Climbing the Tower

This week we had no rain all week, so we were able to enjoy the mountains.  On Thursday afternoon we went back to the highest point in our province with three of the teachers from the school.  It was a beautiful afternoon, and the views from the top were great.  This time we went up a different antenna which allowed us to go much higher than the previous time.

How's the view up there, Steve?

Ida and Heather watch from below

Beivis, Ormelis, Heather and Steve

View from the top

Another view from the top

"Living fences" are very popular here in Panama.  Farmers often use them for their fields, but this one is a floral variation on the standard fence, which always includes three strands of barbed wire, even if no animals are on the property.

This past weekend our town hosted an Evangelical campaña, which appears to us to be similar to an old fashioned revival.  Pastors came into town from other cities and preached and sang to large (by our standards) crowds.  The affair started Friday evening and continued evenings through Sunday.  People came from the surrounding towns by horseback and foot to participate in the spectacle.

On Sunday morning we took our biggest hike so far.  We hiked up our favorite mountain, down the back side, and around the base back to town.  It took about four and a half hours.  The scenery was spectacular, and we had several views of the Pacific off in the distance.  There were a lot of steep hills, and we were glad when we finally got back to town.

A very big fig tree!

This land is part of the Montuoso Forest Preserve.  Over the years, farmers have been chipping away at the forested area, slashing and burning to create more farmland.  Now only about a third of the original area remains as forest.  Here is a recently burned area.

At one point we ran into a woman who was going our way for the last two hours of the hike.  She had decided that it was better to hike barefoot over the gravel roads and carry her sandals in a bag.  She said that she does this a lot, and claimed that her feet weren't sore by the time we reached town.

I mentioned in the last blog entry that the sun is directly overhead at noon at this time of year.  Here is a picture taken at noon to illustrate the point.  I'm not casting much of a shadow!