This place is again on a higher altitude, so it was cooler again as well. It's just a little village, but a lot of indians (mostly Guamis) live around the town, and on sunday they gather in town to buy stuff and get the lottery results.
The unpleasant surprise was that overhere they had chitras again (chiggers in english, or grasmijt in dutch). Back to itching again!
We were trekking again, and the dog of our hotel (Oso) accompanied us. First we sent him back to the hotel, but he didn't want to. He spent the whole day with us, he had a lucky day (and was tired in the end). But he was not a good guard-dog. He almost stumbled over a snake which was on the road (not to be missed, 2 meter long and as thick as a good wrist), but he seemd to be blind for it. But when in the middle of the forest there was a piece of white plastic (gardenchair), he started to grumble and bark, and was too affraid to pass it.;-)
According to a map we could reach a top, after some locals showed us the trail (first jump barbed wire) we went up. But the trail went steeper and steeper, through thicker an thicker jungle, till we needed a machete. That was the point where we returned, but we saw some nice blue and green spotted tree frogs. We bumped into a Guami who showed us the way back to the hotel, and he was very sticky. He was very poor, and had to eat fruits from trees in the jungle. But he was also drunk, they brew their own "chitcha" from acid oranges, a strong liquer.
Later we learned a lot about the indians, and a lot of it is sad. Most man are alcoholic, they have children with different wifes. They don't sent their children to school (the government builts schools and hospitals for them, but they don't want to have anything to do with the outside world. A lot of woman die when they have to give birth).
Santa Fe had one other attraction beside the nature, an Orchid garden (and we bumped into those a lot later). The woman who owned the garden was very nice, she showed us around. We think that my mother could do the same with her fucchias at home :-)
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