea looks blue and there will be a beach.
Mexico - We like Mexican food but not if it's really spicy.

So that's the list we don't really know that much but did you really know much more? 

If you have been to any of these countries and have any top tips we'd love to hear them.