Day 6: CAP day #1

Hello! Our names are Louis, Yunna and Catherine! We were the leaders of today!

Today, our wake-up time was 4:15 am. The reason for that was because we needed to be at the site by 6:30 am in order to beat the Panama heat. After waking up, we made our way to the bus where we had a quick to-go breakfast. We had sandwiches with turkey, cheese, tomatoes, lettuce and ketchup. To drink, we had the option to pick between fruit punch, guava and pineapple juice, and apple juice. Of course, glimpsers with dietary restrictions had a separate meal prepared! The trip to our reforestation site took a little less than two hours. One plus side about waking up early is that we all got to see the sun rise and take super cute pictures! We also saw all the cows sleeping on our way there, which was pretty cool since many of us never actually seen a cow sleeping. Upon arriving to the site, we did a quick little hike and was met with a gorgeous view! A couple students also got the chance to see this really pretty horse we were all amazed by. But of course, for our safety, we were not allowed to approach the horse. There was also a little stream of water which was very satisfying to step in with our rain boots!

Once we were on the site of our CAP project, we put on our prepared sunscreen, bug spray, and were provided gloves and hats by the Global Glimpse Leaders. The sun was high and the day was starting to warm up. We met up with Issac who was an intern for Pro Eco Azuero who taught us how to plant tree saplings which many had already been pre-set by Magnifico (also part of Pro Eco Azuero) beside holes they had dug. To plant these saplings, we had to make sure that the saplings were in line with the surface of the hole before we cut the bag with Exacto Knives (NOBODY WAS HURT!) while being careful with not hurting the roots and pack the saplings with the soil that have been dug and set beside. We worked surprisingly proficiently to the point that we caught up with the Magnifico who had started digging at 3 A.M.(!!!) The view was astonishing as we finished up our reforestation for the day. We finished up early by two hours and on the way back we stopped by a small restaurant for lunch together.

We headed back to the hotel around 12 pm and had some free time that most of us spent taking showers and refreshing before we could go out again. During free time we asked our GGL’s to take us to McDonalds which was not too far away from our hotel location. We got to walk there and enjoy the kind people as we walked by. Many kind Panamanian people said hello and waved at us as we walked by. When we arrived at McDonalds there were many choices and we all enjoyed something different and tried new food. After we all got McDonalds, we headed back to the hotel and enjoyed the Panamanian McDonald’s as a group. Later this day we had dinner and free time. We held the nightly meeting and welcomed the new leaders for tomorrow. As we close this day we would like to say hello to Inaaya, and we wish her well.