Buenas noches (for Cade and Sarah- it means good night)! It's Maggie, Elizabeth, and Meaghan. We're in the rainforest, just enjoying some jungle juice (Spanish for Ron Abuelo). We'd like to let everyone know that we do in fact have toilet paper! Not much, but it will do.

Today we left the city at 9 am and headed out to El Valle. We stopped in Chepo for food, drink, shoe leather and machetes, then at the river for lunch. Everyone had ham and cheese sandwiches on hamburger buns-a Panamanian specialty! We dipped our feet in the water, while Will proceeded to skinny dip. We then left the river and headed to the community of El Valle. We divided into groups and went around to talk to all of the families. Great news- 4 community members are coming to the Fiesta de Plantando Ideas! (Bad news- this means we'll have to buy more cheese). Everyone seemed excited about tomorrow's cultural activity and business meeting. We will make totumas which are bowls made from gourds and cutarras which are handmade leather sandals. We ate duros, frozen fruit juice/kool-aid with milk, with the women and children in El Valle. We also enjoyed seeing everyone's gardens. Sobieda's was so beautiful and it was amazing to see a mother hummingbird who has nested in one of Sobieda's plants to protect her eggs.

We left the community in the late afternoon and took our first journey to the Earth Train preserve. Six people rode in the back of the pick-up on the bumpy, treacherous terrain. It was definitely worth the literal pain in the nalgas- the preserve is beautiful! We took a short hike to explore the surroundings, showered, then ate a delicious dinner of spaghetti and saucy chicken. After dinner we had a meeting about tomorrow's meeting. We are preparing a Power Point with photos from El Valle and the preserve for Thursday night.

We're now just relaxing with one another and our favorite "Abuelo." We look forward to tomorrow's adventure and the fiesta on Thursday!

Hasta manana....
MEM