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The adventure continues.......

November 30th we will be returning to Volcan, Panama.  Follow us on our trip by reading our blog.  You can enter your email in the space above to get our posts automatically, sign up with Google to be a member, or you can just visit our blog site.  We plan on 2-3 postings a month, so no one should get overwhelmed.  Feel free to leave comments, we love hearing from everyone back home.

Our Vermont Home

Thought I would take a minute and show everyone our home while in the states.  Having an RV is what allows us to keep our expenses low.  It has forced us to simplify, you can't have too much stuff in such a small space.  When we got our RV, a 93 Fleetwood Terry 36v, it needed a bit of work.  Here are some before and after photos to show what we have done, and how we made it into our home away from home.

It was quite a bit of work, and we owe a lot of thanks to Riva's Dad for all his help.  We now have a nice place to call home while we are in the states.  Next year, we will be at Sportsmans campground in Addison for the summer.

Returning to Panama!

Just updating everyone to our plans. Its official! We will be returning this fall, Nov 30th and coming back May 3rd. We just bought our airfare today. We were able to get nonstop flight from Newark to San Jose CR.
We will be renting a small 3 bedroom house, and will be sharing the house with a good friend Aaron. There are a bunch of others coming for small trips that we look forward to seeing while down there.
We will continue the blog, although not as frequently. Probably once a week. Take care, and come visit!

Were home!

Just a quick note to let everyone know we are finally home. We will post more tomorrow about our final leg of the trip, the great, and not so great, and how bad it hurts to run with 35lbs of backpack on your sunburned back through a whole airport! See you soon.

Snorkeling, getting ready to come home

Yesterday we went on a snorkeling trip, and got to see a number of different sights. First off was dolphin bay, where we saw lots of dolphins, including a mother and baby.





Next we went to a snorkeling spot, I forget what it is called, but we all got in the water. We found out that Jacobs mask doesn't fit quite right, of course nobody's does when you have a huge smile!


I had a run in with some fire coral, which I barely brushed up against, but instantly started burning, and blistered. Ouch!


We next went to red frog beach, named so because of the red poison dart frogs that are common in that area. The surf was pretty rough, and we had quite a bit of fun playing there. We also got a lot of sun, and we are sore today.








Today, we are taking it easy. Tomorrow we will catch an early bus to Panama city for our red eye flight Tuesday morning. We will be at the assembly this coming weekend, so see you all soon!

Fishing trip with the Lees

On Thursday, we went fishing with the Lees at a trout farm. Kinda seemed like cheating, as you just have to drop your line under water and a fish would grab on. We caught 8 within a half an hour. Yummy!

Bocas del Toro

Well, we made it to Bocas. There is wifi at a restaurant we are at, hence I am able to blog this. Maybe it's just the fact that we miss Volcán so much, but we all wish we were still there. Tomorrow we will pick a beach to go to, and spend the day there. Fun fun!

Goodbye Volcán!

Well, this is it. We are finally leaving Volcán. Sad to go, but excited to get home so we can adjust our circumstances and come back. We can see Jehovahs blessing on our decisions already, as more potential cleaning jobs are popping up, even before we are home!

The Lees are driving with us down to David, where we will catch a bus up to Almirante, near Bocas. Should be pretty hot near the coast, but at least we will be right on the ocean. Yesterday was the first day I almost burned. This little white boy isn't so white anymore!

Not sure that our Cabaña in bocas has wifi, so chao for now. We will keep our Panamanian cell phone on, and will have that for the next time we are down. Otherwise, we will try to update everyone at the airport on Monday night.

Some additional random pics

Tookie the Toucan


Riva giving her talk on the meeting Tuesday night.


Here is Jacob, eating a squid. Really, a squid!


A cool flower






We went to the other side of the volcano to a town called Boquete. We saw where the zip line was, although we didn't get to try it:(.

Steep hill ahead!





Zip lining the way it was meant to be done.


Tom Blacker and Jacob. Tom, do you wear socks a lot?

Some more pictures from today

Another horseback riding adventure!

Well, it's been a few days since we blogged. Thank you everyone for your support regarding our decisions. It will not be easy to leave Vermont behind when we return to panama, but we are confident that the changes we will be making will be for the good.

We went horseback riding again today, this time for 2 hours, and sin guia, without a guide. Haldon Gilby, a young witness from Newfoundland accompanied us. He and his family moved down here 2 years ago to help with the English congregation. Jacob has found a new best friend in Haldon!












This time, we got to travel further up into the rainforest and found an abandoned attempt at some natural swimming pools. One of them had 20-30 trout that have been trapped there. Some were huge!












The difference in just a few hundred feet is amazing. It was truly a different world up there.












Riva took most of these pictures, so she isn't in any of them.

Here are some good shots of the quilt farming that is common down here.












And, last but not least, more random cute Jacob pictures.....











Tomorrow is our last day in Volcán! We will head to the coast for a few days, then to Panama city. Hard to believe its almost over:(