Between now and Santa Marta, a lot has happened. My group, mark and Joy went to the Shaman's house once again. I had to ride donkey again and very thing was pretty dry and I felt I could have walked it. We hung around all the hammocks all day which was fun to get to talk and relax. The second day we had a long hike following one of the women. She basically gave us a tour of the forest and then we collected plants on the way back. One of the daughters took me and stacy around the immediate area to document the plants and gave us a typed out list f what the name of the plant is and what it is used for. The next day we left pretty early and I hiked out under my own power which I am proud of. I was extremely motivated because I felt like everyone thought I was to weak to do it but really it was the breathing part that was the problem. I am physically capable. At any rate, Joy and I finished the hike first with Pablo and Mark coming 5 minutes later and everyone else 10 minutes later.
Stayed in El Cope for a bit afterwards and then we had two day trips: one to El Valle and one to EL Conyo (i'm not sure how its spelt but that's what I hear). In EL Valle, we split up into two groups. My group went to the zoo first. It was interesting to see, especially the cages with raccoons and chickens displayed. There were a lot of birds and a tapirs which I have never see before. We also went to the frog exhibit which contains a yellow frog that probably cannot be found in the wild anymore due to the kitchryd fungus. Most of the amphibian population is dying out due to the fungus and the small number of people working at the exhibit are trying to save the frog population. Afterwards, Courtney, Leslie and I went to the pizza place and had an amazing cheese pizza. It was very good but due to the fact it was a long way to walk and took so long to get it, we had five minutes to enjoy our lunch. We then went to the internet and did some shopping. We left the town to go back to Cope and of course we arrived just as the sun was setting. I unhappily walked through the forest with no flashlight while the rest of the class ate dinner. Fun Fun.
Two days later, we went to a sugar factory and because I had not spelt well for a few nights, I was tired and cranky and just wanted to go and sleep. I didn't pay much attention to what was going on at any rate. We also went to the dig site in Conyo and again, not paying much attention. All I wanted was sleep.
THe next day after that, Stacy, Joey, Cameron and I went to Panama City. The day was fine. We went to the mall and they shopped while I watched basically. We got Subway, a footlong is only 4 dollars here which is spectacular. After we checked into a hotel, we went out to see the stores around the area. Around 7ish, Cameron had her wallet taken from her hand by this 15 or 16 year old kid. He then took off and Cameron and I ran after him. I pretty much was going to tackle this kid while I was screaming for someone to spot him. Obviously nobody did. THEre was a ledge and the kid and his useless accomplice jumped off of. It might have been 1 and half or 2 feet ledge and I, running at full speed, landed wrong on top of my right ankle and fell to the pavement while the kids ran across the conviently traffic free street. THe police won't do anything because they can't catch them and it happens so often. A panamanian guy got us a cab and by this point I'm crying histerically. I was soo pissed off. We got into the cab to go and find Mark since he has the cell phone. At the hostel, I eventually was aware that my ankle was swelling up massively and the European guys who were staring at me, crying histerically, kept saying go to the hospital which we eventually did. After the X-rays, they ground that the ligament on the lateral side was torn and on the medial, I had a bone chip in the joint. My options were to have surgery to repair everything or put a caste on see if it would repair itself correctly. After calling and discussing with my dad, we decided to go with the surgery and not have to worry as much about future problems with my ankle if it did not heal correctly. Plus the insurance would cover everything. So I had surgery the next morning and it went well. I now get to sit in Panama City until Monday when I get my ankle checked out again. For the rest of the trip, I get to hang out at Julie's house because I can't hike into LA Mica. I also miss our last shaman visit but I will be working on keying and organizing photos and data. It sucks that this happen but not much can be done. Less than two weeks left to go.
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