Sunday Sept 22

buying milk at the grocery store proved to be a challenge. they only sold it in one liter pouches, nothing smaller. we did find a little 100g box of what looked like light creme. the fat content was 12% so i took it be more like heavy whipping cream.

when we took our stolen coffee and my little box of leche to the balcony to enjoy our morning, pouring it turned out to be the consitency of a soft cream cheese. or maybe a stiff yogurt. its kinda delicous though once all the coagulation has settled in and stirred for about 7 minutes.

we decided to go to a local town called Montecristi today. we were advised to take a taxi and that it would only be 20$ round trip. we opted for the bus being the cheapskates we are. plus, we wanted a more genuine experience.

i think my lungs will be forever scared from my genuine experience, but, it was only 25 cents each way. or it should have been. on the way back the guy was telling me that it was 40 cents to get back. you know when you´re getting more familiar and comfortable in a language when you´re willing to argue and demand to know why it costs more coming back over 15 cents.

monticristi is a sad sad little town. we went there becasue this is the hat making capital of the famous misnomer "panama hat". they are really beautiful and if you walk out, the prices dramatically drop. very reasonable.

i brought a little snack for us to eat, so we sat in the sad little town square and watched some families and after about 10 minutes decided we were done.

dad wrangled the local bar downstairs into giving us some of the margarita salt for a buck and i was able to make a pretty good dinner with leftovers from the day before. rice and beans are with every meal as dad says this is how he wants to eat everyday.