We’ve finished our first week of Spanish school.  School is exhausting, but we are really learning a lot.  At the end of each day, which usually entails speaking spanish with our host family in the morning, speaking spanish with cashiers or servers in town, four hours of speaking spanish in class, and speaking spanish with our host family at dinner, our brains can barely function.  But, it’s been really rewarding to see how much our spanish has improved in just a week. 

This Saturday, the director of the school organized an amazing hike for us. It was one of our favorite things that we’ve done so far in Central America. We went with a few other people from the school: one student and two teachers. Our guide, who is a retired school teacher, was so fun and energetic…he was our favorite guide that we’ve had. And the hike was absolutely amazing. We hiked up through the forest to the top of a mountain. The views on the way up were unbelieveable. Our desintation was a viewpoint called Artilleria. Its name comes from its history as a fort that was used by the indigenous people during war. The spot was unreal. As we came out of the forest, we saw the pile of rocks (our destination) up ahead, but we had to walk through someone’s farm to get to them. The farm was gorgeous.  There was a single white horse running around that made the farm look like it was something from a fairy tale. When we reached the top of the point, we were surrounded by clouds, which made the view look magical. The pictures below do not do the place any justice….

 

We finished our week with our host family today and moved into a hostel close to our school. The hostel is right next to a beautiful creek and is surrounded by brightly colored flowers and orange trees. We still cannot believe this town. Every single day, we marvel over how beautiful and quaint it is. We see the same mountains every day, but we still can’t get over them. We walk past the creeks and rivers in town all the time, and we still want stop and watch them. Everything is so green and fresh and dynamic. The mountains are sprinkled with varying amounts and types of trees, and crops, and cows. The town has patches of trees and flowers mixed in with the streets and stores.  Just outside of town, there are miles miles of farms and plantations. A 30 minute walks brings you to the most beautiful land you’ve ever seen. If you don’t feel like leaving town, that’s fine too because the views from Calle Principal (Main Street) are just as beautiful. I really could go on and on…

Another nice thing about Boquete is that we’ve been here long enough to meet people. We’ve made friends at our school, and we’ve been going out with them almost every night. The school organizes some activities for us to do. When’s there’s not stuff to do through the school, we can just walk around town and find people that we know. There’s just one main strip in town, and there aren’t that many bars and restaurants, so it’s easy to find people. Last night, we were meeting some friends for dinner. Since we don’t have a cell phone, they told us they would leave a note for us on the door of the school telling us which restaurant they were going to. So, as we were walking into town from our host family’s house (it’s about a 20 minute walk from town), I said “We should just look in the doors of restaurants as we pass.  I bet we’ll see them and we won’t even have to go to the school to check the note.”  Sure enough, about 30 seconds later, I glance in the windows of the restaurant we are passing, and there they are. Another of the many perks of this small town.Cassie

 

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