Hot Springs

One of the days at Lost and Found, we took a day trip to some petroglyphs and some hot springs.

Lost and Found

I wrote this last week...

After we decided to head here to Lost and Found, Jen drove us all to the grocery store in David where we shopped and said goodbye. It was one of our saddest goodbyes. We only spent 2 weeks with these people but feel like we have known them for years. Our time at Paradise Gardens was amazing for so many reasons. Of course the animals were amazing. Anyone who has known me since I was a kid, knows that animals were always my passion. Interacting with the animals fulfilled my childhood dreams. The whole experience was so much more than just the hard work and the playing with animals. The place is not a zoo and is not run by animal experts. It was run by people who really love animals and people who wanted to learn about the animals. Every day we were on the internet or flipping through books, learning about the animals and what they needed. But the experience was even more than that. We all really enjoyed each other's company and shared more than just a love of animals. We all shared a love of travel, too, and the group was mixed with Brits, Irish, Australians, Americans, Canadians, Peruvians, Chileans, Argentinians and more. Everyone was bright and funny and we all had countless stories to share. Even more than that, we all shared a love of food. Apparently, before we showed up, cooking was mostly done personally. Rob and I showed up so excited for a real kitchen complete with Barbeque grill and oven, pots and pans. We would all start talking about food and the next thing we knew, we were all whipping up delicious dinners and delectible deserts. I'm sure that we all put on 5 lbs over the 2 weeks but enjoyed every minute of it. I will always remember Paradise Gardens as a place of hamburgers, fresh trout and Irish stew made by a real Irish woman.
We were there for the the end of an era at Paradise Gardens and for that reason, I think that we all share a special bond.
But back to our next chapter of our adventure here at Lost and Found. Like I said before, it is up in the clouds, mostly in the middle of nowhere. We are really enjoying the people here and like paradise gardens, it actually mostly volunteer run. It is our 3rd day and we haven't seen the owners. They have left the place to be run by some backpackers that decided to extend their stay by exchanging some work for free beds. They offer some good, inexpensive tours, a scavenger hunt, and free coffee all day.
Yesterday was our first full day here and we spent the entire day just reading and hanging out. The view is incredible. The place overlooks a valley with Volcan Baru in the distance. Its not a huge view since there are trees enclosing it but because we are in the cloud forest, the clouds are always rolling in and out and the view is constantly changing. I took pictures all day yesterday to show it but you really have to see it in person to understand. Sometimes, like right now, the clouds completely envelope us and the view is entirely gone. It rains every day but that isnt too big a deal because everyone will start playing games or reading or talking or whatever.
There are also some great animals. The hummingbirds are always zipping around our heads which can actually be pretty funny. They are so fast that you almost dont see them but you hear the sound. The best is when it happens to someone else and you see them with that look on their face because you know that they are thinking the same thing as you were when it happened to you....crap, that thing almost hit my head! There are also some great little nocturnal animals. Its too bad but I cant take pictures of them since they only come at night and it would be pretty mean to blind them with a flash. Besides the little wild guys that come by every night to eat the bananas left out for them, there is also Rocky, a rescued Kinkajou that lives in an enclosure. We went in to play with him last night and he is a real cutie. He wasnt too active when we went in with him but he was very happy to just be scratched and rubbed like a dog.
The hostel has been pretty full with almost 20 people last night. 12 of us went today to see petroglyphs and hot springs. The petroglyphs and hot springs were great but what made the trip, as usual, was the people. It was another very international crowd and we had a good time making our our explanation for the petroglyphs and then comparing silly dirty words in our languages. I think our favorite ended up being the word fanny, which we americans use to mean butt but the brits use it for the female anatomy which gives a whole new meaning to fanny packs which got us all giggling like little kids.

Alouatta Lodge

I wrote this last week from the Lost and Found Hostel.....

I'm writing this from up in the cloud forest, somewhere between Bocas and David, at the Lost and Found Hostel. I think we will go ahead and stick around here until we are ready to head to Panama City. There is no internet so I'm sure that at some point people will start to worry about us but I think that this is the perfect place to hang out for awhile. The air is mostly cold and since we will be heading back to Dallas soon and it is August, I want to get the most cold weather that I can before we come home to melt. I've realized that I am finally tired of traveling. Its not that I'm tired of being away, I'm just tired of searching out new places, being in new places, lugging my backpack and that sort of thing.
This is one of those camp-like hostels that we always enjoy. We arrived 3 days ago. We left Paradise Gardens with the whole group and spent the day at Allouete Lodge playing with Howler monkeys. Its run by an Australian family. They have both released-rescued monkeys and wild monkeys living on their property. The rescued monkeys are great and are a new species that we didnt have at Paradise Gardens, although some of their monkeys had been released from there. We had planned to stay there but it was a little expensive and the accomodations are tent or hammock and we just werent up for that.

Quick check in from David

I want to check in quickly since we have been without internet for over a week.  I have about a million emails to go through and then Rob will have a million emails to go through before I will be able to take some time to post a proper explanation of what we have been up to.  The short story is that we spent over a week in the mountains at the Lost and Found hostel.  Today we are in David and then tomorrow we will be headed to Panama City.  We have internet in our hotel room for the rest of the day so I will post more later.

Bye Bye Paradise Gardens

Early tomorrow morning, we will be moving on to our next destination.  We will be moving on to a lodge nearby where some of the paradise gardens howler monkeys have been released.  We hear its a great place so we are pretty excited.

Now on to the crazy thing that I'd mentioned yesterday.  Paradise Gardens was sold and is changing hands this week.  Its been crazy.  The resident family had been planning to go to Canada for a month anyway but...surprise...they had to pack up all of their possessions and put it all in storage.  We were all in a little bit of a panic, not knowing what would happen to the animals and volunteers.  We are thinking positively, though.  Two of the volunteers who were planning to stay on and run the place over the next month will still stay on to help the new owners take care of the animals.  They are still planning on being open during the day for visitors which will be nice.  They probably won't take in anymore new rescues.  We hope that the new folks are able to provide at least a fraction of the love and enthusiasm that Jen and all of her volunteers provided.  

As our stay here is drawing to a close, I'm so happy that we had this experience.  We have met great people that we will definitely keep in touch with.  I have really fallen in love with Boquete.  The scenery is magical.

I'm looking forward to the rest of our travels and seeing the rest of panama.

Update from Boquete

I know that I haven't posted much this week.  Our days have been busy working here at the animal rescue and I've been enjoying my evenings with all of the people here at the house.  Everyone has been cooking up a storm and we have been eating like we haven't eaten in weeks.  We have been surrounded by incredibly cook people from all over the world and have been enjoying each other's company.  The nice thing about hanging out with travelers is that there is never a lack of things to talk about.  Sharing knowledge and experiences is always interesting and everyone has a different perspective.  I've also spent a lot of time hanging out with the 11 year old and 8 year old children of the resident volunteer and have been having a blast laughing and goofing off with them.

We will be moving on either tomorrow or the next day and I will post more details later.  There has been some very interesting things going on with the rescue but I'm not quite ready to post it online because they arent ready to publicize it.

Manolo & Arjento

We let 2 of our favorite baby animals play together today and they are so freakin' cute that I had to share it.  This is Manolo the capuchin and Arjento the coati.

Monkey Business

Baby Anteater

This evening, someone brought in a rescued baby anteater!!!! They were driving and some guys were trying to sell it on the side of the road. It seems to be in decent health. Look how cute it is!!!

My guest post

I'm such a pro-blogger now that I am guest blogging on the Paradise Gardens blog.  You can read my guest post here.

http://paradisegardenspanama.wordpress.com/2010/07/07/hello-from-debbie/