After a long night of loud music and waking up a few times to people coming in from partying and never ending loud music (to the point of when I woke up Sunday morning and there was no music or loud bass I was honestly surprised,)
We got up and ate some fruit and yogurt before heading out to a coffee tour. I've had several opportunities to go on a coffee tour but never took one, but Kayla was really excited about the agricultural experience so I agreed.
It was really interesting learning about famous panama coffee that is all pre-purchased by the queen of England and sold for $350 a pound. Giesa coffee. Aparently it tastes just like all the other coffee, though.
We learned about different types of coffee plants (sea level, high altitude, and instant coffee) as well as different brews and that there actually isn't more caffeine in darker brews, there is actually less, the bean is just more burnt.
We also learned about the mist that acts like a magnifying glass to the sun and actually burns the leaves.
Super interesting and fun to see a crop farm in another country. This particular place only had about 40 coffee trees. Did you know coffee grows as a red or yellow berry? We decided that coffee tastes better that way, straight off the plant.
The farm doesn't have big machines like we do in America. Everything is done by hand and all of the machines were made by the owner out of old car engines and random parts. He was kind of a genius.
Besides that, all of the ripe berries are picked by hand, and during harvest season tons of laborers are hired for 2$ or 3$ a bucket that they fill. They pick every berry by hand and manually carry them from the fields back to the shop.
After the tour we checked out of our hostel and said goodbye to the sweet owner and little devil kitten Tarzan.
From there we headed to church. I'm not sure how many people read this blog, or how many people really know me, but if you know anything about me, you probably know that I love Jesus, but I pretty much hate American churches (American Christianity in general. That's a whole different story.) but! I would probably live in a church in Panama. They are so different! (Not just the language.)
The people are so welcoming, despite me not really speaking their language. The first time I went into a church down there, people kept coming up and with incredible joy asking me if I knew Jesus. That's all that mattered to them. They teach straight from the Bible, and the worship is so real. The thing down in Panama is that they aren't into faking. If they don't want to be in church, they aren't. If they aren't committed to living a holy life set apart for God, they don't pretend to be. They don't go to church and play the part of good Christian and then go get drunk and sleep around. They aren't hypocrites, and it is beautiful.
Church was fantastic, if anything negative, just a little intimidating because they are at a pretty deep level spiritually with God, and the fact that God heals and does miracles just by his people asking - even today, it just blows my mind. We're kind of taught in America that that doesn't happen anymore.
After church we were invited to dinner at our friends house, and what started as an invitation to dinner became five days of being welcomed into this family's home for eating, sleeping, and their daily activities.
(My Panama siblings!! Love them all!)
I won't make everyone jealous/bore you with long details, but I'll give you a few pictures with simple explanations. I know that's all you want anyway :)
On Monday we headed to the canyons were we jump down into the crystal clear water below, then climb up the steep rock cliffs. This is one of my favorite activities in Panama, especially when I made it up the difficult spot that I had tried to climb for two days last year but couldn't make it! The best part is that when I made it to the top all the panama guys couldn't believe that an American girl was capable of it and they were clapping and in awe, aha. Farm girl muscles. Yeyeah. (I have never seen a girl make it up there, only Panamanians who climb like monkeys and one or two strong travelers. Needless to say, I was pretty proud.:)
And just so you don't start thinking I'm too awesome, this is what Panamanians do on a regular basis:
It might be a little hard to tell, but he is using all arm strength to pull himself up over basically nothing after climbing up by gripping slippery nothingness on the rocks. Yeah. No. I didn't even try.
Tuesday was a relaxing day hanging out at the house and then heading into town. We visited a gringo market but I was annoyed at all the English speakers (try to learn the language, don't be a tourist!) and we headed up the mountain overlooking the town.
Wednesday, we had planned to move on and say goodbye, but God kept planning things in His way...our plans haven't meant much so far on this trip. Then again, I guess they usually don't. :}
So instead, we stayed with our beautiful friends and went to their church youth group.
The day was spent playing tennis and soccer, practicing Spanish, and watching the Panama teen boys be crazy typical show offs by being stupid and doing stunts as they jumped in the pool.
Seriously, I'm not really sure how no one ended up at the hospital. (Jumping into the baby pool is not a good idea, just for the record.)
And there isn't a specific day of awesomeness, but a huge highlight of the week was the farm critters. Ahh yes, those farm animals...
We ran into the baby moos (calves) on a walk one day, and the neighbors of our family just let their horses run around, so, when one of the horses ran to attack one of the small children, I got permission to "do whatever I wanted" to train her not to attack. Day made.
For quite awhile I got to work with one of the most disrespectful horses I've ever met.
"Nievia" was really smart though, and even though she definitely wasn't enjoying working with me, after awhile she got the idea that I was the boss, not her, and we may have even ended on somewhat of "we're friend" terms.
Another highlight: fresh fruit! Never ending berries and oranges! :D
Oh yeah, and we found a scorpion. That was pretty awesome, too!
Thursday we said goodbye to our wonderful family and met up with some missionary's from Wisconsin! They work with a YWAM (youth with a mission) base and were so welcoming to us and more than happy to show us around! And, there were more horses! :D
This is Balboa, one of the smartest and most beautiful horses I've ever worked with...besides my horse anyway. :)
He is a Peruvian Paso and 100% different from Nievia. So well trained and respectful, and his owner even taught me a thing or two about round pen training! Such a cool experience to see the horse responding so well just to my body language.
So that has been my week in a very small nutshell! Today, back to Costa Rica to search for unimaginable adventures. :)
Much love to all!
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