Fun with Machetes and Mountain Climbing

A while back I woke up in the middle of the night and had one of those moments where I had no idea where I was.  For some reason I was so disoriented that I suddenly twisted around on my slightly-too-small bed, almost falling out onto the concrete floor.  Then I thought, "Oh right, I'm in Panama."

I suppose you could say I'm still in what they call the "honey moon stage" of living in another country.  Everything is still new and fresh, and I haven't grown accustomed to the cultural differences and just the idea of living here.  There are times when I feel perfectly comfortable, and other times I feel like I'm on another planet.  Pretty much all the time though, people are staring at this giant gringo walking around.  The other day I had to clarify to an indigenous man out in the Comarca that I actually was not the tallest man in the United States.  He was shocked.

Doing some surveying of the community water main

Last week was our Tech Week: six days of learning about water systems, latrines, construction methods, and doing a whole lot of walking.  Since walking is the cheapest form of transportation, and sometimes the only one, I guess I should get used to it.  The Environmental Health (EH) group went out to Chichica, a Ngobe community in the western part of Panama.  We were braced for the worst: eating nothing but rice and yuca for a week straight, sleeping on a dirt floor, sliding down muddy mountainsides in rain storms, awkward interactions with our host families...  But for me at least it was actually quite a pleasant experience.  Most of it was much easier than expected, and it was good to get some more hands on experience with different kinds of construction.  One of my favorite parts was trekking through the jungle gathering banana tree leaves with a machete.  There's just some strange satisfaction that comes with chopping things with a machete.

Making our way up the mountain

At the end of the week we actually had a day off, for the second time since arriving in Panama.  A group of four of us decided we hadn't had enough walking, and we climbed Pena Blanca, a pretty cool looking mountain in a nearby community.  Our Ngobe guide led us on what you could call a path, using a machete to clear the way.  He was ridiculous - he could practically run up a vertical section of rock while the rest of us struggled to keep up.  All the pain was worth it when we saw the view from the peak.  Looking to the south, we could just barely see the Pacific Ocean along with a few islands in the distance. 

At the summit

After making our way back down, we headed out to join the rest of the group at an amazing beach on the Pacific, where we were looking from the top of the mountain hours before.  After some good body surfing and relaxing in our beachfront cabana, I was completely exhausted.  Overall not a bad vacation day.