bare with me the keyboard is so different here……dusty and i just got into bocas del toro, panama this morning – we are getting picked up in an hour and going to our first stay at dolphin bay hideaway.

today marks one week that dusty and i have been married. wow. time sure flies. we had such an amazing wedding with friends and family. we are so lucky…..and after our wedding weekend we have had time to talk about what is important in our lives right now….which friends we want to put effort into and what family will always be there for us no matter what….in such a short time we have grown as a couple…and we are excited for the future…

dusty and i have had such an amazing trip thus far…i cannot wait to blog about it all and share photos when i get back into the united states. right now we are at an internet cafe where you pay by the hour to use a computer. i didn´t bring my laptop. which iam happy i did not…because it has been so amazing not looking at a computer during our trip…..except for this once. our cell phones don´t work….we dont have a computer…we even forgot to bring a watch or clock of any kind….it has been beautiful…to be disconnected from everything….what a difference it makes on the stress in your life….

communicating in spanish has been fun…dusty knows spanish enough to hold small conversations and ask questions…i have gotten better myself….i love learning about this culture…..it is absolutely breathtaking. it is also very sobering….it makes me feel guilty as an america to complain for one minute about anything….hopefully my photos will help tell this story when we get back.

this afternoon when we get to our eco lodge – dolphin bay hideaway – we will be going out in a dugout handmade canoe…dolphins are all over in the bay we see fins every few minutes or so, i hope to see one upclose… the weather has been sunny and overcast with a little bit of rain…it is very very humid here…when dusty and i took the bus from cahuita to puerto veijo yesterday by the time we got back were so drenched with sweat you would have swore we jumped into the carribean sea….this place is beautiful….for many reasons… the landscape being one of them….and the people being the other….

during the 3-4 hour drive and boat ride to bocas del toro panama we met up with other fellow backpackers ….it was fun to share stories and things we have all seen and done while visiting central america. i wish we could stay longer and visit some other countries….

i met two amazing women in costa rica…one young 21 year old woman named prisalla…she helps run her familys chocolate farm and is planning on going to a university in costa rica…we swaped emails….and i plan on helping her find a way to sell a lot of the jewlery she makes on etsy… we will hopefully do this through email and skype…..she is currently saving up for a new laptop…the one she has is too slow for her to do anything right now…..

the other woman i met was laura…a woman from argentina…with the most beautiful spirit. she gave dusty and i a massage…and we talked for a long length of time about what our plans were for the rest of our lives….she also was someone i will never forget…she taught me about different oils she makes from plants in the rainforest…she made an all natural coconut butter that i have been using on my bug bites…it has helped immensley, as my legs are loaded with them. she also gave me an all natural bug spray that i love…

we also met a gentleman named catato he is the father of a family who lives in a small native indigenous village in the mountains of costa rica….he tooks us around and showed us all of the healing plants that they have in their village…he showed us how they live and what their huts look like….we then hiked up a mountain and down into a river where we went to a nearby waterfall and swam for a while…..

this carefree way of living is kind of getting to me….and i think dusty too…its going to be hard to come back to our fast paced, busy, stessful life style in the united states…..very hard….

but in the meantime as they would say in central america – pura vida