So...we´re in the rainforest and its raining...

My good friend Good Heavens (its on his birth certificate, but like the child of David Bowie, Good Heavens prefers the monika ´Michael´). Anyway, before I came away Good Heavens came up with a blinder...he presented me with a booklet of BLANK postcards. ´Not much bloody use´ I hear you cry, but listen..they are a rather clever invention. You travel around sketching scenes which are either beautiful or of interest and then post them to people you know. Being drawdicapped I am afraid that I may give people nightmares if I post my semi decapitated pictures of people and animals so I have come up with a cunning plan.

Get other people to do it for me!

So, I have started to distribute the postcards to people who appear slightly artistic (though when I asked Regula, the Speech And Language Therapist she thought I asked if she was autistic and we had a short period of bizarre conversation).

So, this is the first artistic gift to the world, prepared by Chico and donated by Regula (sorry you´ll have to look at it sideways until I figure out what ´rotate´ is in Espanol.)

And I shall be sending it to my mother.

School is going well. It´s bloody hard work and yesterday my teacher, Abelardo, gave me a right telling off because I didn´t know my present/past conjugasions (imagine being my teacher - nightmare). Today was better, I actually got it.

This morning I went on a little walking tour in the rainforest. It was beautiful and lived up to its reputation (hence title quote - thanks Regula).

We walked through the rainforest and got to the cloud forest - so called because the trees transpire and the result is a cloud like effect above the canopy. The cloud effect in the top left of this picture is not created by the trees but by the fact that I left my camera in the boot over winter and there was a leak and it got frostbite, its never been the same.

If you look carefully in the right of this picture you will see a ruined castle. It has a story - a Panamanian man met and fell in love with a beautiful woman. In tribute to her he build a castle on the edge of the rainforest but died before he could complete it. The woman was overcome with sadness and refused to allow the castle to be finished.

Moral of the story: If you fall in love with a beautiful woman don´t give yourself a heart attack building something. She won´t want to live there, it´ll be a waste of time and you´ll be too dead to enjoy it, you fool.

The cloud forest is truly beautiful.The ilanas (?) hang from the trees and yes - you can actually swing from them...honest, we tried.

See the cheese plant growing around the stem of the tree?  My mother´s got one just like it.

Welsh woman models waterfall. 

The trees are just beautiful. This one is from the oak family, it about 500 years old and has a base diameter of about 30m.

In the background is a rock formation (I know, such a nerd), formed by volcanic rock falling into a lake. Its the same as the giants causeway, dontcha know...´cept it horizontal. well, I am at the other side of the world.
 
Oh and I lied about the short tailed hawk yesterday, it was a turkey vulture. I apologise if i have disappointed you.