it's not hot!!!!!!

I'm writing this from my homestay bed (a queen sized bed, I'm delighted to add) listening to frogs outside my window. I'm wearing my only sweatshirt to bed because we're at 6330 ft where it's MUCH cooler. I think I heard that Cerro Punta (the city we're in) is the coolest city in Panama reaching 60 at night. I think during the 8 hour bus ride here from the city, we entered a portal to a magical wonderland. As we entered Cerro Punta everyone pressed their faces to the windows of the bus and oo'd and aa'd at the BEAUTIFUL landscape. It's incredibly green here and there are evergreen trees! We can see La Amistad from our houses and the mountains are a mix of farmland and jungle. All along the road there are strawberry paintings and signs. Many of the larger rocks are painted like strawberries. Strawberries grow year-round here so it's one of the largest crops, although there too many other crops grown here to list. 

leaving la ciudad

As soon as our bus stopped in the cute town of Cerro Punta, I was greeted by a tiny blue car with an old man in the front. He took Sam, Thomas, and me up the street to his and his wife's house. It's a colorful house with a huge garden and a parrot cage behind it. We were immediately given a dinner of beans, rice, patacones (platains), salad, and fresh pineapple juice. I was able to talk to our mom for a bit and she told me that she has 19 grandchildren because one of her kids has 11 kids! 

Their son lives right next to their house and runs a dessert shop in the front of his house. They all told us their names but it's really hard to remember them without seeing them written out. We got to tour his huge kitchen where he makes traditional Panamanian desserts (and we even got to try some!) He had TONS of sheets of desserts in preparation for Carnival. Our homestay parents spent most of the night wrapping huevitos de leche, a traditional dessert that originated in Chiriquí (on the internet it says they're from a nearby region but my homestay parents said otherwise haha). They're small balls made from milk, sugar, and corn flour. I was gifted one while they were wrapping them in colorful tissue paper and it sort of tasted like less sweet caramel. 

it's hard to see but there's two other green birds in the right side

huevitos de leche!!

Tomorrow we're going to a dam and a coffee farm! And our homestay parents' son told us that maybe his wife would teach us how to make some of the desserts. For now, I'm savoring this weather....