La Cucaracha

I had my first cucaracha at dinner with mom. You layer rum, kaluha and vodka in a shot glass, stick a straw in it, and set the vodka on fire. You have to drink it through the straw before it melts!

I got all set up at spanish school in León, something to do while I wait for Cooper to get out of school and come be my travel buddy. I need to be in Leon on the 5th,
so I will be on the road for my birthday. Nine hour bus ride. whoop-de-dee. Looks like the school is in one of their old colonial mansions with pretty personal teaching, so it should be good. Nice to have something scheduled to do. I've ended up being the leader on this little trip, since
I organized everything for me and mom and for Melissa and Kelly, and I speak the best spanish... so they keep wanting me to figure out what we´re doing today, or to say when we go eat or which trail to take and all that stuff. I don´t mind the organizing, I guess, it´s just wierd to feel like Ive been put "in command" Especially when it´s not like I know this place any better than they do.

Not that its been hard to find things to do. Boquete is awsome! It keeps reminding me of steamboat. All these pretty little houses. Sendero los Quetzales was beautiful. Thanks to Cooper for the reccomendation. If the taxi hadnt ripped us off and left us at the bottom of the hill on the road instead of the entrance to the trail, we would have just gotten lost there all day. But great as it was, wandering past farmhouses too. There is a good bakery in town, and they sell the most delicious sesame peanuts. Yum!

Today we were lazy. Mom and I did a coffee tour in the afternoon, of a mostly organic, shadegrown plantation and processing plants. I was really impressed. Its a very well designed, environmentally friendly way to do agriculture. And the coffee was really good. Otherwise, I finished a detective novel. Got the best strawbery batido in the history of civilization, did laundry, and went on a run. Its been a good day. Tomorrow, climbing volcan Barú. After that, a lot of busses.