November and December Pictures

This is a collection of all the photos from most of November, Thanksgiving, December, and Christmas. Make sure to click the button at the bottom of the post to see the rest of the pictures.

Building beautiful stacks of blocks to be used in construction.

Host brother and the mason working hard.

First wall halfway done.

Right as construction was happening I left for Thanksgiving. I tried to warn them about my departure but they started construction right as I was about to leave. This is the view of my room and the following pictures are of the rest of the cabana.

Really cool bug just chilling outside. He didn’t fly away the even as I got really close.

Trail that leads up to the cabana.

The walk back from the main lodge where Thanksgiving was being held to our cabana was about a forty minute walk. I got lost the first night walking back so we made extra sure to walk the right way the second time around. After hiking for thirty minutes we come to a dead end. We double back once, and then twice and are certain this is the way to go. On the second walk we realize that it wasn’t a dead end just a tree had fallen across the path since leaving for the lodge. This is them the next morning clearing the tree out.

One of three river crossing that passed over the road.

This is some of the farming near the lodge. The region produces, from what I’ve heard, 85% of the food for the country.

Cool mural on the back of a bus stop.

I returned home after Thanksgiving and the house is nearly finished.

Caught this guy one day. It’s hard to tell but he looks like a giant wasp. He was too pissed off to stop flying for even a second. I showed him to my host dad who said “pica duro” which in this guy has a horrible bite. So…

I fed him to the roughly 5″ wide spider that lives outside my house.

Went exploring off the beaten track and came across this cool place in the woods.

As a kid once, I built a dam across a river. And since then I’ve wanted to try again.

Some cool birds at the hotel we stayed at…

View from where we stayed during Christmas.

The common area of the cabanas. These are a bunch of hammocks tied up.

Walking in to town to get supplies for Christmas dinner.

Santa Fe, where we went for Christmas had absolutely amazing plants all over the place.

Getting ready for Christmas!

We played White Elephant Gift Exchange. These are the “wrapped” gifts.

Pictures of the cabana.

House Tour

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The lock from hell. Took me almost twenty minutes and two pairs of pliers to bend the lock so it would close.

Nails are the most awesome thing ever, besides my machete. They act as bookshelf ends, spots to hang stuff on, repair stuff, build stuff, etc etc.

I use a this little setup to keep my mosquito net up during the day.

Cord management. I’ve realized if you have a spot for everything, there’s never a mess.

Made this glass. Now, it’s got my markers.

Saw off one of the sides of a clothes pin, nail the other side in the wall, and you’ve got a place to hang stuff.

I have cell service in my house. I have to leave my phone exactly here though.

My bookshelf. A lot of my books are on my Kindle.

Probably my favorite contraption so far. I have a second mosquito net for guests and I’ve set it up so you can keep it stored away, suspended from the ceiling. Just untie one string, undo the clip, and the mosquito net is ready to go.

My door. Made this with my host dad, took like 4 hours.

Another day I made four windows with my host dad. This took about six hours.

Decided to suck it up and I’m paying my host dad to use his gas generator which runs from 6pm to 9pm.

Assembled this all with my host dad.

Added mosquito netting to the windows. This is only useful for bugs that try to fly in at night to the light. Otherwise the cockroaches, grasshoppers, spiders, etc, can just climb through the gaps in the wall.

Latrine

Shower to the left, toilet to the right

Waterline I installed to my house.

Composting Pit I built

The beginning of my garden.