Dancing in the Rain

Today was the day of the great hike.  Courage, Shannon, and Cassidy, got up at 5am this morning and headed to see the mountains. While only about an hours hike away, they had to go through mud and rivers. From everything I hear it was a wonderful hike. We will have to wait to see the pictures and read about it when it gets posted.

Here at the boat, Mother and I had the children.  We were planning to head to the local pool when it started to rain. We have school when it rains, so out came the books and learning began. That was a lot of fun.  Math is progressing nicely, and writing is..... Well math is progressing nicely.

In the afternoon we headed to the village to see a demonstration of local dances, and some of their art. The dances were preformed by 5 of the local women (topless naturally). They had the local paint on their bodies in interesting shapes. One lady was leading the group with a drum as the others followed.  Videos will be sent when we have Internet.

There were baskets, plates, and carved seeds, presented by the women. Pretty much once the dances were over the place became a little market. We bought 28 eggs (all they had), 20 lbs of locally grown, and hand shucked) rice (again all they had), a bunch (about 25 lbs) of bananas, a bunch of plantanos, and even a couple of their beautiful crafts.

What we forgot was that it is a 1.5-mile walk back to the river. Courage and Shannon were carrying babies, Cassidy the eggs, and a nice gentleman from the village carried the bananas. They left me with a bag of rice balanced on my head and a bunch of plantanos in my hand.  Needles to say we were quite the group.

After we settled in for dinner we heard a commotion outside and discovered a few of the local ‘Cassidy Fan Club’ had brought us sugar cane. They had wanted to bring fish, but after a day without a single bite, they settled on sugar cane.

Tomorrow the local chief is planning to come out to say goodbye and wish us safe travels as we head back toward the open ocean and other adventures.  He is a nice fellow with a big smile. Missing a few of his front teeth, but at 75 that is to be expected.

I did stop off at the local mosquito shop and notice they had a new high flow pump designed for use on sleeping white people. There was an extra large one they only rent that said it had been tested on Bigfoot and was a great success.

Wishing you all the best,

A rather pale, Loyal