Change of plans...

We made it to Limón and were planning to only stay there with the Pérez family for two days, but Richie got sick on Saturday night, which prolonged our stay. Today we are in La Entrada to get him tested, get more money, and use the internet. Other than that, there's not much to tell. The family continues to take care of us, feed us well, and occasionally laugh at our Spanish. I feel more comfortable here the second time around - all the previous novelties like using a latrine and bucket showers now seem ordinary.

One of the most impressive things about this place is the variety of foods they have access to just around their house. I've already said that the family grows and eats beans, coffee, bananas and corn, but they also have milk, tomatoes, coconuts, sugarcane, lemons, oranges, and a few plants that I've never seen before. The lemons here are gigantic. An average sized lemon is a little smaller than a canteloupe and definitely bigger than a grapefruit. A couple days ago I was outside with the grandpa and the 14-year-old son cutting banana leaves to use for tamales when the son started hacking at this snake-like plant with his machete. It was sugarcane, and it tasted really good! In fact, this family is a pretty good model of the "green" movement - they live simply and eat almost entirely organic, locally-grown food. They also share food, labor, and other supplies with others in their community. They also reuse old items long beyond how long they would be used in the US. The only aspect that doesn't fit the model is that they throw away trash (usually plastic bags and bottles) on the ground or in the fields, but this might be in part because there is no trash pick-up in the countryside.

Sometimes I am amazed at how different life is here compared to life in the US. For example, yesterday I watched two little kids, six or seven years old, walk with machetes in their hands, leading two horses down a dirt road. It seems odd to give a kid that age a machete, but it makes sense here. Javier (the 14-year-old son) started picking coffee when he was five. I've also thought, however, that someone who grew up on a farm in the US might actually feel pretty comfortable here. The language and the crops are different, but I imagine there are a lot of similarities between the lives of rural families in North and Central America, or anywhere in the world, for that matter. You still work hard, get dirty, take bucket showers, and have to milk the cow in the morning.

Because we stayed here longer than we expected, we decided not to go to the Caribbean coast. Instead, we'll just pass three more days in Limón before heading to Guatemala City on the 29th to spend the night. The following morning we fly to Los Angeles!