Sorry for the radio silence there, had a friend visit from the States and we trekked back to my little town near the beach then up to Arenal for some hiking, hot springs and waterfalls! I’ll post some pictures after the latest update.
In preparation for not being able to find a house sitting job, I decided to look for a Serpentarium in Panama I could volunteer for, since reptiles are my ‘true love’. The one I found was in a town called El Valle de Anton which resides within a crater of an extinct volcano. I didn’t hear back from the guy, but decided to look around at housing options and was lucky enough to email just the right person, who passed me on to another person and then BINGO!!
This ‘other person’ was starting a butterfly farm on his land (a couple from the U.S.) and had already been building it in preparation for a January opening. Everything just sort of fell in place after that. I will be able to live on the property and volunteer doing many different things, but first and foremost, raising butterflies! How cool is THAT?! I’m really looking forward to the experience. He will also have a cafe which is another thing I wanted to do…bake, cook and make fruity drinks. I’ll just be helping on the side with that, as well as giving tours, I assume. Maybe if I have time I can do some paintings of some butterflies and sell those to help with his income.
I wanted to mention the strange occurrence of the names of the towns I’ve been living in…it goes like this:
1. San Antonio, Tx
2. Cocles, Costa Rica
3. Tronadora, Costa Rica
4. San Antonio, Costa Rica
5. Province of El Cocle, Panama
Of course none of these had been planned, just odd how I end up living in the same names of places somehow.
With my house sit being up here in early January, I’ll be in Panama the second week to hit the ground running! It’ll be a great experience and exactly the type of thing I had in mind before ever leaving the States. So look forward to some interesting posts in 2014 along with a new country to explore and experience!
Here are some photos from the trip last week with captions
Awesome! what great adventures! I am excited about Panama! I hear it is amazing. Put me down for one of your butterfly paintings!
Isn’t, it amazing how life works out. The butterfly job sounds made for you even if they are not the serpents you crave. Imagine living in a volcano crater!
I also enjoyed your photo album and comments. Coati – none in Bryce. Love your gumption.
Ha! Thanks, Lynn! Yeah, this is the only dormant volcano crater in the world that people live in! Wild!! And with the serpentarium, I’ll find a way to squirm into that too (pun intended) and hopefully figure out some fundraisers for the zoo…Oh so many ideas!!! I can’t wait to get there!!