A little before Miramar

In the morning at the firehall we had some more gallo pinto before leaving. We were told by the guys the road is very hilly, just up and down all the time. We stopped at the bank and attemped to change our traveller's checks but as it turns out the National Bank of Panama does not do that, or change neighbouring countries money..grr.
On the road there were many hills to ascend and speedily decend because they were so steep. Walking the bike up the hill definitely hapened, many times. And it rained. There were no restaurants and very few stores so we pieced together a lunch.
On one of the downhills I noticed a grey lump on the side of the road and immediately knew what it was. Sloth! Stopped and turned around to investigate further. He was soo cute! We couldn't really tell why he was a foot from the road nd he didn't look hurt so we figured he was probably better off away from the road and back in the forest. So Rigel ran away and came back with a stick to carry him away. The soth slowly grabbed hold of the stick with his claws, slowly looked around before Rigel carried him over to a tree. Rigel got him to grab hold of a tree a few feet up so he was safer.

The adorable little sloth!

Late afternoon with the threat of more rain we decided to start looking for a place to sleep. We found a school that had a nice covered area that looked great so we walked to the neighbors to ask. The lady was really nice but said no don't camp on the school property but in our neighbor's yard in their little house shack behind their house. I guess it was more of a shed on stilts but anyway it looked perfect so we agreed. We put our bikes under the shed and set our tent up above. And then it started to pour. While we cooked dinner a bunch of kids came out to play soccer in the rain in the field between the shed and the house. The game quickly turned from try and get the ball in the net to try and stay standing on the super slippery mud while getting the ball in the net on the sloped field. Everyone was barefoot and those that wern't quickly were. It was quite the entertainment while we ate and stayed dry under the roof. But man did it look like fun out there in the rain and mud.

Kids playing a very muddy soccer game

That night around 3am we were woken by an earthquake which we later learned was a 6.8. In the morning though we had forgotton all about it until the family mentioned it. Seemed like a dream I guess.
In the morning while more closely observing our surroundings we discovered we were surrounded by cacao trees! Rigel promptly loaded his bag with 7 large pods, each weighing a few pounds. I think he likes the challenge of hauling weight up mountains..

Cacao pods on the tree next to the shed

Also while we were packing up we were greeted with a scorpion between Rigel's bag and the post his bike was leaning on. It crawled up the post underneath the floorboards above our heads. We took some pictures of it but didn't get too close as it looked dangerous. And the family confirmed that if we were stung it could be fatal.

4-6 inches long, and mostly translucent